footfall by niven and pournelle

[Alan]

possibly the finest novel of alien invasion ever written.

i was cheering for the last 100 pages.

[Mark]

entirely possible

me too

[David]

And a good depiction of an alien race as well. I hate non-entity entities. Cannon fodder with no reason for being other than as cannon fodder. In Footfall we have a real race with characters that interact with the humans. And that means that you have to have some sympathy for them when they finally (and uncomprehendingly, because they had already previously won and so can't understand why the war is still going on) lose at the end.

Always have to enjoy Niven.

[Banner]

No body does aliens bettern than Niven.

[Georg]

the first racing through falling and exploding rocks in the dumb fx-fest '2012' can only have been inspired by 'footfall'! it's exactly as i imagined the scene when reading the book. i love niven a lot.

[Jennifer]

where can you start? It is one of those books to keep on your shelf and read every 2 years or so. It's great!!

[David]

I think I would hate to see a Hollywood version of Footfall. To quote Georg, it would be a "dumb fx-fest." Shame really, but they haven't been able to produce a film with an original story, actual plot and realistic characters for some years now. So that would sort of exclude most of Niven's, and many other classic Science-Fiction writer's work.

[Michael]

The most interesting reason to stage an interstellar war yet: Because we lost a war. I love this book- genuinely alien but plausible aliens, good characters, good story and yes, I cheered for the last 100 pages too. Becoming a tiny bit dated now, but still well worth the read.

[Mark]

Anything by Niven is worth a read, but his biggies like Footfall should be compulsory reading - they are that good!

[Globalt38]

I loved (and yes cheered too) the launch of the space craft utilizing nuclear pulse drive from the west coast (Seattle?). Adapt and overcome! :)

[Philip]

Sorry to see no mention of Jerry Pournelle in this thread. Larry Niven tends to write the personalities and human bits, and Jerry provides the technology in these books, so I applaud Jerry Pournelle as one of the Sci-Fi greats in this book.

[Michael]

They actually launched from Bellingham, an hour and a half north of Seattle.

[Rob]

Totally agree. Niven and Pournelle manage to pull off some great books together. As for a film - You can see the pitch now, "Baby elephants? No, we can't have that. Can you jazz them up a bit, make'em more scary..." Hollywood - wouldn't know a great story if they ran over one.