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Footfall Larry Niven 9780345418425 Books

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Footfall Larry Niven 9780345418425 Books

Footfall stands as one of the most realistic and believable accounts of an alien invasion ever written. The authors' science and technology insights are unparalleled, and their understanding of social nature and anthropology (and xenopology?) are very well researched. You can tell they really did their homework on this one. I try to read it once every few years just to refresh my memory. I first read it as a teen, and it has had a profound impact on my world view ever since.


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Footfall Larry Niven 9780345418425 Books Reviews

I've been reading sci-fi for about 50 years and this was a great plot when it was written for an alien invasion story. Well thought out rendering of aliens with a culture based on a herd-mentality. Having the Russians as protagonists and antagonists also doing something that normally annoys me...not completely finishing the story. In this case it seemed right.
It's hard to beat the combination of Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle as writers. Their book "The Mote in God's Eye" is my favorite sci fi book. I love Clifford Simak also. Footfall is about intelligent twin snout Elephants (of all things) who come from Alpha Centauri, who shoot first and ask questions later. They want out planet and darn well destroy it in the process.
One of, if not the best alien invasion story I have run across. Some of it is predictable but there are also unexpected twists. The characters are well defined and they are easy to understand and identify with. I would like to see it made into a movie. I own it in hardback and I just purchased the version.
I share the view of many reviewers that Footfall is certainly not as good as Lucifer's Hammer. The best part is the attempt to give the reader insight into a completely alien culture and the confusion that results when it does always relate to humans. However, the book is far too long with far too many characters that contribute little to the story. I waded through it but put it down several times.
Much different then most other science fiction outer space story. It is on the weeks before the aliens get here and the prep made by different people, like ordinary citizens, government of different countries like Russia and the USA. The different parts of the story were brought to gather very well! I read another one of his books called "The Burning Cities", great imagination, I almost felt like I was in central and southern parts of California, but at another time or even planet.
This team of writers always manages to entertain, to inform, and to create believable scenarios involving space, aliens, and quite scary events like an alien invasion. It deals realistically with the realities of space travel (TIME IS a four letter word) from one solar system to another. Their character development is just deep enough to get you a decent mental image of the cast of folks. They also create a believable reality based on just how different an alien species will probably be from humanity.

Highly recommended. This book is just the kind to whet your appetite and will cause you to search out other gems by these authors.
This book has to be on the short list for best “space aliens attempt to conquer the Earth” stories of all time. Niven and Pournelle have clearly worked out the alien psychology to an impressive extent, and, within that psychology, the aliens’ attack, their war aims, their tactics, all make perfect sense – just as the human race responds to the alien onslaught exactly as you would expect it to by closing ranks and fighting back with every ounce of sweat, toil, tears, and destructive creativity that can be brought to bear.

The book originally came out in 1986, so of course there are some things we take for granted nowadays that simply don’t appear – cell phones and the Internet, to name two – and the Soviet Union has an important part in the plot as well. But none of that detracts from the sheer, carry-you-along readability of the story. Is the book high art? Will it cause you to lie awake at night and ponder the ultimate meaning of life? No, and no. It’s a science fiction thriller novel. That’s “thriller”, as in a thrill ride, and Niven and Pournelle’s mastery of the military tech – “rods from God”, X-ray lasers, the Orion program, all of that futurewar stuff made convincingly real (along with, as I say, the psychology of the two warring species) – makes for a first-class ride. There’s even a special group of experts advising the President on what the aliens are likely to do next and how to counter their next move – yep, a group of science fiction writers (I can think of another part of the book that also must have been a hoot to write, but telling about that one would give too much away).

Suffice it to say, the authors didn’t hold anything back. They wrote a novel that let them flesh out some ideas you just KNOW they’ve always wanted to do, and at the same time they’ve told a crackling good story that’ll have you mentally cheering on team Homo Sapiens. I have my theories as to why this book’s never been turned into a movie and probably never will be. Regardless, it’s a classic and should be appreciated, not only by science fiction fans, but by anybody who enjoys a ripping good yarn.

(I’m about to post this review, and I see that some reviewers – not a lot, but some – have given this book two stars or even one star. Sweet holy bananacakes, what is WRONG with some people?)
Footfall stands as one of the most realistic and believable accounts of an alien invasion ever written. The authors' science and technology insights are unparalleled, and their understanding of social nature and anthropology (and xenopology?) are very well researched. You can tell they really did their homework on this one. I try to read it once every few years just to refresh my memory. I first read it as a teen, and it has had a profound impact on my world view ever since.