Footfall

Item received promptly and in excellant condition. I read this book in paperback several years ago and it is my favorite "alien invasion" book. Niven and Pournelle are masters of the genre, and I am overwhelmed to at last have this in my collection. I will certainly look forward to what other treasures this dealer has to offer.

I loved this book, read it quite a while ago. My library did not have a copy so I purchsed this paperback so I could reread it. The copy you receive from the store has such tiny print and it is so lightly printed that it is virtually unreadable. I am very dissapointed in what I received, not in the book itself...

I tried to like it, but it just did not do it for me. I read it after enjoying Lucifer's Hammer. I was hoping for the same quality, but it was not any where close.

Most of the reviews cover my feelings. The biggest problem I had was the body type of the Invaders. The people that read it know what I am saying.

It's best to stay away from this one. I really feel bad saying that after loving Lucifer's Hammer, but it is what it is!

This has to be one of the worst books I have every read. I was looking for a good alien invasion book that told of the struggle between humans and aliens. Instead, I got this book and read about small elephants with ridiculous names. So much time was spent just rambling about the clothes someone wore, or how they felt about a character that just didn't even matter to the story that I fell asleep reading this book more times than I could count. Once I made it half way through the book I made myself finish it in hopes that it would turn around and become exciting, but instead, it just got more and more ridiculous. I finally finished it after 4 months of struggling to stay interested in it, and I now realize I wasted 4 months on a book that ended with a fizzle and not even remotely close to a bang.

I tried to rationalize the fact that the book is old and was originally published in 1980, but the lack of common sense on the part of the writers is one of the main things that annoyed me. Nuclear missiles were dropped on Kansas, and the only thing bad that happened was food couldn't be grown there. A few days later a giant meteor was dropped in the India Ocean, and yes, it caused wide spread flooding, but the only thing worse was that it rained for a week straight. Not flash boiling of the sea water, not devastation or nuclear fallout. No thought was put into the writing of this book. Save yourself some time and money and find a different book to read.

One of the best invasion novels around! Niven and Pournelle describe just about one of the few feasible invasion scenarios - an STL generation ship armed for colonization. Dropping a kinetic energy weapon - an asteroid on the Earth - far from food-producing regions (which they will need) is a natural part of any planetary conquest strategy, and our response (which is quite thrilling - no spoilers) is technically possible with Apollo-era technology. One reviewer said "You cant pronounce their names and space jargon". This book is a little above the "I read to myself out loud" level. Niven and Pournelle are masters of hard science fiction, and their technology is deeply rooted in the possible. Much of the alien's technology has been postulated by NASA (like ground-based launching lasers), controlled fusion, etc. We simply have not gotten there yet. And yes, humans CAN survive for minutes in vacuum (although they won't enjoy it).

I don't read much science fiction, so maybe I'm missing something. But this book has such a GIGANTIC void that it ends up being a huge letdown.

There are so many characters and their threads, both human and alien, that it becomes dizzying. Some of the characters are really well done, and some are just one-dimensional caricatures. But...in the it it JUST DOESN'T MATTER because the book just CUTS OFF. Spoiler alert: For hundreds of pages, the book follows dozens of characters as the Earth is invaded by hostile aliens. Then comes the climactic battle in space. The aliens finally realize their cause is hopeless, and they surrender. BOOM! End of story. That's it.

These dozens of characters the reader spends hours getting to know and even care about. But at the conclusion, we have no idea what becomes of them. It's as if they didn't even really exist. I know these authors are award winners, but Novel Writing 101 teaches the need for falling action (denouement) when the loose threads are tied up. These authors just ignored it. They probably ran up against a publishing deadline and just decided to skip the last chapter.

This book about Earth dealing with the invasion of an alien species was well done in many ways. From the nature of the aliens to the forms of attack they used, the authors demonstrate fine creativity. However, their execution left more to be desired. Sometimes, the attempt to depict the "alien-ness" of the invaders made for very slow reading. They must be given points for recognizing that a race from another star could be very different from humans but readibility was sacrificed by their approach. Also, the aliens had a comic nature to them that strained belief and implied a connection to earth that was never explored. The book drives toward an ending that, while satisfying to a degree, was not complete. Many things were left unresolved. This was a book that demanded an epilog to tie up the loose ends.

This is a frustrating novel. There is sooooooooooo much good stuff in here, and yet they blow it at every turn. We meet aliens who are pretty truely alien, and much drama revolves around them simply not thinking like us. Exploration of little things like how they design machinery, or view weapons is fascinating because the aliens don't have opposable thumbs. They can build guns, but they barely understand how to throw stuff. This is really neat. The Alien's way of softening up earth for invasion is cool. The alien's confusion as to how we fight is pretty awesome. Contrary to what Brian A. Clark of Texas said in his review, the Nuclear Pulse Rocket that turns up in the climax of the book is both plausible, and super-cool. As I say, there's lots here to love.

And they pretty much ignore it.

The neat stuff is completely overwhelmed by tedium. Think tanks debate the best way to fight. Ludicrous connections take place between characters simply to move the plot along. We get involved in a lengthy political discussion about whether or not pornography is good for people or bad. There's a weird rivalry between Texans and Kansans. We're expected to believe that an American military officer from Georgia speaks Bantu because his slave ancestors came from there, and secretly kept the language alive for like 200 years. There's a "Robert Anson" character on the think tank who's a stand in for "Robert Anson Heinlein," because the think tank thinks they need an SF author on the board. He's every bit as annoying and tedious as the real Heinlein of this period was. (He was friends with the authors, though).

Basically this book has soooooooooooooo many neat ideas in it, and yet it manages to put them together in such a way that the end result is less than the sum of its parts. How the heck is that possible?

