Footfall

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews

Length: 24 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

©1986 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Nobody does it better than Niven and Pournelle. I loved it!” (Tom Clancy)

"Rousing – the best of the genre.” ( The New York Times Book Review)

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle at Their Best

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have written a lot of books together, but for me this is their best! Footfall is a story that takes place in the 1980s when a hostile alien spaceship visits the earth; where dominating U.S. and Russian governments distrust each other. Larry and Jerry give you insight to the inner workings of U.S. and Russian governments as they prepare for this first alien encounter and possible war with each other. They also give you insight to the Aliens plans and politics as they make their approach Earth. I find Footfall to be one of the more believable stories that concerns first Alien contact with earth and how the people of Earth would react. For those Larry Niven fans; Footfall is OLD Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelleat their VERY best.

The narration of Footfall by Macleod Andrews is great. I first listened to Macleod listening to Sandman Slim and later purchased The Lock Artist; just to hear Macleod again. I was happy to hear Macleod on this recording of Footfall.

Footfall is hard science fiction at its best.

A wonderful performance to an amazing story

Many might quickly dismiss this story because of the hokey premise of alien invading elephants. That would be short sighted; robbing one selves of an amazing delve into a “what if” in a realistic understanding of human nature. The science is realistic as well. The plot intertwines a variety of characters where Niven and Pournelle bring you inside their heads, including the aliens. To do it more so it would have to be written in first-person. Andrews’ gifted performance, true to the story, does an amazing job of bringing the characters to life. No spoiler here, the ending is captivating and leaving me wanting more.

Classic Fiction at its best

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I would recommend this audiobook to a friend and I have I enjoyed the characters, the plot and just dated feel of it. I know that's strange but I like being taken back to a different time period by reading old sci-fi like this, you can almost taste the polyester and hairspray. I also enjoyed the structure and the background of the aliens with their culture.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Footfall?

The falling of the foot.

What about MacLeod Andrews’s performance did you like?

it was good and easy to understand

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes.

Any additional comments?

Good sci-fi, Also loved Lucifers Hammer

poor reading

What did you like best about Footfall? What did you like least?

I've already read the book a couple times, and enjoy the story, especially the now-quaint US-Soviet interactions. There are some slow parts and non-essential characters.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of MacLeod Andrews?

I don't care who is cast as the narrator, but I was not satisfied with the production process that allowed MacLeod Andrews' mistakes to exist in the final version. His word mispronunciations indicate imperfect familiarity with the English language. "Bas-relief" (meaning "low relief"), has a silent "s" in the first syllable, but it becomes "bass relief" when he reads it. "Posthumous" (meaning "after death"), which is meant to be read as "post-humous," becomes "poss-thumous" in his reading. These are part of a pattern of incorrect pronunciations, misplaced accents, emphases on the wrong words of sentences, all of which distract from the story. This shoddy work speaks poorly for his ability and indicates that the producers neglected to assign a competent editor to "proof-listen" and catch these mistakes.On the other hand, I was pleased with his efforts in creating distinctive voices for the aliens and humans from different nations.

Did Footfall inspire you to do anything?

The narrator's mistakes were so annoying that it inspired me to write the first Audible review I've ever done. The length of the book inspired me to figure out the "2x forward" setting on the player, so it would be completed in less than 24 hours.

Any additional comments?

Author's mistake: Ukraine was not part of Russia, it was part of the USSR.

Putting your best foot forward. Lol

I would like to say that this is full of one thing after another. Stupid book kept me glued to my seat afraid I would miss a detail if I moved. 10 stars!

Old Classic

What made the experience of listening to Footfall the most enjoyable?

I loved this story when it 1st came out. It was one of the 1st SF books I reccomended to my son to read as a young adult and he also loved it.

A good story with interesting charactors......Harry Red Rules

Who was your favorite character and why?

Harry Red. Average guy that does good. Could be next door neighbor

Excellent Book, Superbly Read

The book itself is well-written and well thought out. Niven and Pournelle are a winning team, and I've never failed to enjoy one of their collaborations.

The narration is simply amazing. The alien names and words are difficult enough to read, but to actually pronounce... well my hat's off to Mr Andrews. Also the various voices and accents are nicely varied and consistent. Bravo!

old time sci fi

its great to listen to a book I have read a number of times. Hats off to the reader. The verbiage here is a real jawcracker.

Excellent performance!

The performer is excellent.

The story fades in perspective of time and advances in technologies.

A dialog - driven tale with a masterful narrator

This pair of collaborating authors writes long stories, driven by realistic and well-written dialog, and filled cheek to jowl with characters. Following the viewpoint and exploits of the "common man" is one of their hallmarks. Andrews is amazing, juggling narration and dozens of speaking, thinking characters with consistent voices and pronunciation, often flipping between a score of them in a chapter. Exemplary work.

Stylistically, the novel is well written. Some writers can write dialog and some can't, and these guys can do dialog. They are also fair with description, although they usually leave out the sense of place in favor of the reader's own imagination. Narratively, there are more than a few troubling areas, with odd decisions and unrealistic coincidences, but these are overall easy to overlook. The things left unsaid and unresolved will bother some readers, as well as sections of extraneous information and scenes that you expect to build to something and don't.

This is good, hard sci fi, with a Cold War backdrop. If you liked Lucifer's Hammer, you will love this.