I thought long and hard about giving this one 4 stars. It was really a toss-up...I think on a different day, I might have done so. I really enjoyed this book, but sometimes it felt like there was a lot of "fluff" in it. I listened to the audio of the book, hoping to finish in time to discuss it with the SFF Audio crew. Unfortunately, I didn't quite finish in time. Their podcast episode was pretty good, it summed up a lot of my feelings.One thing mentioned on the podcast was that this book wasn't particularly deep. There isn't any real allegory and aren't many "big ideas." I think that's part of why the book worked for me. When I read fiction books, I want to be entertained. Sure, it's a bonus if it makes me think with deeper meaning, but it's not my motivation. Sometimes, I find that "thinking" novels get too wrapped up in being thinking novels and forget about being entertaining. This one was mostly fun (though I admit, I did start thinking about the physics of a space war).Footfall is a book about an alien invasion and earth's fight (mostly the fight of the US) against it. It was written in the mid-80's, when the Cold War was still in full swing, so for part of the book, it isn't so much the US vs. the aliens as much as it is the US with the possible help of the Soviets vs. the aliens...that is, if the Soviets don't double-cross the US. That's one reason that I ended up only giving the book 3 stars instead of 4: the plotline related to the international cooperation with the Soviets more or less abruptly ended about halfway through. I got to the end and wondered what had happened to that thread.The first part of the book introduced a lot of characters...a LOT of characters, many that didn't matter by the end of the story. That's another part of the reason got 3 stars instead of 4. The characters seemed to be some of the fluff. Funnily, Tamahome's review, mentioning The Stand, made me also think of that book as I listened to this one. For some reason, I kept thinking of the Harry Red character in this book as very similar to Tom Cullen in The Stand. His role ended up somewhat similar, and while Harry wasn't mentally challenged, he did seem to be a character that many people underestimated.After the characters (124, according to Tam?!?!) were introduced, the second part of the book dealt with the response on earth, a "joint response" of sorts requiring the US and the USSR to trust each other and work together. Given the time period when the book was written, this was a relatively unheard of idea. The third (and final) part of the book was about the response in space, culminating with a battle in the waning chapters. It's odd, I usually knock a book if the ending feels rushed; so many books have a final "battle" or other climax point and then do a very quick wrap-up of "everybody lived happily ever after" (or something). Though the most intense parts of the book were at the end, it didn't feel rushed. Heck, the book didn't exactly have a true ending or resolution. But it worked. I haven't read any other books jointly written by Niven and Pournelle. The only other Niven book I've read is Ringworld (a book I didn't enjoy). When I used to listen to TWiT, I didn't enjoy Pournelle as a guest, he seemed out of touch. Needless to say, I was skeptical about reading this...but I found it surprisingly enjoyable, and I'm glad I read it.Other things I jotted down while reading:-As with most books, the president seemed "too perfect" (at least, for most of the book). The part at the beginning where he said something to the effect of, "I won't be a great president, but I'll be a very good president," was especially wishful thinking.-Why did they call the time "H minus"? Most US launches use "T minus" (for time minus). French launches use H- for "heure" or "time."-The comment about the "soaring structure" of the IAD terminal building was funny. You don't see that building as you leave the airport, once you're on the road to Washington, DC. As much as I fly into and out of that airport, I can't say I've ever paid much attention to the shape of the building.-I cracked up when they mentioned that there was a sign for the "Bureau of Public Roads Research" marking the entrance to the CIA. It is true that the Federal Highway Administration is accessed via the same road as the one for the CIA.-I thought it was funny (and wish it had been explored more) to see how the aliens interpreted human things, such as clothes (why do humans need clothes? To protect their fragile skin? For humidity control?). That said, for a race/entity that has received radio and TV transmissions from earth, it's surprising that they didn't have a better understanding of humans...-The description of the traffic getting out of LA reminded me of The Stand.-I think that Niven and Pournelle made a small nod to Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy when Harry was doing his back stretches using a towel on the side of the road. He was approached by another person who asked why he had a towel, and Harry said that a towel was a necessity for travel. I smiled at that.-Why did the Soviet Union involvement in the story drop off so suddenly?