Oh! And the ending! There isn't one! It just stops. The humans are on the edge of defeating the aliens, and then - bang - they stop, and the aliens stop fighting, and everyone agrees they need each other, and they're going to work together from here on out. All that's missing is a group hug. (There is actually some group hugging in this book with aliens). And then, presumably, the "Robert Anson" character would attempt to have sex with one of the aliens.

Seriously: even people who love this book admit to the total anticlimax of an ending, and a complete absence of any denouement. It just stops. It's as if the authors said "Oh? We hit 455 pages? That's the minimume the publisher requested, so let's go home."

I actually made it to 76% before I gave up. Dont care how it ends or what happens to anyone. The book starts off slow, building up to the aliens coming and when they get here, the aliens are... (wont spoil it) but seriously? It was at that point I couldn't decide if the book is meant to be a cartoon. Except most of the women are so shallow all theyre good for is sex. The science is ridiculous, people survive the vacuum of space unprotected for minutes, the aliens and humans learn each others language in days and if you knew what the aliens sound like you're just like ya right! Everything about the aliens is nonsensical and you read on not lnowing what anything means till way later in the book. You cant pronounce their names and space jargon. Then after a dinosaur killing asteroid slams into the earth, people are flying around in helicopters a few weeks later, going to bars, a credit card still works, theres greenhouses up everywhere and they must have some serious miracle grow because food is already growing. All those chapters felt like they should've gone in before the asteroid hit but apparently that dinosaur killer was no big deal except along the coasts and hell theres blue skies now after a month and no real damage to our badass food growers and heroes. I had to give up this ridiculous thing. I still cant decide if it was written supposed to be a comedy! But its stupid.

'Footfall' is a realistic and plausible alien invasion story set in the mid 1990's (as foreseen from the early 80's)

The novel starts out very similarly to 'Lucifer's Hammer' another Niven/Pournelle novel- a menacing object is moving towards the earth (a comet in 'Lucifer's Hammer', an alien spaceship in 'Footfall') and we meet a large cast of characters before the object reaches the earth.
The war was realistically portrayed, the humans fighting with contemporary weapons (no wonder weapons here), but the aliens aren't overwhelmingly powerful, they can be defeated militarily (no viruses, computer or biological, here either). The aliens have the advantage of controlling space, but are vastly outnumbered on the ground, and are a long way from home, meaning if anything happens to the mother ship they'd be hooped.
Apart from scientific realism, I also thought the motivations, culture and background of the aliens were well done (although a glossary of alien terms would have been nice). The internal conflict of the aliens between the space-born and the sleepers I thought was interesting and logical- someone who has spent there whole life on a spaceship might not be too keen to live on a planet, let alone die on one fighting a war. The culture of the aliens was well done, even to the point of making the aliens quite sympathetic in a way.
As some have noted the ending is quite abrupt, I would have preferred a longer coda. The other complaint I have, is that there were too many unnecessary characters.

Wow. I am a lifelong fan of Sci-fi and remember reading Lucifer's Hammer as a teen at breakneck speed, one of my all-time favs. So I was looking forward to reading this classic alien invasion tome I somehow missed as a kid. Well, maybe my tastes have changed but this was one tough slog. My biggest problem was the bloated cast of characters who were given reams of dialogue that did little to either advance the plot or make those characters engaging. Very stilted dialogue to say the least. And that last battle scene (small spoiler alert) was not rendered in a way that I could really follow the action or understand why the victor prevailed. A big disappointment.

This was written in a style I was not used to, and the book tops out at 581 pages in my old 1985 copy. And believe me--that is not due to huge print and double spacing. There's sort of a dated feel because of historical changes, like the fall of the USSR, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the absolute failure of the US and its space program to really accomplish anything of real import. The story was pretty engaging after I sort of "cataloged" all the characters. It almost starts out like Knott's Landing or some TV soap--it has that flavor. The pace, though, really picks up, and I could not put the book down for the last quarter. I think I was up until 3AM to finish it. This was an interesting story which does not abandon its characters quickly--we get real follow-through and closure for all of them. The romantic elements were kind of cheesey, but hey--it was 1985. You can really get a feel for that era. For those who liked A-Team and Battle Star Galactica, this is probably worth reading--and be sure to dedicate a big enough time slot for it. You won't blow through it in a few days. I really liked how they fully developed a view of both human culture and the strange alien culture, and the insuing conflict.

There is much good to be said about this work. First off, this is the only space invasion novel I know of that develops the aliens beyond evil little green men blowing up stuff. Niven and Pournelle create a fairly comprehensive and logical alien culture. They delve into their language, religion, war fighting, even breeding habits. Not only that, they manage to make you sympathize with the bad guys to some extent. Another nice aspect is the hard science approach. The alien equipment and its operation are rooted in fairly well established theory.

I couldnt give this book a 5 star rating though for most of the same reasons Aaron Lohr noted previously. To some extent I can rationalize the humans' rampant sexual habits as a way to contrast human habits with the alien seasonal breeding patterns. Its true, almost every human (married or otherwise) has at least one sexual liason. And it gets really distracting! Also, the sci-fi writer threat team is a pretty ridiculous touch of hubris. One point Aaron Lohr didnt touch on is all but two of the military characters are portrayed as being irrationally brave and/or unbelievably stupid. Ive met quite a few generals in my life and they dont act like the flag rank retards in this novel! Finally the last scene involving the US President is just flat out wrong. Wouldnt happen that way.

The blemishes in Footfall are numerous. But the good in the story outshines the problems.

I read this book because I'm getting back into sci-fi as an adult, after deserting it after junior high school. This book certainly had some flaws or strange holes in the plot. Among them:

-The Fithp language. As a previous reviewer wrote, all the unpronouceable by human voiceboxes Fithp words got tiresome.

