Footfall

by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

mass market paperback, 608 pages

English language

Published April 11, 1986 by Del Rey.

ISBN:: 978-0-345-32344-6

(30 reviews)

They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star.

The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods.

Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender--or death for all humans.

7 editions

BobQuasit reviewed Footfall by Larry Niven

Footfall: A solid, workmanlike alien-invasion & disaster novel

4 stars

A large and well-written novel about an alien invasion and planetary catastrophe. Not top-notch Niven, and his tendency to use confusing polysyllabic alien names gets to be a bit much (as it often does in his work), but it's an exciting and interesting book with sympathetic characters and a well-handled plot.

It does end rather abruptly, though. I liked it better after the third or fourth re-reading.