Outies: Blending Hard and Social Science Fiction
Outies is a science fiction novel, set in the universe erected by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven in their 1974 novel, A Mote in God's Eye. Written by Jennifer Pournelle (Jerry's daughter and an archaeologist at the University of South Carolina's School of the Environment), and published in 2010 by New Brookland Press in a Kindle format, Outies is the younger Pournelle's attempt to move the Motie universe into a social science fiction genre.
Moties
Moties are the aliens in the Mote series of books. They are a non-human species who have evolved into several subspecies with specialized skills. There are engineer Moties and farmer Moties and diplomat Moties and messenger Moties, among others; all evolved with specific skill-sets and the physical equipment to go with them. Moties have one big problem: all of them switch genders regularly, and all female Moties must reproduce once every two years or die. Over 10,000 years, crowding on the Motie planets recurrently led to bloody wars and societal crashes, but the civilization is able to rise again and again because of their built-in fecundity. At the end of A Mote in God's Eye, the human-run Empire decides that the Motie population crisis is a danger to human-occupied space, and the Moties are physically isolated from the rest of the universe.
Outies takes place about 30 years after the events in A Mote in God's Eye, on New Utah, a planet where Motie ancestors and human colonists appear to be co-existing. The plot of Outies describes how New Utah came to exist and how the human-controlled Empire investigate and finally determine the fate of New Utah: isolate it, blow it out of the sky or bring it under the Empire's control.
Outies and Social Science Fiction
Outies is interesting and enjoyable, and it succeeds best when Jennifer Pournelle brings her archaeological/anthropological background to bear to give us cultural glimpses into the works of the various human religious sects on New Utah, and to walk us into the alien mind of the Motie. The key to the novel is diplomacy, and the ranking diplomat is Asach Quinn, a smart and wily character. Other characters of interest include HG, an unpleasant sort who clearly is modeled on an academic in Pournelle's acquaintance. Battle scenes are harrowing, drawing from Pournelle's experiences as a United States Army intelligence officer and arms control negotiator.
If I must put my feminist hat on, I wish that the Empire was not so testosterone-heavy. All of the leaders, with one exception, are male; and she is the leader of a religious sect who has an epiphany, and she is driven to that epiphany by Asach Quinn. I liked the focus on Quinn, who is neither a space cowboy nor a religious fanatic nor a military wonk (and there are plenty of those in Outies), but a scholar and an anthropologist. I admit, however, that I kept wondering what the book might have been like if Quinn had been female. But, I suspect that the Empire is what the original authors made it, and there is certainly something to be said for maintaining the status quo. (Particularly when there are at least three other books by Niven and the elder Pournelle in the series, which I have not read.)
Outies: Bottom Line
I enjoyed Outies: I think it was a good attempt to humanize the creatures and, um, the humans, and I like the way the book ultimately forces negotiation between species, something believed unimaginable in the original Mote in God's Eye.
My favorite bit of the book--apart from Asach--is the appendix: a map of New Utah; details on the organizations of the various human religious sects who inhabit New Utah, and religious poems and songs; a description of Motie accounting systems; and a couple of academic papers on New Utahan Moties. Read this first, especially if you have not read the earlier books.
Admittedly, Outies is long, and there is a lot of emphasis on Empire petty politics and the eccentricities of the human religious sects on New Utah that seems in need of trimming. These aspects are definitely part of Pournelle's social science fiction aspect of emphasis on character and society, but personally I'd rather have read more about Motie religions and social aspects.
I strongly recommend Outies as an interesting experiment in how the union of technology and character might actually work within the pages of a single novel.
Note
And oh, boy did I miss the point of Outies. For more on this intriguing novel, what I missed in it and what writer Jennifer Pournelle has to say about her social science fiction experiment, read Outies, Gender Neutrality and Social Science Fiction: an Interview with Jennifer Pournelle.