-The "Hairy Red" character was certainly over the top, and probably useless. Let's see, a minstrel/biker befriends his Congressman....somewhat plausible. He then enters a top secret military base, becomes gopher to a General, a spacecraft welder, and then-hey!, let's send him into space!-not bloody likely.

-The impact of asteroid strikes on Earth. Transportation infrastructures have been decimated, months of cool rain follow after Footfall, Kansas is a radioactive wasteland, yet the book does little to convey anarchy, starvation, or splintering nations. Major Crichton frets the economy will disappear in a couple lines of text and the authors mention gas rationing, power shortages and the glories of greenhouses, but it seems life continues in a remarkably normal manner, considering what's happening.

-Project Archangel. In response to the Fithp attacks, the United States builds a fission pulse spacecraft (shades of Project Orion) to do battle with the Fithp. Just one. Granted, a larger project would have probably brought down a rain of meteors, but a species that can use asteroids to conceivably end life on Earth as we know it is brought to surrender by one space battleship? Sure. And I suppose one aircraft carrier would have won WW2 in the Pacific. I'm not an armchair general, but the Earth victory seemed a bit implausible.

But I still don't regret reading the book. There were no transporter beams, no hyperspace drives, no death rays above laser beams. Earth fought back with present day technology. The book made me wonder, "What would we do if aliens attacked?" The action does pick up towards the middle. I would recommend this book, even if it is plodding and cluttered in the beginning.

Not much to add that hasn't been said previuosly, but I'll try to add a new perspective.

Unlike Mote and Lucifer's Hammer, which pack most of the action in the middle section of the book and talk out their solutions to the end, Footfall continues the action throughtout...its outcome in doubt right up to the last paragraph.

Agree with previous reviewers:

The aliens are more real than the human characters and the attempt to portray sexual tension between the principal humans is not believable.

There is scarce description about what daily life is like in the world during 10 months of Fifthp occupation.

There are some credibility-stretching plot devices (like when L.A. residents Harry Red and Jeri Wilson encounter each other on a deserted Kansas highway; and Harry Red ending up on the Michael spaceship).

We meet characters who don't reappear for hundreds of pages.

Disagree with previous reviewers:

The first 200 pages set the scene and are necessary to the book.

The book is 581 pages. If that is too long for you I suggest The Hardy Boys stories.

The politics in the book may turn off some readers as some liberal sacred cows are skewered, but most fans of SF should enjoy this book. I rate Footfall below Lucifer's Hammer and The Mote In God's Eye, but not by much.

Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series was an alternate-history alien invasion: what if aliens invaded the Earth during the middle of WWII? Looking at Niven and Pournelle's Footfall from the year 2002, we can view it as another alternate history. What if the Communist Bloc didn't collapse at the end of the 80's, the Cold War continued for another decade or so, and then the aliens invaded?
Okay, so alien invasions are old hat. Niven and Pournelle knew this, and acknowledged it in the dedications. Now that that's out of the way, what we really have is a story about the Cold War and how people viewed the threat of rival superpowers and nuclear destruction during the Eighties.
Pournelle's years of research into military technology and Soviet ideology show through everywhere in the book. The Russians as "aliens" are just as fascinating and well thought out as the invaders from Alpha Centauri. The aliens invade Earth with almost the same technology that we have, but with one major advantage: control of space. As many Cold War military theorists argued, once you dominate space, the planet is at your mercy. And the invading aliens pull no punches with this.
The devastation visited on the United States (and incidentally the rest of the world, although not much is shown of this) is similar to what would be suffered in a nuclear war. And the characters in the book react similarly to how people in the 80's expected to react to nuclear war. You have your survivalists in their bunker, your National Guard doing their best to defend the nation, your opportunists looking to make their fortunes from other people's misery, and your government nearly overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation. And of course your ordinary people just trying to live their lives amidst the devastation.
Having mentioned Turtledove's Worldwar series at the beginning of this review, I'd like to say that the aliens' strategy and use of weapons are much more realistic in this book than what Turtledove portrayed in his series. If you want to neutralize a planet-bound opponent and take over their world, meteors will do the job a lot better than nukes.
For a near-future novel written almost two decades ago, this holds up surprisingly well, especially as a retrospective look at Cold War attitudes.

In my never ending search for a good book to suck me into a good tale, I thought I would take a stab at alien invasion. I did my search on the store and "Footfall" was the one I picked. It's tough to make a call on this one. The books jumps all over the place with a bunch of different characters (including the "herdmaster" lol)in the beginning. It was tough to keep up with initially and took awhile to capture my attention. As other reviews have stated, it doesn't really take off until the aliens invade. Their names and language can be tedious to keep up with but if you hang in there, you catch on. The authors really take an interesting spin on the alien social structure. There is a lot of time spent on examining the difference in our two cultures. While their race is more advanced technologically, we appear to be more advanced socially. Interesting concept. They appear to have had help from a previous race that is now extinct on their planet.

This one will make you think. There are "hokey" moments to be sure. Very interesting characters like Harry Red - an overweight, beer guzzling biker who likes to play and sing in bars for his drinks, becomes an unlikely hero. There is a lot of time spent on some characters that just seem to fall out of the story as if forgotten.

There is nice build up to the ending. I found myself really glued to the pages towards the end and could not put the book down. Naturally that would be when the humans fight back.

I give a book I can't put down 5 stars. This one is a 4. It was slow in the beginning and at points in the middle but if you like this genre, the invasion itself and our battle back for our planet are worth your time. Enjoy!

The story is a little dated, written back in 1985. I found that the writing and characterization was pretty good. I love the alien psychology aspect and felt the authors did a good job explaining and incorporating that into the story.

