Subject: Prograde Reviews--Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:The Gripping Hand

From: [email-masked] (Aaron V. Humphrey)
Date: 8 Jun 1994 19:15:04 GMT

Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle: The Gripping Hand

A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey

I never really understood the entire furor about _The Mote In God's Eye_.
I read the book, it was okay, but I didn't like it as much as _Footfall_.
It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I found out how much so many
other people liked it.

So I wasn't terribly disappointed by _The Gripping Hand_, since I didn't
feel that it had that much to live up to.

It doesn't have the whole thrill of the first-contact story in _Mote_,
true.  And it takes a long time to get to the Motie segments anyway.  But I
liked the character development of Horace Bury and Kevin Renner, among
others.  The only characters I remembered from _Mote_ were ones I didn't
like, like Sally Blaine...  I remembered a fair few more from this one.

I think one of the "problems" is that the Motie problem left over from the
last book was something that needed to be tied up, but by itself it wasn't
meaty enough for an entire book, without some "padding" that would
concentrate on other matters--in this case, Horace Bury trying to convince
anyone else that the Moties are still a threat.

I read it without being affected by the hype that surrounded it...and I
found it quite readable.  If you're expecting the next SF classic, this
wasn't it, but _every_ book can't be a classic...

%A Niven, Larry
%A Pournelle, Jerry
%T The Gripping Hand
%I Pocket
%C New York
%D 1993
%G ISBN 0-671-79574-0
%P 412 pp
%S Mote
%V Book 2
%O Paperback, USD5.99, CAD7.50

[P.S. In case anyone's confused about 'Retrograde' vs. 'Prograde' reviews,
what they mean is simply that the latter are more recent, and the former
are for 'older' books; the arbitrary dividing line I'm using at the moment
is 1990.]

-- 
--Alfvaen (Editor of Communique)
Current Album--The Beatles:Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Current Book--Michelle Sagara:Lady of Mercy
"It's a one-time thing.  It just happens a lot."  --Suzanne Vega