Footfall

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star. The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods. Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender - or death for all humans.

©1986 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Nobody does it better than Niven and Pournelle. I loved it!” (Tom Clancy)

"Rousing – the best of the genre.” ( The New York Times Book Review)

old time sci fi

its great to listen to a book I have read a number of times. Hats off to the reader. The verbiage here is a real jawcracker.

Excellent performance!

The performer is excellent.

The story fades in perspective of time and advances in technologies.

A dialog - driven tale with a masterful narrator

This pair of collaborating authors writes long stories, driven by realistic and well-written dialog, and filled cheek to jowl with characters. Following the viewpoint and exploits of the "common man" is one of their hallmarks. Andrews is amazing, juggling narration and dozens of speaking, thinking characters with consistent voices and pronunciation, often flipping between a score of them in a chapter. Exemplary work.

Stylistically, the novel is well written. Some writers can write dialog and some can't, and these guys can do dialog. They are also fair with description, although they usually leave out the sense of place in favor of the reader's own imagination. Narratively, there are more than a few troubling areas, with odd decisions and unrealistic coincidences, but these are overall easy to overlook. The things left unsaid and unresolved will bother some readers, as well as sections of extraneous information and scenes that you expect to build to something and don't.

This is good, hard sci fi, with a Cold War backdrop. If you liked Lucifer's Hammer, you will love this.

Enjoyable.

Good enough to keep you listening. More action with a fun story. One themee point of a different perspective but not that engoosing. Good scifi action.

An uncharacteristically optimistic view of aliens.

I was surprised that the book portrays humanity as a bit less ready to destroy alien invaders and more ready to believe they are brothers come from afar... it seemed unrealistic to me. I just couldn't believe it...the reaction to invasion and violence -I felt- would be magnitudes greater and more aggressive. That kinda ruined it for me. I did like the way you slowly understand where the aliens are coming from, and what they want to accomplish. It created a bit of suspense in an otherwise predictable plot.

The best in science fiction

These 2 authors have given us the 2 best stories in science fiction Read them

Fantastic!

Fantastic story and the best audio performance I have heard! I give this book and this audiobook my highest recommendation! It’s a 10!

Great Sci-fi worthy of Niven and Pournelle

Excellent performance by Andrews. Engaging story! Lots of fun and suspense. Also realistic which makes it even better!

Narration limits enjoyment of the story

I'd have to agree with the other reviewers. The voice acting is over-the-top. Please don't make all the Russian voices sound like Pavel Chekov from the original Star Trek. I really wish narrators would just stop it with the ethnic voices. The alien voices are just terrible. I realize that narrator had his hands tied when it came to pronouncing the alien names, but simpering, lisping alien voices are distracting. Just read the damn story.

Solid classic scifi, but not the best

I read the story ages ago and with an upcoming road trip decided to re-read it via audio book. The story itself is quite unique, and while the science in it seems strong, the story felt a bit thin and jumpy. Not my favorite from these authors, but still good. The narration was excellent. If you are a Niven and Pournelle fan and can't find anything else that excites you, this would be a worthy listen. The story however isn't nearly as satisfying as Mote in God's Eye or Lucifer's Hammer.