The pacing seemed okay and I liked the climax though I felt the authors finished the story a few pages too soon and the ending was a bit too abrupt.

The quick synopsis would be that aliens that look like baby elephants invade Earth. There is a socio-political aspect in the book with the USA vs Russia motiff and felt the authors captured that fairly well.

If I had read this book back in 1985 i'm sure i'd give it 4 or 5 stars. But compared to other more recent stuff out there, I had to downgrade it to 3 or 3.5 stars (but the store doesn't allow half star ratings). It is an enjoyable story that holds up fairly well despite being dated, but it is not better than the more recent stuff by John Ringo, David Weber, or Peter F. Halmiton

Anyways, overall, decent book, not bad, enjoy.

They don't write `em like this anymore! Admittedly, some would say with good reason.... but it brought back memories of all the fat paperbacks I sat up nights reading in the 80s. Cold War... teletypes... cassette tapes... Betamax machines... the Space Shuttle Challenger plays a key role in the final battle scene. I thought this book was a real hoot, like The War of the Worlds written by Tom Clancy. (My copy had a blurb from Clancy on the cover!)

OK, OK, it *is* almost impossible to keep track of the hundreds of characters (there is a list inside the front of the book - always a sure sign of trouble)... there are plot holes you could drive a truck through... the aliens, well, to be honest most of the characters are not particularly believable, ESPECIALLY THE WOMEN!.... the science is somewhat laughable nowadays... and the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.

Niven and Pournell have to be the greatest writing team in science fiction,
and this is another of their winners. At first glance it's just another
alien invasion story. But the aliens have no backup and the Earth fights
back. Some of the best parts of the book are the description of the alien
families going through the pounding their enormous starship is receiving
from the ground. Hard science fiction with real physics and a well
developed alien culture. Some of the main characters in the book are the
aliens, who are not evil conquerors but refuges from a war they lost
looking for a home. But in their culture there is a dominant and a
submissive power, and they don't intend to be submissive. I highly
recommend this book for anyone who is interested in a depiction of realistic
space war.

"Footfall" harkens back to the Science Fiction of the 1950's, with the President and the U.S. military dealing with godless Communists and equally godless aliens. A moving dot is discovered on astronomical plates and the evidence is clear: it is a spaceship from another galaxy far, far away. Attempts to contact the aliens are unsuccessful but as soon as they arrive at Earth their intentions become clear: they destroy the Soviet space station, the moon base and then every dam and major installation on the planet by raining down asteroids. To add insult to injury, when the aliens begin landing troops in Kansas, they look for all the world like elephants with trunks performing the function of hands. Now it is up to President of the United States David Coffey, Congressman Wesley T. Dawson of California, USAF astronaut Major General Edmund Gillespie and his sister-in-law Jeanette Crichton, the Director fo the Lenin Institute Academician Pavel Aleksandrovich Bondarev, the unemployed minstrel Harry Reddington, the captured alien Harpanet and several dozen other characters to save the Earth from the alien threat.
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle have provided a good old-fashioned "pulp" story, where you go along for the ride. My only substantive complaint is that the Snouts, as the aliens are called for obvious reasons, have a convenient Achilles heel (or two) that allows Earth to have a fighting chance against a technologically superior enemy that REALLY controls the high ground. My favorite part is President relying on a group of Science Fiction writers for advice on how to deal with these strange visitors from another planet, which at least avoids the stereotype of the stupid military advisers just wanting to use nukes at the first opportunity. The "science" in "Footfall" is enough to fuel the story without becoming oppressive; the first time I read this novel I remember thinking it was just an excuse to find a story where launching an Orion was a plausible plot device. "Footfall" is not epic science fiction; it is just a fun read that takes us make to those thrilling days of yesteryear when BEM ruled.

Niven and Pournelle are brilliant writers and dreamers. They can write so vividly about alien culture, language and technologies that you'll be nearly convinced they're real. If only they could write human characters the same way.

I've read a lot of reviews and I havn't seen anyone else mention how shallow and one-dimensional the humans are in this book. It might be just me. But the people in this book are driven first by their sex drive and second by their sex drive. Now this book doesn't have any explicit descriptions or anything like that, but the people are rock stupid. For example, Russians are on an alien ship as captives. They learn more captives are brought on board, including a few women. The first and knee jerk response of the Russians is to say "Women!!!""It's been such a long time!" Are you kidding me?? And here's paraphrased dialogue: Jeri and the others were placed in a cell with three Russians. She was scared in her new alien surroundings. She saw the Russians and her eyes were drawn to one in particular. He was looking at her and she couldn't look away. He was strong and she hoped that they would get to know each other a lot better and hopefully have sex.

Ok it wasn't exactly like that, but I swear the effect is the same. It's like the authors knew sex would draw readers but had no clue about how to put it in. It's super clunky and unbelievable. Every notable character in this book except for one or two people is having sex with people they just meet. Nearly every married person has an affair. I'm serious. It's weird.

The aliens are great, even if they look like baby elephants. The ending could have been great but it all of the sudden stopped. I thought maybe I had a few pages missing in my copy it was so abrupt.

And get this, you know who advises the president on what to do? Science fiction writers. I know that they would have some good ideas, but you know what: Everything they say is right and they save the planet. A little inflating of the ego ...

Anyway, it's an ok book, well thought out with a lot of imagination. The parts that were annoying I just could not get past. I hope you fare better.

I read this when it first came and loved it. The entire premise of the alien invasion is so well thought out, and laid out, that for a fellow writer like me it's really a textbook on how to write! Do yourself a favor and read this.