When I picked up this book I wasn't expecting great literature. It was, after all, about an alien invasion. I was looking for something light and fun. But I found it so irritating, it finally took a sheer act of will for me to finish it.I could write pages about what made the book so bad. This is only an outline:1.) Characterizations. The characters were cartoons. They had no depth. That was perhaps inevitable, given the fact that the novel's dramatis personae, listed in the front of the book, consists of four pages! That's too many characters, even for a novel of over 500 pages. A reader can't get a sense of any of them. Do any of them have emotional lives? Hard to tell, given that the premise of the book is literally earth-shattering, and there's no indication that anybody's carries any trauma over it. A lot of people die, but is anyone devastated, even when losing friends, family, mates? All just seem to shake it off and life goes on. Worst are the characterizations of women. One of the major characters is a major in Army Intelligence who becomes adviser to the President. Yet she's portrayed as a real nitwit who giggles all the time in the middle of meetings and flirts with the head of the President's Secret Service detail even the most important things are going on.The portrayals of the alien females are no better. The aliens apparently have an even stronger patriarchal civilization than the Earthlings do. (Must be a universal law of nature in Niven-Pournelle's view?2.) Dialogue. When the characters are cartoons, I suppose you can't expect them to talk like real people. But did the "sound" of it have be so painful? Which leads to . . .3.) The writing in general. Who can take this kind of writing seriously:[SCENE: The aliens have invaded Kansas by parachuting in. Reports are coming in to the President and his advisers, and they are curious to know what they look like.] The Admiral lifted the phone. "Carrell . . . Yes, put the photographs up on the big screens. Let everyone see what we're up against." There were five screens. One by one they filled with pictures of baby elephants. Some hung from paper airplanes and wore elevator shoes. Others were on foot. All carried weirdly shaped rifles. Laughter sounded on the floor below, but it soon died away as the screen showed photographs of ruined buildings and wrecked cars, with alien shapes in the foreground. Bodies lay at the background of most of the pictures. Jenny studied the photographs. They were quite good; the photographer who'd taken them said she'd sold to Sports Illustrated and other major magazines. That's the enemy. "They do look like elephants," Admiral Carrel said. "Yes, sir," Jenny said. "But they're not really elephants." "No. They're invaders," General Toland said.Even when Niven-Pournelle happen upon a happy turn-of-phrase, they botch it. When the alien mothership suffers significant damage, they write that sounds from its hull sounded like that of a "smashed banjo." That's a clever metaphor. And Niven-Pournelle must have themselves also thought so, because they then use the same metaphor three more times in the next few pages!And if there were a word I could eliminate from their vocabulary, it would be "grin." Everybody's prompted to grin in this book for one reason or another. (Funny reaction, in the midst of an alien invasion.) If you excised all the times the word, "grin," is used in the book, there would be significant gaps in the text. Get Niven-Pounelle a thesaurus!4.) Gratuitous ridiculousness. If the above quote isn't enough to illustrate this point (baby elephants riding parachuting under paper airplanes while wearing elevator shoes?), note that among the heroes are a swashbuckling Congressman and a bevy of science fiction writers. The SF writers are brought in to advise the President because they would seemingly know more about planning strategically against aliens than Pentagon types who have spent thousands of hours gaming all sorts of scenarios against possible invaders. Just because SF involves speculative thinking, who says that the SF writers speculations in this case are going to be better than anyone else's?5.) An intriguing idea squandered. There is an idea at the center of the novel, but it remains seriously unexplored. The idea is that much of the carnage that is created between the aliens and the humans results basically because of fundamental cultural misunderstanding. Because the two civilizations carry different assumptions about interpersonal interactions, including conflict, they essentially kill what they don't understand. This is a important insight, having echoes in human history from ancient imperialism to US involvement in SE Asia and the Middle East. Maybe it was too uncomfortable for Niven-Pournelle to explore too deeply (as I understand they hold pretty right-wing beliefs), so they just let it go.
What do You think about Footfall (1997)?
Fantastisch boek. Echt een aanrader voor alle SF-liefhebbers. De Aarde wordt bedreigd door een buitenaards ras 'baby-olifanten'.Op een foto van de sterrenhemel is een stip te zien. Deze stip bevindt zich bij de planeet Saturnus. Deze stip blijkt te bewegen en zet koers naar de Aarde. Komen de aliens in vrede of ...Snel worden een aantal mensen naar het Russische ruimtestation 'Kosmograd' gestuurd om de aliens te verwelkomen. Deze ruimtestation wordt door de Aliens vernietigd, mar een aantal opvarenden worden gevangen genomen. Zo begint een strijd vol onbeschrijflijk geweld en onvoorstelbare verwoesting, waarvan de uitkomst tot het laatst onzeker blijft. In dit wanhopige gevecht komen een aantal hoofdfiguren naar voren die de lezer niet gauw zal vergeten.Zoals Harry, die een verwoest continent oversteekt om de man van een andere vrouw te redden. Of Harpanet, de alien die zich loyaal opstelt ten opzichte van de mens. Jenny, die als eerste het ruimteschip ontdekt en adviseur wordt van de president. En congreslid Wes Dawson die, als gevangene van de aliens, met beide partijen probeert te onderhandelen.
