In short: achingly poor writing sustaining a sometimes exciting plot. However the Moties (despite being utterly humanoid, which, for a work of speculative fiction should really be considered a faux pas, or at least a tut-tut) were often a joy to listen to chatter, especially the three ambassadors at the draw of the novel, who provided more insight into the Motie psyche than the however-many-snippets of dialogue that came before. Definitely a side-eye thrown at the expressive interjectional use of "rape" though.

Overall entertaining but I found it fairly lacking in imagination for a story set hundreds of years in the future, and it was anachronistic in its social context. Only one woman on the entire ship? Scottish engineers? A Russian admiral? Outdated presentation of racial, sex and gender, it felt like a space story set firmly in the mid 20th century, when it was written. The climactic scene felt toothless, and it ignored the value of its most interesting characters: the Moties.

‘Twas better than I imagined. Everyone needs an alien Fyunch(click!). Hat tip: Ian Stewart.

Fantastic story once it finally got going but I kept getting distracted by cultural stuff. There was only one (human) female character and she kept flustering the male crew and then swooning over the captain. And the Christian church was somehow still going strong, with nearly everyone a believer. But other than that it was great.

After Ringworld, I liked Nivens Sci-fi concepts, but not so much his characters. The same could be said for Mote, which lacks any strong women characters, but makes up for it with a gripping tale of first contact. After seeing this one on NPRs top 100 SciFi list, and always being interested in first encounters, I knew I had to check this out. The story kept me interested -- keeping things a mystery at times, and at other times giving you the information and watching to see if the correct decisions were made. I wouldn't recommend this one for everyone, but if you like entertaining sci fi and an interesting alien race, it's worth a read.