From: max@west.darkside.com (Erik Max Francis)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Niven/Mote in God's Eye
Date: 28 Dec 92 21:10:46 GMT
Organization: The Dark Side of the Moon +1 408 245 SPAM

YANJUNA@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu writes:

>    Went to the mall today to pick up today's newspaper, and I decided to drop
> by the local Waldenbooks, and I found a copy of a fannish interview of
> Niven and Pournelle on a Waldenbooks commercial flyer.  The important news,
> is that _The Gripping Hand_ will be available (blame them if this ain't true)
> in early January (mere WEEK or TWO!!!) by Pocket, at $22.
> ISBN 0671795732.

Hmm.  I work in a bookstore, and Books in Print has the publication date 
as February, 1993.

>     Personal Comments:  Waiting for _Gripping_ has sort of made me realize
> that while I really enjoy Niven and Pournelle collaborations, I'm not all
> that crazy about their solo work.  I enjoyed _King David's Spaceship_,
> and the first two mercenary novels (though they owe a hell of a lot to
> Dickson's first four Dorsai books...) and various Niven's short stories,
> their solo works just don't grab me as much as their collaborations.

Yeah, I agree.  Some of Niven's shorts are great, but some of his novels 
are really lacking.  Someone around here pointed out, I think quite 
correctly, that Niven's good at science, Pournelle's good at 
characterization, and Barnes, if it's a collaboration with him, is good 
at that extra horror touch.

>     I would also love to see exactly what RAH contributed to _mote_.
> Any comments?

From _N-Space_, p. 335-6:

    "Jerry sent our 'finished' mansucript to a friend:  Robert Heinlein.
    Robert told us that he could put one terrific blurb on the cover _if_
    we made some changes.  The first hundred pages had to go . . .
        "And we did that, and re-introduced characters and moved back-
    ground data from the last prologue to a later scene set on New
    Scotland, and did more chopping throughout.  'There's a scene I 
    _never_ liked,' I told Jerry, and our whole relationship changed.
    This was when we learned not to be too polite to a collaborator; it
    hurts the book.
        "And we sent it back to Robert, _who did a complete line-editing
    job_.
        "I know of a man who offered Robert Heinlein a reading fee!  The
    results were quite horrid.  But in the case of _Mote_, Robert hadn't
    expected us to take his advice.  Nobody ever had before (he told us).
    But if "Possibly the finest science fiction novel I have ever read" 
    were to appear on the cover above Robert Heinlein's name, then the
    book had to _be_ that.
        "It took us forever to write.  We won the LASFS's 'Sticky' Award
    for 'Best Unpublished Novel' two years running.  It was worth every
    minute."

That's the only real mention of Heinlein's part.  Except for cutting out 
the introduction, no specifics are given about what Heinlein wanted 
changed.


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