Footfall
by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle · first published 1985
46% recommend54% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Large-scale alien invasion novel with a strong sense of spectacle, often cited as a favorite among readers of classic hard-leaning science fiction; suits fans of big-canvas disaster and military SF.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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.
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…launched the lightest person he knew into orbit, who happened to be his girl friend. I keep thinking this was a Larry Niven story, maybe someone here is familiar? Edit; another classic story was the novel Footfall by Niven and Pournelle which featured launching the USS Missouri into orbit on an Orion style pusher to battle the invading aliens.
on “Project Orion” ↗Also Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It even has a Robert Heinlein cameo.
on “Big Companies and the Military Are Paying Novelists to Write Sci-Fi for Them” ↗Agreed. His collaborations with Niven were great. Both were great authors alone, but as a team they were really something special. Footfall, A Mote in God's Eye, and Lucifer's Hammer are a few of my favorite sci-fi reads to this day.
on “Jerry Pournelle has died” ↗…Dune, Whipping Star Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 Bester: The Demolished Man, The Stars My Destination (also called "Tiger, Tiger") Niven: Ringworld Niven and Pournelle: The Mote in God's Eye, Footfall Gibson: Neuromancer Stephenson: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age Bear: The Forge of God, Eon Sagan: Contact van Vogt: The Voyage of the Space Beagle Lem: Solaris Atwood: The Handmaid's…
on “Beginnings of Science Fiction” ↗Larry Niven was awesome at apocalypses. The short story Inconstant Moon is one of the greats, plus he did a couple of thick novels on the theme with Pournelle -- Lucifer's Hammer and Footfall.
on “The Day the Moon Blew Up” ↗Some of my favorite SF is stuff he wrote with Larry Niven: Footfall, Inferno, Lucifer's Hammer, The Mote in God's Eye (and The Gripping Hand)
on “Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching” ↗Like other's have said; his collaborations with Niven are really great. Footfall, Lucifer's Hammer, and A Mote in God's Eye were my personal favorites.
on “Jerry Pournelle has died” ↗And Footfall by Niven and Pournelle. And the Galacti Milieu series by Julian May.
on “Was there a civilization on Earth before humans?” ↗Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote some great global disaster novels as well. Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer.
on “J.G. Ballard: My Favorite Books” ↗…cyberpunk, told from the point of view of characters who don't understand the tehcnology, which gives his work a kind of mystic vibe. (Eg, Nine-tail fox is about a detective trying to solve his own murder) Footfall (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle) - was a big release back in the day, but not so well known these days. Hard SF alien invasion novel (Independence Day might have ripped this off a bit) The NASA trilogy…
on “My favorite cult sci-fi and fantasy books you may not have heard of before” ↗See "Footfall" by Niven & Pournelle.
on “Delta-V: Designing the Asteroid Mining Ship 'Konstantin'” ↗Related: Footfall and Lucifers Hammer (Both by Niven and Pournelle)
on “Small asteroid to hit Earth's atmosphere today” ↗In the novel Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the government employs science fiction writers to help them understand the invading aliens and predict what they'll think and do.
on “Nike and Boeing Are Paying Sci-Fi Writers to Predict Their Futures” ↗Niven & Pournelle's Footfall also had an Orion-type ship. It was a desperation tactic on the part of the overmatched Earthlings, but it worked.
on “Flying with Machine Guns?” ↗…needed. Supposedly can be gentle enough for humans, see some of Jerry Pournelle's fiction and non-fiction for examples of this. Or, if you're in a hurry, there's always Orion (see Niven and Pournelle's Footfall): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_(nuclear_propuls...
on “Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented–and worth taking seriously” ↗