FOOTFALL

What is a Footfall? Would you believe that it's an asteroid pulled by a spaceship and then dropped on a planet! It's the ultimate "dinosaur killer" heaved at Earth by elephant-like creatures with tentacled multiple trunks, four clawed feet, and a tail. They are the Fithp! They have traveled eighty years from Alpha Centauri to get here, and they mean to stay. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote this entertaining space invasion novel in 1985, and it remains a classic sci-fi novel.

The Fithp's spaceship, Thuktun Flishithy (Message Bearer), is spotted by U.S. astronomers in Hawaii. The ship is seen moving through the rings of Saturn and heading for Earth. The Americans, led by Congressman Wes Dawson, take the position that the invaders are friendly, while the Russians, of course, assume they are hostile. All communications from Earth to the invaders goes unanswered; therefore, the U.S. and Russia decide to meet the Fithp in Earth's orbit aboard the Russian Space Station, Kosmograd. The delegation of Russian, American, Nigerian, and French personnel await the meeting totally unarmed!

Message Bearer finally arrives and destroys Kosmograd and captures or kills all aboard. From here on, we have two groups of Earthlings: the Captives and the Earth humans. The Fithp proceed to destroy all dams, major installations, bridges, and highways via laser cannons, dropped rocks, or strikes from their Digit ships. They land a herd of Fithps in Kansas, the U.S. food belt, with the thought that the Earth people will passively surrender. By the way, The Fithp's odd idea of surrendering is to lay on your back, feet and hand up, while one of the Fithp places his foot on your chest! Too much pressure and you are dead.

After the U.S. military in Kansas is destroyed, the Americans and Russians decide to nuke the Kansas Fithp herd, which surprises the invaders, since radiating your own area is unconscionable to their way of life. The Fithp strike back by dropping Footfall in the Indian Ocean, destroying India, and causing a constant salt-water rain. All of this happens early, so I'm not giving away any spoilers.

As the novel develops, we find that the Fithp are not as smart as we thought. If you had a mile long spaceship, would most of it contain a giant mud room in which to bathe? Do the aliens have a mating season? We find that the Fithp were pets to the Predecessors of their home planet eons ago. The herd evolved after the Predecessors damaged their environment and became extinct. They left the herd all their knowledge on stone cubes, somewhat like Moses. From here the story takes off, ending in victory, or defeat for the Elephantine herd? This will be determined 485 pages later in this wonderful tale.

If you noticed, I only mentioned one character in the book, Wes Dawson; that's because there are so many important characters. The good news is the book has a dramatis personae in the front of the novel. You will meet the Discoverers, the Washington and Soviet people, Survivors, Jayhawks, and the entire Fithp herd. This is a 26 year old novel that is better than most current sci-fi books that I've read.

RATING: 4 out of 5 stars

Comment: Larry Niven has been nominated many times for Hugo and Locus awards, winning the Hugo award for his famous Ringworld in 1970. He later wrote seven more Ringworld novels, the first of which begins in the year 2850! Mr. Niven was an adviser to Ronald Reagan's famous S.D.I. anti-missile system. This pair of authors also wrote the classic novel Lucifer's Hammer in 1977.