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)

better than people make it sound

I have read lots of the reviews here and other places that have this book and people seem to have a problem with the elephants caring guns and the whole elephant thing, but I don't really find that to be a problem its a new idea I have never read before.

This is a "First Contact" book and if you like those type of books then you should like this one, there are some strange things in here and it seems dated as it was written in 1986 but really its not that bad I have read worse.

I do have a problem with how the Aliens act like they don't understand the human ways and couldn't have predicted what happens but I assume that could be the case if these Aliens were just a small off shoot from a much larger clan as it sorta seems like it must be but not mentioned, however I would assume that they should have some concept of how other Aliens act or could act, I don't know maybe that's the "dated" part but for the most part the book was great.

The narrator does a great job but the Aliens sound stupid and there name sounds like the narrator was trying to say something but couldn't figure t out so just made a noise, and the Aliens don't have to sound like that in the beginning you here them first and I was worried I wouldn't be able to handle that but it turned out not to be a problem other than the names they use being strange.

This was a great book and if you like "First Contact" books you will like this one

Bring Swim Trunks

Invasion Earth! Excellent narration brings this book to life, along with superb writing. Great fun.

Riviting

Would you listen to Footfall again? Why?

Yes. Great narration and interesting plot.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The congressman and his neurotic female companion. His steadfast belief that a compromise could be reached and the slowly evolving interplay between her and him was unforeseen and interesting when it finally started to show itself.

Which scene was your favorite?

The climax where the president was overridden and the congressman played his cards very close to the vest.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The Herding of Humanity

Any additional comments?

I could really never get my head around miniature elephants being able to bring humanity to the brink of destruction.

Excellent alien invasion book

What other book might you compare Footfall to and why?

If you liked this book you would probably also like Lucifer's Hammer. It is written by the same team and includes a similar element of the world being struck by a large body. The circumstances are natural and it's more of a post-apocalyptic story, dealing with the situations before and after Hammer Fall.

Any additional comments?

This is an excellent book. The only problem I had was the very large cast of characters. I had trouble keeping straight who was who until about halfway through the book. The speaker's performance was excellent, especially considering that alien language features into it.

Good sci-fi tale.

These two writers create great sci-fi. I have read several of their works. This is my first ‘listen’ of their work. I felt the listen was worth my time and I enjoyed listening. Thinking that reading might have drawn more in the way of rating.

Great story and performance but overlong

A good invasion yarn and Niven and Pournelle have once again created an interesting alien culture. The narrator is exceptional, especially given the difficulty of the alien language pronunciation. But the story is overlong with too many interludes in the action. It doesn’t hold up to the imagination of Ringworld. If there’s an abridged version, I recommended it.

Enjoyable. the narrator did an awesome job.

Enjoyable. the narrator did an awesome job with the voices of the aliens and humans.

Well worth the time.

This is not your classic alien invasion story. Well written, well read. it takes a bit getting used to the alien language, but soon you hear it as if it has always been a part of your vocabulary. Imagine ... baby elephants invading Kansas... and it only gets better.

Still Excellent in Audible

I have owned this novel in paperback for since its original publication. Bought the kindle version earlier this week for ease of access to reread it and discovered it is just as good today as it always was. Highly recommended.

This novel takes place in a projected 1990's where both the USA & USSR have small lunar bases and the USSR has a rotating space station in orbit that produces artificial gravity to keep humans healthy indefinitely while living in space. Aliens invade and do horrible things, but their psychology is so different from that of humans neither side understands each other in terms of motives and reactions until the final battle at the very end of the novel.

Finally added the Whispersync Audible book to my collection and found it very enjoyable!

Too many made up names to follow

I loved the story but there were several plot holes. What bugged me the most was the use of made up names. There were too many similiar ones to jeep track of.