Footfall

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have written a lot of books together, but for me this is their best! Footfall is a story that takes place in the 1980s when a hostile alien spaceship visits the earth; where dominating U.S. and Russian governments distrust each other. Larry and Jerry give you insight to the inner workings of U.S. and Russian governments as they prepare for this first alien encounter and possible war with each other. They also give you insight to the Aliens plans and politics as they make their approach Earth. I find Footfall to be one of the more believable stories that concerns first Alien contact with earth and how the people of Earth would react. For those Larry Niven fans; Footfall is OLD Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelleat their VERY best.

The narration of Footfall by Macleod Andrews is great. I first listened to Macleod listening to Sandman Slim and later purchased The Lock Artist; just to hear Macleod again. I was happy to hear Macleod on this recording of Footfall.

Footfall is hard science fiction at its best.

Based on reviews so far, it looks like this is going to be one of those audios that you either love or hate. I love this book and this audio. In fact, I just finished reading it for the sixth or seventh time earlier this year and still purchased it on audio. I wasn't disappointed. It is classic Niven and Pournelle, and, I think, their best. It has an intelligent, engaging story line populated by believable characters. I don't find it to be a right wing rant. I do hear these two SF writers speaking with frustration over what happened to the space program after Apollo. I disagree with their love for nuclear plants, but none of that detracts from the story line. And, it has one of the best space battle scenes ever written.

As for the narration, I thought it was excellent. I had no trouble understanding it and I'm frankly amazed that they found a reader willing to take it on. The invaders' names are bad enough: Pastempeh-Keph, Fathisteh-tulk, K'turfookrph etc. There are around twenty of those characters. But there is also the invaders' language that is sprinkled liberally through-out the novel which is just as tongue twisting. Then there are at least 30 important human characters, as well as a cast of twenty or so more. In some scenes, the narrator has to try and differentiate conversations among a group of ten or twelve humans, adult and children, men and women, as well as several male and female aliens. I'm willing to give him a pass if he has a problem making each voice in the scene distinctive enough.

I heartily recommend this audio version to those who love the book and to those who have never sampled it before. This is one I know I'll listen to again.

Classic Alien Invasion of Earth. It doesn't get much better. It was written 25 years ago, but nonetheless doesn't seem dated. Some reviewers disliked the narrator's performance and pronunciation of alien names and dialog. I can't DISAGREE more! Ok, a few sentences I rewound the recording to listen again, but maybe 2 or 3 times during the entire book. The narrator essentially read the names and dialog exactly the way I'd pictured it when I read the book years ago. I recommend this, I recommend Niven and Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye," and I also recommend another great alien invasion/first contact story: Michael Flynn's "Eifelheim." Not sure which is my favorite sci-fi book of all time: Footfall or Eifelheim.

... Most of the complaints about this reading seem to focus on Andrews' reading of the books. Personally, I found the reading very well done. I like to get a sense of the different characters, and I found Andrews did a fantastic job of this. Some complained about the accents of the Aliens or the Russians, but I really found it well done, if only a bit over the top. It helped me keep the relatively long cast separate. On to the book.

I really enjoyed two of Niven/Pournelle's other famous works - Ringworld and the Mote in God's Eye. Particularly in the case of Mote, I enjoyed having some real *alien* aliens. The guys do a great job again in the case of Footfall. The aliens feel pretty fleshed out, and have a reasonably detailed culture.

The humans are a bit more one dimensional, but still interesting. Again, the cast is pretty large, and in the beginnings of the book it's a bit difficult to keep them straight, but they all end up meshing well, and serving to add interest and richness to the story.

Anyway, interesting book, and worth a shot. If you really like the performance aspect of the reading, than likely the reader won't bug you. If you prefer a more straight reading, then I'd probably check out something else.

About a month ago I was comparing search results on Google and the evil upstart known as Bing, searching "Project Orion". On image search Bing turned up a schematic drawing of an Orion powered warship called Michael, from a book called "Footfall". I'm an astronautics engineering student, scifi junkie, and proponent of nuclear pulse propulsion, so was intrigued. I've heard of the book from time to time, so figured I'd give it a listen. I'm frankly blown away. This is one of the best books I've ever "read". The story is told from multiple view points, engaging and believable. And the science is excellent. I've spent the last year listening to the Dune saga; I love the books, but you can tell the authors didn't know much advanced science. I'm a stickler for accuracy, and the dune dreamers took too many artistic licenses for my taste; and some of them are absurd.

There are a lot of complaints in these reviews about the ending; which I can understand. But I also understand why the authors ended the book where they did: the plot was finished evolving. After the snouts surrender, there's only one way the story can go. The last passage brings total clarity. Given what is known about the characters and situation, the reader's mind can fill in the rest. So ending the book there wasn't a cliff hanger, it's an artistic flourish. I approve, although an epilogue set a few years or decades later would have been nice.

Larry and Jerry built a believable alien race and a believable human reaction to them. Well written and well read

It's hard to believe this was ever publish. It sounded like a great story idea, but in the hands of these two authors, it has weak 1-dimensional characters that are like bad cliches of themselves the plot is non-existant, and this seems to be written with zero knowledge of the subject.

As a caveat, I half way through the first file (of three) before I had to stop listening in disgust. Up until that point it was like hearing a train wreck in the sense I couldn't beleive anything this bad had been published.

This book lacked descriptive depth. It didn't paint a picture so much as a rough diagram with labels like "Insert alien space ship here". The giant cast of characters was reminiscent of Greg Bear's books, and similarly bogged the story down way more than it added a sense of a broader universe. I found the aliens to be novel but entirely implausible, I don't see how a clumsy race that's incapable of fine motor control can develop any kind of technology.

And the final space battle that some of the other reviewers seem to be so fond of is mostly conveyed verbally, without any objective description, through the intercom and goes something like this: "Fire cannons. Accelerate. Boom! oh no we're hit. We need more steam!" Very underwhelming.

Oh and I found the pivotal roll that a group science fiction authors play in the story to be incredibly masturbatory.

Overall the book has several interesting ideas that are introduced, but overall, it's not really worth the credit unless you have nothing better to listen to.

Long Book. Hard to care about the characters and nothing exceptional about plot. The Soviet part is dated and makes the not age well.

In 1986, or a year or two later, I read this book. I loved it then. But life goes on and even the title escaped my memory. I started listening to it, and low and behold some parts were familiar and other parts forgotten.

The story is timeless, even though it was written in the time of the USSR. I enjoyed it so much I must admit I stayed up WAY too late listening to the book. It is a long book (three parts of 8+ hours, or 24 hours of listening) and it can be hard to just quit listening.

The ending is dramatic and satisfactory. It must be hard for two Sci-Fi greats as Niven and Pournelle to cooperate on such a project, but is was a grand project very well done.

And it is a BARGAIN. 24hrs of listening for one credit! If you like Sci-Fi, this is one you should not miss. 35 years old and still a fantastic read - an ultimate classic.