Footfall

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, B+/A-
Review: This is, from a distance, a standard, formulaic alien-invasion novel. But, details make the difference. The perspectives of both sides are presented well in this story and, years after my first reading of it, I find the story and the nature of the "invaders" to be very memorable. It definitely has more predictability to it than I prefer, but then, there is nothing new under the sun(s). I do wonder how much this novel was inspired by James White's excellent "The Watch Below" although there are certainly enough differences to separate them.

Rating:
Summary: Not the worst book I ever read, but in the top 20.
Review: While it wasn't a TOTAL waste, overall this book was pretty awful. I concur with previous critical reviewers that it had...

*An absolutely horrid ending - I too thought my copy must be missing at least 10 to 20 pages.
*Far too many characters - Many of whose appearance is inexplicable and who have absolutely no bearing on the plot (whatever the plot is).
*An annoying amount of Alien 'babble' which left me scratching my head - Look, I want to read a book, not learn a new non-existent language.
*Too much ambiguity regarding background details.
*Extremely slow pacing through much of the book.

...Unfortunately, I bought this along with 'The Mote In God's Eye'. I am hoping that one is far better.

Rating:
Summary: A Fine Read!
Review: There is much good to be said about this work. First off, this is the only space invasion novel I know of that develops the aliens beyond evil little green men blowing up stuff. Niven and Pournelle create a fairly comprehensive and logical alien culture. They delve into their language, religion, war fighting, even breeding habits. Not only that, they manage to make you sympathize with the bad guys to some extent. Another nice aspect is the hard science approach. The alien equipment and its operation are rooted in fairly well established theory.

I couldnt give this book a 5 star rating though for most of the same reasons Aaron Lohr noted previously. To some extent I can rationalize the humans' rampant sexual habits as a way to contrast human habits with the alien seasonal breeding patterns. Its true, almost every human (married or otherwise) has at least one sexual liason. And it gets really distracting! Also, the sci-fi writer threat team is a pretty ridiculous touch of hubris. One point Aaron Lohr didnt touch on is all but two of the military characters are portrayed as being irrationally brave and/or unbelievably stupid. Ive met quite a few generals in my life and they dont act like the flag rank retards in this novel! Finally the last scene involving the US President is just flat out wrong. Wouldnt happen that way.

The blemishes in Footfall are numerous. But the good in the story outshines the problems.

Rating:
Summary: Read it becuase of other people's 5-star ratings here!BOOH!
Review: Good Stuff
1. Aliens are unique
2. Nulear wars
3. Cataclysmic weapons

Bad
1. Thin Plot
2. Too many characters
3. Very Very Slow beginning and middle
4. Story gets better around page 400
5. Bad ending

Rating:
Summary: When Baby Elephants Attack
Review: Niven and Pournelle are brilliant writers and dreamers. They can write so vividly about alien culture, language and technologies that you'll be nearly convinced they're real. If only they could write human characters the same way.

I've read a lot of reviews and I havn't seen anyone else mention how shallow and one-dimensional the humans are in this book. It might be just me. But the people in this book are driven first by their sex drive and second by their sex drive. Now this book doesn't have any explicit descriptions or anything like that, but the people are rock stupid. For example, Russians are on an alien ship as captives. They learn more captives are brought on board, including a few women. The first and knee jerk response of the Russians is to say "Women!!!""It's been such a long time!" Are you kidding me?? And here's paraphrased dialogue: Jeri and the others were placed in a cell with three Russians. She was scared in her new alien surroundings. She saw the Russians and her eyes were drawn to one in particular. He was looking at her and she couldn't look away. He was strong and she hoped that they would get to know each other a lot better and hopefully have sex.

Ok it wasn't exactly like that, but I swear the effect is the same. It's like the authors knew sex would draw readers but had no clue about how to put it in. It's super clunky and unbelievable. Every notable character in this book except for one or two people is having sex with people they just meet. Nearly every married person has an affair. I'm serious. It's weird.

The aliens are great, even if they look like baby elephants. The ending could have been great but it all of the sudden stopped. I thought maybe I had a few pages missing in my copy it was so abrupt.

And get this, you know who advises the president on what to do? Science fiction writers. I know that they would have some good ideas, but you know what: Everything they say is right and they save the planet. A little inflating of the ego ...

Anyway, it's an ok book, well thought out with a lot of imagination. The parts that were annoying I just could not get past. I hope you fare better.


Rating:
Summary: A well thought-out and entertaining story
Review: Footfall is a decent read. It's fairly long, involving, and complex, but that doesn't seem to be a problem here. By complex, I refer specifically to the fact that there are several different story lines, and a slew of characters that can, at times, be a bit confusing and tiresome. It's no classic, and it's not as good as other Niven-Pournelle books, but it holds its own. Some very interesting things happen, and ultimately I recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Alien Invasion Classic
Review: I found this book at a local used book store, and the owner said that if I liked Sci-fi I had to read this one. I have to say that he was right.
This is an alien invasion classic. It is a little dated but that wont matter once your start reading. I couldn't put it down.

I think what the aliens looked like was one of my favorite aspects of the book. They look like Elephants. The ending was heart pounding and clever also.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that's into Science Fiction

Rating:
Summary: Very Good, B+/A-
Review: This is, from a distance, a standard, formulaic alien-invasion novel. But, details make the difference. The perspectives of both sides are presented well in this story and, years after my first reading of it, I find the story and the nature of the "invaders" to be very memorable. It definitely has more predictability to it than I prefer, but then, there is nothing new under the sun(s). I do wonder how much this novel was inspired by James White's excellent "The Watch Below" although there are certainly enough differences to separate them.