Pournelle (for I believe it is he who did the work) has come up with a reasonably interesting SF book here. Excitement level is all right. Portrayal of aliens is moderately alien, though not up to the standards of the best alien-creators in SF. Originality of theme is limited, but originality of type of alien invasion is well done.
Probably the most interesting aspect is the way the aliens' internal politics take precedence over practicality, which is quite credible given that our own species lets internal politics take precedence over practicality all the time (thus we could imagine that other species would as well).
The worst aspect of the plot--and it's one that seems to be going around in SF these days--is the notion that somehow SF authors will make a significant contribution to the outcome of a human/alien confrontation. To me, that seems almost self-gratifying (and I'd use a stronger word if I thought I could get by with it), pure fantasy on the part of SF authors. This weakens a decent SF book that was doing just fine without that particular plot twist.

There are novels, like movies, that fall under the category of artistic with details to the time period or are philosophical, and then there are those that are fun (and sometimes a rare few that are both). This book falls generally under the category of fun. The beginning starts out very similar to the movie "Independence Day" (which may have taken their ideas from it), but does diverge later. A drawback to the novel, which others have noted, are that the aliens are similar to baby elephants which unfortunately is somewhat corny. However, since we have not met any intelligent extraterrestrial life, or any extraterrestrial life (or none that the general populace is aware of), actual aliens may turn out to be any shape, so what the heck, maybe like baby elephants. Actually the elephant theme of the aliens is relevant to their attitudes and actions and Niven and Pournelle are consistent to that throughout the novel. You've probably seen the alien on the cover of the book holding a mirror to observe humans around a corner. What the `trunk' and branching tentacles allow is dexterity and tool usage for them. An opposable thumb on humans allowed for their (I mean our) dexterity and tool usage and led to human dominance over the planet so it makes sense that an alien being would require somewhat of the same. The ritualistic placing of a foot on an enemy to convert them to their side is a cultural issue and as the humans do not abide by this, there's a hint of questioning this automatic cultural procedure. One can imagine this occurring when two disparate cultures meet and end up questioning aspects of their own lives they may never have considered before. So once you get past the elephantine shape of the aliens, the novel is consistent to their culture and they're easier to appreciate.

However.... I can't help but feel the novel is also political allegory to the Soviet Union and the more I think of it, the more it seems so. I don't mean the Soviet Union of the time of when the book was written in 1985, or even of when the setting is supposed to be (best I can estimate is about 1993; it's listed as `more than a dozen years' past 1980), but I mean the Soviet Union of 1945. The axes powers of Germany, Japan, and Italy have just been defeated and the fellow Allied power (the enemy of my enemy is my friend) of the Soviet Union now aggressively occupies central Europe. If I recall, it was disclosed that after the defeat of Japan there were two atomic bombs left over from the Manhattan Project. There was a debate at the time for the US to continue onward and push the Russians out of central Europe which they were obviously not going to withdraw from and allow democratic states to form and an "Iron Curtain" as Winston Churchill had put it was going to be metaphorically erected. This is the one time until the eventual fall of the Soviet Union, that the Russians were possibly most vulnerable, before the Rosenthals and other spies helped the Russians advance their nuclear weapons programs. Granted two nuclear bombs used against the Soviets would not have been sufficient, however if secrecy could have prevailed and the Soviets didn't know that the US only had two nuclear bombs, could they have been made to withdraw from central Europe or even more. (For instance if Japan *knew* the US had only 4 atomic bombs and delayed until 4 major cities were nuked, would they still have been powerful enough militarily to cause catastrophic Pacific Allied casualties and force a conditional, rather than unconditional, surrender). In the novel there's a point where the Earth has a fighting chance against the aliens, and has an opportunity, but a fleeting now-or-never opportunity, to cause the aliens immense damage. However, there's a significant item (a scientific invention) that's potentially at stake. So what's the price? Here the aliens have done catastrophic damage to the planet, have killed countless numbers of people, but are not bad guys once you get to know them, and possibly an uneasy peace can be maintained, but if not honored by them they again have the upper hand and can subjugate the planet OR do you force them into unconditional surrender, lose this item at stake, but the threat of alien dominance is over and done with completely and life and rebuilding go onward unencumbered. So instead of a scientific invention it's the cities of Moscow and then-called Leningrad that are nuked, two `feet' placed on the Russian Soviet Union, but the advantage is the victory over the Russian empire and the prevention of 20 million deaths and untold misery to occupied central Europe let alone what the Soviets did to the Russian people themselves. In the book the decision making at the critical moment is brought out and the result that will set the course of history for all time, and this background makes it a bit more meaningful to consider over just the top level decision or victory, defeat, or conditional surrender.

Though this book is a little dated by its mention of the Soviet Union, it is still a worthy Scifi classic.

The strength of this book lies with the authors' abilities to convey the beliefs and desires of a very alien society, but in a believable way. In addition, the aliens are not supremely powerful , and therefore, a drawnout fight against invasion is believable.

The characters are nicely done, and the conclusion to the story does not disappoint. There is a nice twist to the end that had me thinking for quite a while about what I would have done.

Blessedly, there is no "panacea" against the aliens, like in Independence Day with the computer virus. Humans will have to fight for their independence, or they will join the herd.

The one drawback was the large number of "coincidentals" that occurred in order to get all of the players in the right theaters. Though this can be easily overlooked, for it occurs during the alien invasion.

Overall, I recommend this book to any Scifi reader who wants to read a clever, believable, alien-invasion story.

Loved this when it came out in the 1980s, just re-read it a few years ago. Big, complex, sort of like The Winds of War with aliens. Simply can't understand the few negative reviews, except to note that reading skills are declining.

The last section, when humans fight back, is as exciting and kinetic as a great movie, fast-moving and impossible to put down.

