Pournelle, Jerry

• The Mote in God's Eye (with Larry Niven) (7 r)

  • Series about the discovery of a new race (the Moties) and how the first tentative steps at contact go set a few centuries into the future (after we've colonized several dozen planets, of course). The reader isn't sure what is going on worth reading about until about halfway through the novel, and after that it gets pretty good. I haven't read the sequel yet.

• Footfall (with Larry Niven) (8 r)

  • This one is about a race of weird elephant-like people who come to take over the Earth, starting by putting their proverbial "foot" down by smashing a great big asteroid into the Earth. Of course, humankind fights back, and the story is reminiscent of the movie "Red Dawn" in many respects. Probably my second favorite Niven-involved work next to Dream Park.

• Lucifer's Hammer (with Larry Niven) (7 r)

  • This time, the rock that hits the Earth isn't alien-induced, but the story is good nonetheless. It is basically a story about how society would try to rebuild itself after a cataclysmic impact. The plot both before and after the impact is very good, and the book as a whole was almost as much a classic as Footfall.

• The Legacy of Heorot (with Larry Niven and Stephen Barnes) (7 r)

  • Story about a human colony that settles on a seemingly uninhabited planet. Of course, we all know it isn't REALLY uninhabited...there's a friendly little guy called "Grendel" in hibernation. And he's only the beginning of the problems. I read through this like a torrent...quite exciting and scary.

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