Customer Reviews

Footfall

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(32)
3 star:		(21)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

This is a stupendous novel. I decided to read this novel after finishing "A Mote in Gods Eye". Mote was my first experience reading Niven and Pournelle as a team and I was suitably impressed. This book was even better in my most humble opinion.

Footfall tells the tale of an alien incursion to Earth in a manner which Hollywood and most authors today never could. There is no pretense, no presuppositions of actions and conduct. The aliens are alien and not just funny almost humans as so often happens in Science Fiction today. The motivations for the aliens are superbly drawn yet completely foreign. The society is bizarre but believable. Wonderful indeed.

The invasion is not a rehash of the same tired story told in Independence Day and many other such tales. Why should aliens come to this planet with the same motivations we would approach other planets? Why should aliens be interested in our culture and society in the same way in which we would be interested in theirs? Niven and Pournelle do an excellent job in portraying a realistic scenario that is spellbinding in its breadth and stupendous in its readability.

I can't tell more without giving away too much of the tale but rest assured this is a novel worthy of the title classic. Excellent and worth every one of its five stars.

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I still think this is the best alien-invasion story I've ever
read. Granted, it's hard to write a sensible invasion story, given that
a) it's hard to think of a reason for rational aliens to invade, and
b) if they did, they should win overwhelmingly. See rifles vs. spears.

But it makes a great *story*, and N&P have given probably as
reasonable a backstory as anyone could. As an example of high-level
page-turner storytelling, Footfall still rings my chimes. I've read it
three times, plus the last time I picked it up a couple of years ago, to
jog my memory to reply to a post, I got sucked in again and spent the
afternoon rereading the good parts. "Orion will Rise" -- all right!

Footfall is dragged down a bit by dated political background: the
USSR is alive and well here, and is portrayed as considerably
stronger and healthier than it actually was in 1985. I'd skim over the
Russian scenes; in fact the book is pretty slow-moving until the
aliens arrive, so a quick skim of most of this early scene-setting
material is all you need.

And make no mistake, once the action starts, you'll have no futher
complaints. Good stuff, guys.

Happy reading!
Pete Tillman

This book is the best alien-invasion story I've ever read. Niven and Pournelle present thoroughly rich characters on both sides, human and alien. The alien culture is well thought out and fully developed. They have their own language and customs, both of which have a direct, visceral impact upon the story. Essentially, an alien vessel has been observed heading through the solar system toward earth. Not knowing what to expect but acquiescing to the probability of superior technology, earth awaits to establish greetings. Instead, they are greeted with destruction of the space station, destructive raids upon strategic installations earthside, and demands for surrender. How humanity assesses the situation and unites to fight for it's survival manages to induce feelings of pride and global patriotism within the reader. The human characters are multi-national, multi-ethnic, and brilliantly develop a means to thwart and eventually repel the invasion. The human culture and method of attack is sufficiently different from that of the aliens to completely throw the alien's attack methodology askew. Using present, cutting-edge human technology (no warp drives, phasers, or non-existent futuristic weaponry), with space-shuttles, chemical rockets, and ingenuity born of desperation, the humans successfully repel the invasion. The alien technology, although superior, is also plausibly explained in such a manner that makes it understandible as to why they were able to be defeated. Again, the story is in the characters and their participation in the events that give structure and life to the story. The physical appearance of the aliens is both outlandish and surprising, and meshes well with the cultural aspects of the story. The story is involved, exciting, visual, an excellent read, and impossible to put down once started. If a movie could be made adhering strictly to the book and it's storyline and events, it would make Independence Day seem like a Dick and Jane cartoon. Counting the original Foundation trilogy as one, this book is one of my five (5) favorite science books, all time, ever. I recommend it to any science fiction fan, anytime