There are things to like about this story and quite a few real groaners that are tough to get past. On the good side we have: two great sci-fi writers taking real world scientific mysteries and imagining an intriguingly ominous explanation, and...well, that's about it. That is to say, the setup for the arrival of the aliens is top notch, and then we find out they're baby elephants in spacesuits, and it pretty much spirals down from there.

See, elephants are herd animals who establish dominance over one another by the ritual placing of the foot upon the chest of a supine defeated enemy - in their world, that's the end of the confrontation and the conquered stay conquered forever. Unfortunately, humans take the foot ritual but they don't stay conquered. Footfall refers to the aliens chosen strategy of hurling a "dinosaur killer" asteroid (aka the Foot) at Earth in an attempt to establish their dominance over us once and for all. I feel for Niven and Pournelle because truly alien aliens are tough to come up with, but I just couldn't roll with the whole elephant mindset that drives the story from first contact onward.

Niven and Pournelle seem to acknowledge the absurdity of spacefaring elephants by adding a "Modern Prometheus" type subplot which explains that all of the aliens' technology was given to them by some "predecessors" who remain mostly unexplained. The space elephants, alas, don't handle their new power much better than man handles fire. All of this leads to a disappointing conclusion that seems very sequel driven.

Along the way the authors good naturedly poke fun at themselves, their fans and the whole sci-fi subculture. Perhaps the whole thing, right down to the baby elephants paratrooping from the sky, is one big goof.

I love the 'alien invasion' genre. I read this book waiting for all the threads and story-lines to wrap up in a nice satisfying package. I was dissapointed. As other reviewers have said, there are a lot of extraneous characters. And how the hell does Harry Red get himself insterted throughout the entire storyline? The book could have been reduced by 20 to 30% by eliminating some of the unneccessary characters and sub-plots.

And then you have the elephantine aliens. The book I had included a page of art depicting the aliens. They weren't elephant-like, they were elephants! I was waiting for some point in the story for the reason or 'link' between the aliens and earth elephants. Why were they so similar in appearance? What was their link? How are they related? I waited patiently for this part of the plot to evolve. It never did. We never find out. You cannot explain this by parallel evolution, but the authors never bother to explain their relationship.

And the ending just sucked!

Footfall is a novel about alien invasion by sci-fi vets Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. The begining of the book is rather slow and concerns itself with introducing most of the human characters. The pace of the book doesn't pick up until around page 200 when the aliens finally launch their attack.
The writing in this book is very well done and the pages seem to float by. The characters are both interesting and engaging (I love Harry Red). The science is well researched and sounds plausible. This is a great book to read if you are interested in exploring the possibility of intelligent life from other worlds and what their culture might be like.
If you have read any of Niven's other books you know that dreaming up alien civilizations is his speciality. On the down side the book seems to ignore certain sectors of society while focusing on others. I seriously doubt that following an alien invasion, the U.S. govt. wouldn't be hard pressed to maintain law and order in it's major cities.
Yet in the book, despite the dilapidated condition of the military, maintaining law and order doesn't seem to be much of an issue. The alien language is also a little daunting. This book desperately needs a glossary. Despite these glaring issues the book is a lot of fun to read, I highly recommend it.
P.S
The ending is superb !

I read this a few months ago, and needless to say, it still is a wonderful sceince fiction novel. The alien culture is absolutely incredible. They're quite believeable, and very vividly created. I could almost picture them. I found it funny that the remnants of humanity chose to look to hard science fiction writers for help in dealing with the aliens. But it seems a very plausible situation if it should ever arise. The whole story behind the alien invasion though is the Cold War. It's very prevalent, and quite interesting to point out all the similarities between what the US and Russians view the aliens...as their rival superpowers. Very interesting to see how a nuclear war could've ravaged the planet. Though it's dated, it's still a good read.

"Footfall" is a big old potboiler of a "hard" science fiction novel, in which "hard" science fiction writers are among the heroes when aliens come to invade the earth.
The human characters are thinner than the science; sometimes it seems as if the humans are lifted from a '70s disaster movie to they crisscross each others' paths here to conveniently provide drama and unconvincing sexual tension.
It's the aliens and their culture who are the stars here. Niven and Pournelle create an alien race whose "inexplicable" behavior turns out to be perfectly logical, given how they think. And the humans, in turn, are at least as inexplicable to these elephant-like aliens. It's the difference in culture that creates inevitable war.
The book is sprinkled with pro-space program messages and maybe some conservative political messages, too, as well as cult hero-status for "hard" science fiction writers.
Its handling of human affairs, though, is weak. Many hundreds of millions of men, women and children die at the hands of these aliens, and we see little of the chaos, bloodshed, violence, suffering and pain that must result. Likewise, we see little of the reaction we'd expect (PANIC! FEAR!) among the survivors as they await an unknown fate and lose contact with relatives and friends in other places. People just calmly cope. (Could the same book have been written AFTER the L.A. riots, for example?)
The ending is neatly done: there's enough complexity and ambiguity in the final events that it's hard to say exactly which of the characters were "right" and which were "wrong." A denoument is entirely lacking, though. What happens next, and what challenges are faced after the war -- these things deserve at least a hint.
In sum, there are plenty of shortcomings in this ambitious novel. The people here don't ring entirely true, the science seems unrealistic(that's a helluva space ship construction program!), and the plot is peppered with too many coincidences. And some of the science is unavoidably dated, considering the book was written in the 1980s and set in the more recent past -- there never was a moon base built, for example, and the space shuttle Challenger (which flies again in "Footfall") regrettably didn't make it to the 1990s.
But "Footfall" is still a fun and exciting read.

i thought this book did a good job of presenting non-friendly but also multi-dimensional aliens. the book struck me as similar to the "uplift" series by david brin. the basic plot is where humans encounter aliens that are further advanced, but have acquired their technology through means other than self discovery --- therefore, even though humans are less advanced they manage to triumph because of their ingenuity. it's a good line, and it works for me ... i think this line of reasoning pulls us out of being proud to be some ethnicity, beyond being proud of our country, to being proud to be homo sapiens for all that we've managed to accomplish, all on our own.

