Footfall

Footfall is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the Solar System from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft driven by a Bussard ramjet. Their intent is conquest of the planet Earth.

Footfall is a 1985 science fiction novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the Solar System from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft driven by a Bussard ramjet. Their intent is conquest of the planet Earth. ==Timeline== c. 1915: The Chtaptisk Fithp ("Traveler Herd") leave Alpha Centauri for Earth on their spacecraft, the Thuktun Flishithy ("Message Bearer"). c. 1919: The sleepers go into their death-sleep. September 1976: Thuktun Flishithy swings around the Sun, maneuvering towards Saturn. November 1976: Thuktun Flishithy reaches Saturn. June 1980: Thuktun Flishithy has been resupplied. June 1981: The Fithp have established themselves on the Foot, an asteroid colony. April 1985: The Thuktun Flishithy begins its journey towards the Earth. May 1985: Human astronomers in Hawaii realize that there is an alien ship on a trajectory towards the Earth. June 1985: The initial attack of the Fithp. Kinetic weapons wreak havoc on the Earth, and satellites are shot down. The Soviet space station Kosmograd is destroyed and its surviving passengers captured. July 1985: The Fithp launch an invasion of Kansas. Shortly thereafter the Jayhawk Wars begin, a conventional attack against Fithp forces that is rapidly destroyed using space support. About two weeks later, the Americans and Soviets co-operate in a combined nuclear retaliation that defeats the Fithp forces and wrecks much of Kansas in the process. August 1985: Footfall. The Fithp drop the Foot into the Indian Ocean. Tsunamis devastate surrounding landmasses, and the entire globe is enveloped in an endless salty rainstorm. India is practically destroyed, and the Fithp successfully invade much of Africa. July 1986: The flight of the Michael, ending with the formal surrender of the Chtaptisk Fithp to Wes Dawson. ==Reception== Kirkus Reviews commented, "Overblown and largely underdone." It judged the novel to be "more tedious and less thoughtful" than previous joint Niven–Pournelle works, with "barely relevant" subplots and a "cumbersome cast of thousands" but praising the Fithp society as "particularly well worked-out." Dave Langford reviewed Footfall for White Dwarf #71, and stated that "Their flaws are blockbuster flaws: momentum takes 100 pages to build, several of the teeming characters are dispensable, and megadeaths are glossed over. [...] All the same, I read most of it twice and ran out of adrenalin." James Nicoll found it to have "the mediocrity and tedium of a much longer novel," with a weak characterization and a scientifically-inaccurate portrayal of the effects of the asteroid's impact, but conceded that it was better than most other works in its subgenre and commended Niven for his portrayal of the Fithp. Footfall was nominated for the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and was a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller. ==See also== Lucifer's Hammer, another Pournelle-Niven novel with an apocalyptic kinetic strike by an extraterrestrial bolide. ==References== ==External links== An artistic rendering of the Michael

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