"Footfall" harkens back to the Science Fiction of the 1950's, with the President and the U.S. military dealing with godless Communists and equally godless aliens. A moving dot is discovered on astronomical plates and the evidence is clear: it is a spaceship from another galaxy far, far away. Attempts to contact the aliens are unsuccessful but as soon as they arrive at Earth their intentions become clear: they destroy the Soviet space station, the moon base and then every dam and major installation on the planet by raining down asteroids. To add insult to injury, when the aliens begin landing troops in Kansas, they look for all the world like elephants with trunks performing the function of hands. Now it is up to President of the United States David Coffey, Congressman Wesley T. Dawson of California, USAF astronaut Major General Edmund Gillespie and his sister-in-law Jeanette Crichton, the Director fo the Lenin Institute Academician Pavel Aleksandrovich Bondarev, the unemployed minstrel Harry Reddington, the captured alien Harpanet and several dozen other characters to save the Earth from the alien threat.

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have provided a good old-fashioned "pulp" story, where you go along for the ride. My only substantive complaint is that the Snouts, as the aliens are called for obvious reasons, have a convenient Achilles heel (or two) that allows Earth to have a fighting chance against a technologically superior enemy that REALLY controls the high ground. My favorite part is President relying on a group of Science Fiction writers for advice on how to deal with these strange visitors from another planet, which at least avoids the stereotype of the stupid military advisers just wanting to use nukes at the first opportunity. The "science" in "Footfall" is enough to fuel the story without becoming oppressive; the first time I read this novel I remember thinking it was just an excuse to find a story where launching an Orion was a plausible plot device. "Footfall" is not epic science fiction; it is just a fun read that takes us make to those thrilling days of yesteryear when BEM ruled.

Footfall is a novel about alien invasion by sci-fi vets Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The begining of the book is rather slow and concerns itself with introducing most of the human characters. The pace of the book doesn't pick up until around page 200 when the aliens finally launch their attack.
The writing in this book is very well done and the pages seem to float by. The characters are both interesting and engaging (I love Harry Red). The science is well researched and sounds plausible. This is a great book to read if you are interested in exploring the possibility of intelligent life from other worlds and what their culture might be like.
If you have read any of Niven's other books you know that dreaming up alien civilizations is his speciality. On the down side the book seems to ignore certain sectors of society while focusing on others. I seriously doubt that following an alien invasion, the U.S. govt. wouldn't be hard pressed to maintain law and order in it's major cities.
Yet in the book, despite the dilapidated condition of the military, maintaining law and order doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The alien language is also a little daunting. This book desperately needs a glossary. Despite these glaring issues the book is a lot of fun to read, I highly recommend it.

P.S
The ending is superb !

who didn't like this book. "What's wrong with me?", I kept asking myself. This is supposedly one of the classics, if not THE CLASSIC of the genre'. I kept waiting and waiting for the story to pick up steam and take off as promised - but it never materialized for me. This thing just plodded along!! I kept wanting to roll over on my back, put my legs up in the air and surrender to the "snouts". (You'll have to read the book to understand that last sentence.)

Now don't get me wrong, I loved Niven and Pourelle's epic novel, "Lucifer's Hammer". It was a great literary work that had me on the edge of my seat for days. "Footfall", on the other hand, left me wishing that I had spent my time doing something more productive - like starting a different book!

I really tried to get into this book, but the confusing plot, not to mention trying to understand just what in the hell was going on with the aliens half the time, really left me scratching my head. It was hard enough to keep up with the dozens of characters in the book, let alone trying to figure out what the "snouts" were attempting to say. I think I wore out the pages in the front of the book that listed the cast of characters from having to turn back and forth so many times just to keep a handle on "who was who".

Oh, I know that the vast majority of people who have reviewed "Footfall" have raved about it, but for my money, stick to the aforementioned "Lucifer's Hammer", George Stewart's wonderful, "Earth Abides", anything by Michael Reisig ("The New Madrid Run" is outstanding), or Robert McCammon's "Swan Song" if you want a little escapism in your life.

There is much good to be said about this work. First off, this is the only space invasion novel I know of that develops the aliens beyond evil little green men blowing up stuff. Niven and Pournelle create a fairly comprehensive and logical alien culture. They delve into their language, religion, war fighting, even breeding habits. Not only that, they manage to make you sympathize with the bad guys to some extent. Another nice aspect is the hard science approach. The alien equipment and its operation are rooted in fairly well established theory.