Footfall is a wonderful science-fiction novel that explores both the human and alien side of Earth under fire. Niven and Pournelle together show that they can provide depth to characters, (human and alien) as well as a flowing plot with a fine set of questions brought up by the clash of cultures. The snouts were shown to be a civilization though the initial reaction was to think of them barbarians. Humans, brought together under pressure of annihilation show that they can be rogues as well defenders. The authors managed to close up the book with a huge climax that complimented the great story. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves science-fiction.

I have to start off saying that i've been trying to start on this book for a while, i read about the first 80 pages early this year, and just couldn't get into it. It seems to have the same problem that "Lucifer's Hammer" had, where nothing all that important happens for about the first 200 pages (about 150 in this book).

The characters are very numerous, which is a double edged sword, as it adds a lot of flavour to the story, and there is sure to be somebody who you'll like and somebody who you probably won't. The issue is some characters tend to blend into each other and blur the lines between who is who (one example is a congressman who ends up going into space, I had him confused with an astronaut who plays a fairly minor part for only a couple chapters).

However there were two big issues I had with the book. The first of which is the random gaps in the story, especially after the invasion. Randomly entire months will go by with no story and it will just pick up on a story line that you haven't read for several chapters, and leaves you wondering who is who. This is probably the main reason there's a three page index of characters in the first few pages of the book.

The second issue I had with the book was with the abruptness of the ending. It's as if Niven and Pournelle just got really, really bored with this story and ended mid-paragraph. You never see the real aftermath, or the recovery of either races (alien or human) after the conflict resolution. Several storylines are left unresolved and leave you wondering "O.K., that's nice, but what happened to "so and so".

With these issues aside, I have to say that it was a very solid book that takes you for one heck of a ride. It's well written, well choreographed, It's biggest issue is being too ambitious and falls slightly short. It doesn't quite live up to the bar that Lucifer's Hammer set, but if you like alien-themed books, you might enjoy this on par with or even more than Lucifer's Hammer.

This book starts out great, but about halfway through the mystery goes away and the unbelievable starts to take over.

Humanity discovers evidence of an Alien spaceship heading straight towards Earth. It ignores all attempts to communicate, and just keeps coming. Is it a Russian trick? Is it an American trick? The world doesn't know. Superpowers mobilize their armies, not to fight aliens but to fight each other. Typical human drama, and well done.

Of course, the aliens turn out to be hostile, and the story changes drastically. Suddenly we are brought into the alien minds and culture and given insight into how they function and think. It's very unique and cool stuff. A little too much of the alien language makes it's way to print, but that's OK, we get the idea. The idea of a herd-culture being confused and misled by the random individuality of the human race is nothing new in sci-fi, but it's realistic and done well here.

Unfortunately, then the un-interesting and too-numerous human characters show up and bog down the story.

Massive plot-holes and implausible scenarios begin to take over. The aliens invade Kansas, and the authors go to great lengths to explain just how ridiculous and unfrightening these aliens appear. It doesn't help sell the suspense when even the characters in the book are laughing at the "baby elephants".

The humans nuke kansas, and no one seems much bothered by this. No talk of fallout or the millions of Americans that must have died, it's just "yay we got em out!".

A completely annoying character named "Harry Red" is given way too much time in the middle. Everything he does is pointless and pretty much a waste of time. Imagine Randy Quaid from Independence Day, except taken seriously. If you read this book, do yourself a favor and skip anything with the words "harry red" or "enclave", as it just goes nowhere. Many other characters follow this pattern. The authors spend way too much time on exposition, then forget about them.

Finally, the humans build a theoretical and extremely massive "orion" spaceship, for no real reason that we can fathom. The aliens are shown to have complete control of space, and shoot down anything that we launch with pinpoint accuracy, yet our master plan is to build a giant spaceship from scratch using nuclear bombs for propulsion, and somehow this will not be shot down like everything else. Ok. So the big ship makes it into space and apparently has the controls of a corvette, since they can just steer past debris and attackers and head straight for the much more advanced alien mother ship.

Frankly, I was very disappointed by this book. It started off with a lot of promise, but becomes bogged down by it's own waste. The unique alien culture and perspective is the only thing I would recommend reading this for.

Another story line with so much potential that simply fell flat. An invasion of earth conjures up War of the Worlds or Independence Day but not "Mars Attacks". Making the aliens resemble elephants does not add to the story. The way in which the aliens would try to force a person into subservience, foot on chest, seemed far fetched. The space battle towards the end of the book was okay but I was left wondering how we could have developed the technology so quickly. I guess invading elephants on Para gliders will motivate you to create almost anything and quickly. The ending was anti climatic and silly but that actually fits in perfect with the overall theme of the book. Lucifer's Hammer by these two authors was an excellent read I totally enjoyed. Sadly FootFall is no Lucifer's Hammer

The only thing good I can say about this novel is that I'm done reading it. Agonizingly slow with a thin to non-existent plot, it spins the yarn of aliens arriving to conquer Earth by hurling asteroids by the hundreds at vital installations. The aliens are the interstellar version of elephants and all they want humankind to do is lie on out backs and capitulate. This is observed by allowing one of these galactic pachyderms to gently step on one's chest.
Naturally the earthlings will have none of this and the battle is joined. Through page after page shallow, vapid characters wage war with their antagonist from the stars as every useless detail is ground into the ground while needed background is left to the imagination.
The right-wing, paramilitary twist is not as bothersome to me as the weak plot, lack of originality and total lack of merit offered in this book. I have to agree with another reviewer who said there should be a zero star rating for such tragedies in print.
From the number of good reviews this work got, there are quite a few people out there who like the idea of talking elephants from outer space trying to make pacifists out of mankind. That is not a very original storyline, except for the elephant part, and this book fails time and time again to deliver any power, emotion or entertainment value.
This book was a weak plot built into a long, tedious, ponderous novel with little forethought and a lot of hyperbole. Unless you are bored beyond belief or want to be, steer clear of this one.

