Writing separately, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle are responsible for a number of science fiction classics, such as the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Ringworld, Debt of Hor, and The Integral Trees. Together they have written the critically acclaimed bestsellers Infer, Footfall, and The Legacy of Heorot, among others. The Mote in God s Eyes is their ackwledged masterpiece, an epic vel in mankind s first encounter with alien life that transcends the genre.