Footfall a [Paperback]

Niven Pournelle (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 736 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown Paperbacks (a&C); New edition edition (October 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0722163398
• ISBN-13: 978-0722163399
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,571,932 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best alien-invasion story ever written?, November 9, 2007

By 

Peter D. Tillman (Taos, NM USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Footfall a (Paperback)

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.

Here's Amazon's main page for Footfall.

Happy reading!
Peter D. Tillman

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader, September 2, 2007

By 

Blue Tyson "- Research Finished" (Legion clubhouse) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Footfall a (Paperback)

Aliens invade earth. They are warlike, elephantine looking creatures with their own strange hierarchy of dominance and submission.

They take captives for study, and some of these ordinary people are able to learn enough about what goes on to help humanity turn the tables.

This is after a lot of fighting, death, and the nuking of the odd United State.