I couldnt give this book a 5 star rating though for most of the same reasons Aaron Lohr noted previously. To some extent I can rationalize the humans' rampant sexual habits as a way to contrast human habits with the alien seasonal breeding patterns. Its true, almost every human (married or otherwise) has at least one sexual liason. And it gets really distracting! Also, the sci-fi writer threat team is a pretty ridiculous touch of hubris. One point Aaron Lohr didnt touch on is all but two of the military characters are portrayed as being irrationally brave and/or unbelievably stupid. Ive met quite a few generals in my life and they dont act like the flag rank retards in this novel! Finally the last scene involving the US President is just flat out wrong. Wouldnt happen that way.

The blemishes in Footfall are numerous. But the good in the story outshines the problems.

Pournelle (for I believe it is he who did the work) has come up with a reasonably interesting SF book here. Excitement level is all right. Portrayal of aliens is moderately alien, though not up to the standards of the best alien-creators in SF. Originality of theme is limited, but originality of type of alien invasion is well done.

Probably the most interesting aspect is the way the aliens' internal politics take precedence over practicality, which is quite credible given that our own species lets internal politics take precedence over practicality all the time (thus we could imagine that other species would as well).

The worst aspect of the plot--and it's one that seems to be going around in SF these days--is the notion that somehow SF authors will make a significant contribution to the outcome of a human/alien confrontation. To me, that seems almost self-gratifying (and I'd use a stronger word if I thought I could get by with it), pure fantasy on the part of SF authors. This weakens a decent SF book that was doing just fine without that particular plot twist.

I read this book because I'm getting back into sci-fi as an adult, after deserting it after junior high school. This book certainly had some flaws or strange holes in the plot. Among them:

-The Fithp language. As a previous reviewer wrote, all the unpronouceable by human voiceboxes Fithp words got tiresome.

-The "Hairy Red" character was certainly over the top, and probably useless. Let's see, a minstrel/biker befriends his Congressman....somewhat plausible. He then enters a top secret military base, becomes gopher to a General, a spacecraft welder, and then-hey!, let's send him into space!-not bloody likely.

-The impact of asteroid strikes on Earth. Transportation infrastructures have been decimated, months of cool rain follow after Footfall, Kansas is a radioactive wasteland, yet the book does little to convey anarchy, starvation, or splintering nations. Major Crichton frets the economy will disappear in a couple lines of text and the authors mention gas rationing, power shortages and the glories of greenhouses, but it seems life continues in a remarkably normal manner, considering what's happening.

-Project Archangel. In response to the Fithp attacks, the United States builds a fission pulse spacecraft (shades of Project Orion) to do battle with the Fithp. Just one. Granted, a larger project would have probably brought down a rain of meteors, but a species that can use asteroids to conceivably end life on Earth as we know it is brought to surrender by one space battleship? Sure. And I suppose one aircraft carrier would have won WW2 in the Pacific. I'm not an armchair general, but the Earth victory seemed a bit implausible.

But I still don't regret reading the book. There were no transporter beams, no hyperspace drives, no death rays above laser beams. Earth fought back with present day technology. The book made me wonder, "What would we do if aliens attacked?" The action does pick up towards the middle. I would recommend this book, even if it is plodding and cluttered in the beginning.

Another realistic possibility of how our "first contact" with aliens might unfold (ref. The Mote in God's Eye). As with all of the Niven and Pournelle books, they introduce some new perspectives on things (e.g., throwing rocks at us, the alien's battle strategies, and their concept of surrender and more). I enjoyed their use of parallel stories that all came together at the end. The use of alien vocabulary was interesting but sometimes cumbersome (I would suggest putting a glossary in the back of the book). The use of the cast of characters in the front of the book was helpful in keeping the characters straight, esp. the aliens. I would recommend this book to people who don't usually read sci-fi since it's not too "alien" or overly scientific. Whatever you do, DON'T READ THE LAST PAGE UNTIL YOU GET TO IT. Have fun and enjoy.