Outies (Mote Series, Book 3)

"an interesting and enjoyable...experiment in...the union of technology and character..." ----K. Kris Hirst, About.com - Archaeology"a very satisfying picture of a spacefaring civilization by the best hard-science fiction writing team (and now daughter) in the business...very much recommended." ----The Old Grey Cat, Wordpress.com"...articulate and intelligent...everything a sequel to an acclaimed novel should be..." ----SF Book Reviews"What does it mean to have a war so destructive that society is blasted back to the invention of the brick? ... how does one rebuild? ... Jennifer Pournelle has thought about exactly that. There isn't much science fiction written by broadminded, well-traveled polymaths." -- More Words, Deeper Hole: A Guest Review by Carlos I thought about the post-war (or was it still war?) period of 2003-2004 for a good long time after returning home from Iraq. Of the many things I pondered, one was war fiction, and especially military science fiction. War books have compelling plots, generally along the lines of: there are good guys; there are bad guys. Sometimes bad guys, that is, guys who were individually bad, redeem themselves and become heroic good guys. Anyway, the good guys win, or die valiantly trying. War's over. The End.But nothing I saw in Iraq was ever that cut-and-dried. On any given day, it was hard to tell if, whenxa0and where we were having a war. It was generally impossible to tell good guys from bad guys. There were many shades of both, on both sides. Technology sometimes won the day, but seldom won the outcome. None of us outsiders, ever, knew what the locals were thinking - even if they pretended to tell us. And everything, absolutely everything, including matters of life and death, was weighed and measured by social standards and rules of conduct that we simply could not read. That's what "first contact" stories are really about - and that's what Niven & Pournelle did with The Mote in God's Eye some 35 years ago. So, as I thought about it, I decided: wouldn't it be interesting to try to flip that around: to get inside the heads of locals and others who had the same dilemna in reverse. I drew a lot on my Iraq experience trying to do that. To make this a credible sequel, I took careful, detailed notes on timelines, political precedents, character traits, and technologies from Mote and The Gripping Hand, and tried to be excedingly careful to stick to the "realities" of that universe. But, given that the first Mote was written 35 years ago, I also wanted to update the science and gender issues that were at the core of the original novel. First, because Sally Fowler (a central character in the original book) was ostensibly an anthropologist,xa0in my sequel, I brought in another anthropologist to serve as a new protagonist andxa0do real anthropological things. Second, I spent a lot ofxa0studying reproductive biology, in order to write in backstory that made sense of the Motie's bizarre physiology. It's written up inxa0the report in the Appendix. You don't have to read that, but if you are interested, you can - and if you demand more answers than are in the story itself, you should. What I did NOT try to do was copy Niven & Pournelle's style. Firstly, they are, after all, still writing and need no help from me to do that. Secondly, I wanted to get at that sense of disordered confusion - that sense of nobody being quite sure where they are, literally and figuratively, as a place teeters on the brink ofxa0 (or of pulling back from) war. So, each chapter deals with four threads. Mentally, I think of them as:xa0Imperials (and what they are up to); Church and Statexa0(that is, events in New Utah's capitol city, St. George); The Pale (that is, Bonneville andxa0the Barrens); and Beyond the Pale (that is, the Barrens and Outback). These threads each move forward independently for awhile, but of course come together as the book goes on. In Iraq, that would be something like trying to keep track of what's going on in Washington D.C., Baghdad, Nasiriya, and the desert wastes of Dhi Qar province. From the standpoint of standing next to a single well at a roadside shrine, it's hard to grasp that those other places even exist - let alone have much relevance. But of course they do.Finally, the ending was intended as a bit of fun, consistent with the other "remote fringe" of Second Empire space (King David's Spaceship) that launched my father's career in science fiction writing. I hope that diehard Pournelle fans who spot the premise will recognise it for what it is: an intentional homage to him. And by the way, I expect most fans of his know this already, but he's J.E.xa0 I'm J.R. From the Inside Flap Since first contact with the alien Mote civilization, expansion of the Second Empire of Man has slowed. The Fleet's attention has become consumed with blocking Motie access to human space--and holding that thin line now depends upon a shaky alliance with the horrifically prolific, technologically brilliant, three-armed Moties themselves. Under the terms of Horace Bury's will, human and Motie shareholders have also assumed joint control of industrial giant Imperial Autonetics. However, the Empire still decides the fate of worlds. Those already in possession of space-worthy craft may join as Classified systems, and enjoy the benefits of access to new technology, trading rights, and Fleet protection. Those less advanced may be parceled out as colonial concessions. Outworlds that refuse to join risk conquest by zealous commanders intent on preserving the hard-won peace at any cost. Worlds boasting great riches are targeted for quick accession. Those presenting any danger are targeted for quick destruction. Yet, though their very planets depend on guessing the right questions, and delivering the right answers, in the remote backwaters of Imperial space, few of these details are known to the Outies themselves. Set in the first chaotic year following Horace Bury's death, this new sequel to King David's Spaceship, The Mote in God's Eye, and The Gripping Hand introduces Asach Quinn, a human character as enigmatic as the alien Moties. It shifts point of view from those engaged in the vast race across the stars, to that of the "outies" themselves. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle rocked the science fiction world with The Mote in God's Eye . Sentient, capable, and even charming, the "Moties" nevertheless proved to be enemies of humankind-not by intent, but by dint of biology. Bringing a new generation of Moties to life for a new generation of readers, J.R. Pournelle explores the sources and consequences of that biology--questioning what, in the end, it means to be an alien and an outsider."While faithful to the premises of The Mote in God's Eye , Outies takes a fresh look at that universe from the fringes of the Second Empire of Man." -- Larry Niven "With page turning action coupled to a stunning sense of place, Outies takes the notion of 'first contact' to new levels." -- Jerry Pournelle Jennifer R. Pournelle is an archaeologist and anthropologist best known for reconstructing landscapes surrounding ancient cities. Her work in Turkey, Iraq, and the Caucasus has been featured in Science magazine, The New York Times and on The Discovery Channel, National Geographic, NOVA, and UK Channel Four . In a former life, she received numerous decorations for service as a United States Army officer and arms control negotiator, and directed reconstruction work in Iraq as a civilian.Pournelle is the 2010 recipient of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Book Prize, for Excavations, A City Cycle, first released in paperback by the University of South Carolina Press in October, 2011. She now resides in Liguria, Italy. Read more