Footfall

Rating:
Summary: Classic Space Invasion
Review: I read this book at it's first release and again just recently. I loved the concept of people putting aside personal differences to defend themselves from a common antagonist. Although, this has been done time and time again. It will never be tiring, and this book is the classic example. Even the bizzare aliens in this book are a perfect fit. These two guys, when they get together to write, creat magic. ie. Lucifer's Hammer, Mote in God's Eye etc. READ IT, You will be in for a ride.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT
Review: This book is great It's not quite as good as Lucifers Hammer but I still loved it Larry niven and Jerry Pournelle are right up there on my list of favorite authors tied with Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien And Stephen R. Donaldson a great team

Rating:
Summary: Not-A-Cartoon alien invasion story is descendant of HG Wells
Review: READ THIS BOOK! Footfall is an intelligent attempt to postulate a non-human society, provide them with a non-human psychology, and create a scientifically accurate and rational case of intersteller invasion. Hollywood is populated by those who do not understand the professional military. Niven and Pournelle do. Hollywood doesn't understand how the US strategic nuclear forces could be employed in combat. N&P do. Hollywood gushes about the impossibly lucky idiot who saves the day. N&P understand that such luck is more appropriate for Saturday cartoons. They do not create fantasy space drives or fantasy space weapons. They take the hardware of the mid-1980's, accept the probability of some augmentation/development in accordance with the genuine efforts that were part of the Strategic Defense Initiative, and fight their war under the those rules. No dumb luck. No conveniently stupid aliens. The fight a war that is not first vetted by the EPA or the Sierra Club. Footfall takes the charmingly quaint World War II notion that fighting a war for survival is not won by sensitivity training. Read FOOTFALL and you will start wondering just how YOU would fight the war.

Rating:
Summary: Great story, tough to read
Review: I quickly became engrossed in Footfall's plot, and have re-read it several times. However, I really hate the fact that I cannot pronounce the alien's names. It's as if someone pounded on a keyboard to create each one. I also would have been happier if the aliens were not miniature, overly bright elephants. What are the odds of that happening. Despite these shortcomings I do recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Footfall would make an ideal TV mini-series.
Review: I read Footfall three times and loved it. I believe it would make an ideal TV mini-series. (A movie would be too short to do full justice to the story.) It is quite episodic with plenty of cliffhangers. There are heroes for everyone: SF fans, writers, military types, housewives, blue collar workers, survivalists, even Joe Six-Pack will find his hero. Animal lovers will thrill to the jungle scenes and the brave African warrior cameo should have wide appeal. My favorite line is when one of the Pachyderms attributes to humanity "the curiosity natural to any climbing species".

Rating:
Summary: It needed an epilogue.
Review: This story was going great until it just ended. It isn't clear just what is to be done with the fithp nor whether the senator's marriage will survive. By the standards of Niven and Pournelle, this book is a disappointment. Still, I liked the Orion rocket, and found the SF authors mildly amusing.

Rating:
Summary: This book stands as my all time favorite.
Review: I envision the idea for this book originating at a bar, with several drunk writers trying to come up with the most outlandish premise ever. "Leshee, how about if the earth is invaded by uh.. Baby elephants! Betcha a hunnert dollers you can't make that one fly!" Well, I found this book very amusing, and entertaining, and in the end, it came out as an excellant story.

Rating:
Summary: Dreary and Silly
Review: There's surprisingly little plot here, and what is here is spun out to mind-numbing length. The aliens and the rationale behind their motives were interesting, but the idea that SF writers, of all people, would be the ones to save the world is silly and self-serving beyond belief. The last third of the book feels rushed, as though they were both bored with the story and were just hammering it out to get it done. Nowhere near as good as their one true classic, Lucifer's Hammer.

Rating:
Summary: Good mindless fun story, but Heroes were irritating
Review: If you just want to read a pretty good story, then read this. The book made me stop reading Niven & Pournelle collaborations for a while though. I found the Heroic SF Writers to be way to irritating. They knew everything, more than scientists and more than the military. Basically, they knew more about anything than anyone else. There instant knowledge of all things, and their seeming ability to read each others thoughts made the protagonists too unbelievable. I thought it was very self indulgent. I liked the premise though and everything else was good. I just wished that they could have kept the gratuitous SF Writers as Omniscient Beings theme down.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT --- The ID4 of the 80's
Review: Great is all I can say. I first read this book at about the same time the space shuttle blew up! (01-28-86) "I thinl?" At that time, I was at the part where Eaeth launched it's atack on the aliens with all 4 space shuttles. This is the ID4 of the 80's. TrekNut....