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Notes -
All right, it's been a few days since I finished the book and I gotta agree that Mote wouldn't have ever made it past the editors in modern publishing. That said, I have to say that the book is quite well-written and I can easily see why it's such a classic. Yes, there's zeerust, as there is with all aged works, but the CoDominium being the obvious big one is actually pretty impressive to me. Gotta give Niven and Pournelle props for not getting too into the weeds with the science part of their science fiction there.And the first contact angle of the story is exceptionally well done, with mediator caste of the Moties in particular being a clever way to facilitate communication between species. It pays proper care to the incredibly difficult nature of the task without feeling too hand-wavey to me. I also appreciated the true alien-ness of the Motie world and culture compared to the recognizably human culture of the second empire. All in all, I think it holds up well on the whole, and I'll be keeping my eye out for The Gripping Hand.
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