Niven and Pournelle's Footfall

zoomar

Just read this book again after a 20 year hiatus and couldn't help noticing how derivative a lot of Turtledove's World War series seems to be of this book - some in a good way and some in a bad way. Although written in the early 1980's as a slight future history of an alien invasion sometime near the turn of the century it can be read as altenate history today because the USSR is still around and has obviosusly been quite successful - both in expanding military influence in the world and in space exploration - and the competition between the USA and USSR when faced by alien invasion reads like some of the WW2 stuff in world war I was amazed by the similarities between the Race in WW and the Snouts in Footfall. Both are arrogant, clueless, and obviosuly not really as smart or clever as humans. Both are confounded by humans and do not understand how to deal with us. Both are only slightly more advanced technologically than humans, and can be hurt by our weapons. And Niven and Pournelle hit us with almost as many PoV's as Turtledive does.

Any thoughts?
 

Prunesquallor

I know I read the book- and that's about the only thing I can remember about it. That's the most damning thing I can say about the Pournelle/Niven collabs. I think I blame Pournelle for this- the air of smug certainty, third rate Heinleinism I seem to recall, reminds me much more of earlier Pournelle than Niven
 

zoomar

Well, you're no help :p

But you are probably right about how good it is. They even combine an alien invasion AND a "dinosaur killing" asteroid strike in one book and its still boring!
 

Wombat

The most damning thing I can say about their collaborations is that Tom Clancy admires them (IIRC he has also recommended at least one).
 

Marius

This was the biggest load of rubbish I have ever had the misfortune of attempting to read. Boring, slow-paced, derivative, and their scenes set in South Africa showed that the only research that had been done was probably reading "The Big Boy's Book of Foreign Countries". AVOID, AVOID, AVOID, AVOID.

P. S.
Do not attempt to read this book under any circumstances, it will be harmful to anyone who has the intellectual capacity greater than that of a piece of bellybutton lint.
 

The Lurker

I thought it was mediocre.... and yeah I do see a major resemblance between it and the Worldwar books... the sort of "yeah adaptable humans will always out-innovate their more powerful foes" syndrome..
 

anzac 15

just goes to show that you can never please eveyone.The book itself was pretty cool for it's time,and last time i read it I still enjoyed it.Granted 'wrath of god' tidalwaves might not be politically correct at the moment,but I still think it's a good book.
 

Prunesquallor

Looking back on it, I seem to remember the most prominent features were the staggering self importance of the authors and the unwillingness even to grant basic intelligence to people on the other side. At the risk of stepping on toes, I'd suggest it's a common feature in US SF, an inheritance perhaps from the magazine tradition. By contrast, for example, think of the spokesmen for dystopian regimes in British sf. Ostrog in WHEN THE SLEEPER AWAKES, Mustapha Mond in BRAVE NEW WORLD, O'Brien in 1984, are all far more articulate and intelligent than the heroes. In fact I'd find it difficult to reply to Mond's case.
 

Dave Howery

hmm... read it years ago. I didn't think it was the greatest book of all time, but I didn't think it was that much of a stinker either. IIRC, one big difference between the aliens in FF and the Race was that the former inherited their tech from some other alien species that disappeared. The Race made all their own stuff...
 

Chris

Banned
Good points: Good tech, good use of said tech, interesting plot.

Bad points: Dumb aliens, no devloment of USSR thread, hardly any South Arfica thread.

They could have dropped the sci-fi writers thread almost completly without missing a beat. Its a nifty idea to have sci-fi writers as advisors, but going on and on about CONS and so forth is just annoying.

They should have expanded the US/europe/etc thread, which they could have done without difficulty. I'd have been delighted to know what was happening in the EU. Or what about mexico?

Chris

ps, anyone want to read my alien invasion novel?

C
 
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