—Edwin Kort
They don't write books like this anymore.Multitudes of characters, converging plotlines, cold war intrigues, and a good old fashioned, worldwide alien invasion story. There's good and bad in this novel, but at the end, the good outweighed the bad and made the book worth reading. I'll start with the bad, and get that out of the way-The Bad:Too many characters. They become hard to keep track of after awhile, especially when you have to also figure out social connections that appeared briefly pages ago.The invading aliens look like...baby elephants. It ends up working, but for me it was a serious distraction for quite a bit of the novel. Not how I would picture aliens, and making something so strange and foreign resemble any known animal is going to imbue the characters with unwanted stereotypes.Like "Lucifer's Hammer", another story by the same creative team, this book is a bit slow to start (although I enjoyed most of the buildup, something too many modern tales lack). The middle starts interesting, becomes a compulsive page turner and then...it just ends. Yes, there is a resolution. No, I don't need every string of a storyline followed to a conclusion. But, a little bit more? The kiss goodnight? That would have been appreciated.Some of it feels a bit too neat and tidy. The alien spaceship has technology on it that is too similar to how humans would build something. This is an alternate race from another galaxy. I would expect their trappings to be more...alien. The way they invade the US, and the way they conduct parts of their invasion, is also too human.The Good.The well researched details of a world wide response to the invasion. The clever way the aliens have inherited their technology, are a younger race, and have more of the social structure of herd animals than humans. In fact, the way they react with confusion towards the humans and their unique characteristics is a strong point.The lengthy focus on background and character developement-something too often jettisoned in the modern rush to quick action.The way several disparate elements merge into a workable, believable resolution.So, the book was worth it, is a keeper on my bookshelf, but isn't exactly a classic.
—Dan Henk
I think one of the things I like best about Footfall is the sheer scope of the story. It's fitting, I think, for an end-of-the-world story to have a giant cast and a universal reach -- in this case, outside of the galaxy and spanning 15+ years between when the story starts and when the invasion of Earth begins.I like big sprawling books that you can really sink into. People talk about "world building" and I vaguely understand/care about what they say, but world building like Larry Niven does in Footfall is rare. There are characters and interrelationships and sidebars and dead-ends and all of it, somehow, serves the novel.That's really a testament to the writing. Take two side characters, John Fox and Marty something-or-other. Originally, John is introduced when one of the characters, Roger, a reporter, is looking for someone to interview at the time the spaceship that ultimately invades Earth has been discovered. Fox talks to the reporter about his concerns over a dam or something that threatens the Death Valley area, and the reporter listens more out of politeness than interest; he even says as much, given that the big story is An Alien Ship Is Headed To Earth. That's kind of a throwaway moment, almost, except that later on John Fox shows with Marty. Marty is first introduced as a dog-show breeder who is on the fringes of a survivalist group that ends up making their shelter right outside of the town located [SPOILER ALERT!] in the same place the US decides to pick to build its spaceship to fight back against the invaders. Marty drifts back into the story later on, leaving some friends in Los Angeles to go hide in the desert with John Fox. This all leads to a scene where [SERIOUS SPOILER ALERT] Fox and Marty drive up to a ridge right after the invaders drop a 'dinosaur killer' asteroid that causes a salt water downpour in Death Valley. They watch the rain fill in what used to a be a sea bed and Fox makes a brief speech about how he fought nuclear power and was a fool, because had he allowed science to progress then the humans might have been able to fight back against the invaders, and he wouldn't be watching all the fragile, perfectly-adapted creatures of Death Valley drowning.It's the kind of moment that could be preachy or overdone; it's essentially Larry Niven and his co-author Jerry Pournelle being almost didactic: they're hard-science guys who want people to be pro-scientific advances. But it doesn't come across that way. Instead, the message Fox and Marty convey is buried within a story, because it was chapters and chapters ago that Fox was even introduced, and Marty's just there as a sort of avatar of the reader, watching Fox.That kind of large-scale writing is tough to do. What Niven and Pournelle do so well here doesn't work as well in other books -- I gave up on Niven's Building Harlequin's Moon, as it was more science lecture than story -- but when it does work it's incredible to read. The story keeps threading through these new characters and overlapping subplots and winding back, and even for a guy like me who has a hard time keeping track of characters, it's easy to follow.
—Briane Pagel
