Bruguru's Full Review: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle - Footfall
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle definitely have it in for the Earth. It wasn’t enough for them to smash the planet with a huge comet in Lucifer’s Hammer. Oh no. Once again in Footfall, the two are hitting the Earth with meteors left and right including a humdinger that causes almost as much damage as the space rock in their aforementioned work. This time, though, there’s intelligence behind the impacts, and that intelligence wants something we humans have: the planet Earth.
Footfall is Niven and Pournelle’s vision of alien invasion, but it’s not an Independence Day like vision of a nigh invincible foe bent on exterminating the human race. The aliens of Footfall, who call themselves the Fithp, merely seek to dominate the human race, integrate us into their traveler herd, and monopolize the vast resources our solar system offers. There, that’s not so bad after all, is it?
In fact, the aliens are a mystery at first. Although astronomers pick up their spacecraft heading to Earth from the general vicinity of Saturn, the visitors fail to answer any and all communications directed their way. Are they hostile? Are they friendly? What should we do about them? It is decided that a delegation of Soviet and American diplomats will meet the visitors in space, aboard a Russian space station. And it is there that we learn the aliens’ intentions when the space station is blasted to pieces and the survivors taken prisoner.
Soon, the Aliens are descending upon the American heartland to establish a beachhead, and all of our modern weaponry seems powerless to stop them. To be sure, occasional damage is inflicted upon the fithp, and they are far from invincible. Still, their technology is so advanced as to make them seem so. To top it all off, these guys don’t fight fair. They live by the old adage, “When all else fails, throw rocks”, and that’s exactly what they do, bombarding the Earth with a steady hail of meteors in a rain of destruction unprecedented in human history.
When we get our first glimpse of the invaders, they resemble, well, baby elephants more than anything else with clawed feet, bifurcated trunks each ending in four digits and truncated ears. The appearance of the invaders is played for a joke by the authors on several occasions and adds a touch of humor to this otherwise straight sci-fi adventure that ends with a rousing confrontation. The last page is especially gripping, and I promise you’ll be on the edge of your seat throughout the last 50 pages or so.
Overall, this is a fun read with lots of characters, interesting aliens and a thoughtful examination of their culture. There’s lots of interesting science being used by both the aliens and the humans, and its all well thought out and based in extrapolation upon current research. It’s definitely must read material for science fiction fans, and I’m glad I stumbled upon it recently at the local bookstore.
Despite all this, the book suffers from several flaws that keep it from rating five stars. The first is the length. At almost 600 pages, Footfall certainly drags at times. There are characters that are definitely superfluous to the story and could have been safely omitted. One is left at times thinking “Get on with it!”, anxious to see what’s going to happen next in the overall scheme of things but not caring a hoot whether the guy on page 437 lives or dies.
Secondly, the authors have a habit of foreshadowing a bit too freely. The government has turned to a cabal of science fiction writers who conveniently predict what the aliens will be up to next. “Hey Mr. President, the aliens are gonna drop intelligent crowbars from space on your tanks!” Sure enough, they do. “Hey Mr. President, the aliens are gonna throw a Dinosaur Killer size asteroid at us!” Sure enough, they do. This was cute the first time, but certainly not the 12th.
Lastly, Footfall is slightly dated. Having been written in 1985, it builds upon tensions between the United States and now the now-defunct Soviet Union that seem somewhat out of place. Overall, however, Footfall soars above these minor quibbles and will keep you reading at a steady pace. I plowed through it in about a week of on and off reading. If you love sci-fi, chances are you will too, and you might just add Niven and Pournelle to your favorite list of authors as I have now done.
NOBODY DOES IT BETTER THAN NIVEN AND POURNELLE. I LOVED IT! --Tom Clancy They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Sa...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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