A Mote In God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle

This is September's book group selection. I read it years ago and had it on the shelf. In the past, I haven't re-read books, but I've been finding that if I haven't read it in the last year, I don't remember the particulars well enough to participate in a lively discussion.

So I re-read this one. And liked it the second time as well.

Here is the standard published book blurb: In the year 3016, the Second Empire of Man spans hundreds of star systems, thanks to the faster-than-light Alderson Drive. No other intelligent beings have ever been encountered, not until a light sail probe enters a human system carrying a dead alien. The probe is traced to the Mote, an isolated star in a thick dust cloud, and an expedition is dispatched.
In the Mote the humans find an ancient civilization--at least one million years old--that has always been bottled up in their cloistered solar system for lack of a star drive. The Moties are welcoming and kind, yet rather evasive about certain aspects of their society. It seems the Moties have a dark problem, one they've been unable to solve in over a million years.

Captain Rod Blaine has been given his first star fleet command, the ship MacArthur to boldly go where no one has gone before and meet an unidentified object coming from the mysterious Mote. They find a cylinder with an alien. And yea, Capt. Rod Blaine is commanded to further go where no one has gone before (or at least for a very very long time) and find the home world of this mysterious alien. The starship Lenin is to follow, with the strictest command to blow the MacArthur to oblivion if the aliens attempt to learn any star fleet secrets.

Blaine sets forth with a ship full of scientists, a crew eerily similar to that of Captain Kirks, all under the watchful eye of the Lenin. What they learn...well, I leave that part up to you to find out. Aren't I a stinker? ;)

The first half of this book is pretty darn good. The second half drags. I did feel that this book was a flushed out Star Trek episode, complete with Scotty in the engine room. For a first contact, it was decent, each side trying to hide its secrets from the other. Each side dying to dissect a sample of the other. It was an interesting look at humanity (albeit from the 70's) and how we might approach an alien race that wants to know just as much as we do.