Yes-you might be thinking "Another alien invasion book?". However this is a good revisit to that classic idea. Niven and Pournelle create a solid work with some suprises and it is well worth the read. Too bad the movie industry didn't choose to film this book instead of doing the intelligence insulting ID4.
Two minor dings on the book...I thought there would be an explanation for the elephant-like appearance of the invaders, like maybe a plot element of them actually decending from the elephants of Earth, this was never done. The other thing was I thought it was about 100 pages too long.
A good book and recommended.

First, let's get it out of the way - I loved this book, and was absolutely riveted by the ending. I always enjoy an ambiguous ending - although a well-done one (like this) leaves me desparate for more. Perhaps these two will write sequels one day. They will inevitably prove disappointing, but dammit, it'll be satisfying.
Anyway, the point of my review is to refute those who dismiss the concept of the SF writer team in the book. What, exactly, do you suppose is the difference between this and the "think-tanks" that exist as unofficial (or official, in some cases)advisors to our government officials in real life? Nothing. In real life, there are groups of people who spend their time thinking and planning, and that's no different in the book. The fact that this think-tank dwells on an unusual subject shouldn't be considered outlandish, given the premise of the book.
The only difference between the Pentagon planning teams (I'd be absolutely astonished if there aren't existing plans for catastrophic meteor impact or even alien invasion) and this fictional sci-fi think-tank is that the Pentagon boys have shinier shoes and nice uniforms. But when you get down to it, both groups were doing nothing but guessing, so who's to say which is going to come up with better solutions? Remember, in the book, the SF writers provided the imagination and the military worked on making it practical. Seems perfectly reasonable to me.
(Although if it happened today, it seems equally likely that the team would be made up of priests rather than SF writers, given the political climate. It would have been interesting to have a General Boykin type in this book.)

Footfall is a good read but it is not Niven and Pournelle at their best.

Don't get me wrong. Footfall is a page turner but given the authors' reputations, I was expecting more.

The aliens were interesting. I've never seen the idea of evolved pack animals expanded upon but it makes sense. Understanding their psychology was as important as weapons used.

I give Footfall a solid C+. It moves fast and there's plenty of action and suspense.

If you like it, try out "Ringworld" and "the Man Kzinti Wars" by the same authors.

...then you're off and running. Laugh at the premise of the aliens if you wish. The fact is, Niven and Pournelle make them *quite* believable, even enjoyable with their vast descriptions of the newcomers' background. Indeed, if you're a fan of Niven's "Known Space" universe, the aliens in Footfall seem to share a history not unlike the Kzinti -- namely, they didn't create [most of] their own technology. Lar and Jer also make use of real-life tech now available to us if we so desired to take advantage of it! The ending will not let you put the book down until you're finished w/the last page.

... but I liked the Legacy of Herot better. This is a good, solid adventure story but it doesn't get going until almost halfway through the (very long) book. The first half introduces a *lot* of characters and most of them don't get fleshed out very well and don't seem to serve much purpose other than filling space. As usual, the detail that they put into providing a choherent background for how and why the aliens act as they do is fasinating. This has always been the strong point for this writing team. All in all it is a fairly good read but not something that I will ever pick up again.

I love this book.
(I've read it so many times) 1985ish alien invasion. big ideas and realistic! solutions.If aliens hadv invaded hope they couldnt read. Reagan wouldv know what to do, get larry and co. to save the planet.Lets just hope when the day comes we use Orion, which has to be the coolest spaceship ever.Even the Challenger shuttle's there, what more do you need? Read this today
great ideas, planetary destruction, elephants with two trunks
"clasp digits with me so that i may know your herd" (or something like that)
stomp the snouts!

Sorry, after 250 pages, I finally gave up and skimmed the rest of this book. (The ending was actually very good!) I found the alien dialogues hard to understand, and with SO MANY human characters, none of which you ever get to really know or understand or care about, (Explaining why there's a character list at the front of the book!), I just couldn't get into this book at all! And I really wanted to! Hey, I gave it 250 pages! The pacing is unbearably slow. I've heard about "Lucifer's Hammer" for years, but now, I am really not sure that I'll read it if it's anything at all like this book!

Footfall is another ambitious attempt by the team of Niven and Pournelle. The formula, previously used in Lucifer's Hammer, is an apocalyptic event with a huge cast of characters drawn on a relatively limited canvas. While Lucifer's Hammer mostly succeeded, Footfall mostly fails. While I admire the conceptions of this novel, the execution left too much to be desired. Only a handful of the dozens of characters are even somewhat compelling. The invaders mindset is brilliant, but the communication of the aliens motivations and goals is tedious and difficult to understand. Harry Red is fun up to a point but he turns into Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction showing up in the cast of Alien. Everything in this book is either too much or not enough. Too many characters, not enough information revealed. Too much action, not enough payoff. There were several chapters where I just felt lost.

In fact, after a while, I just didn't give a Fithp!

I still think this is the best alien-invasion story I've ever
read. Granted, it's hard to write a sensible invasion story, given that
a) it's hard to think of a reason for rational aliens to invade, and
b) if they did, they should win overwhelmingly. See rifles vs. spears.
But it makes a great *story*, and N&P have given probably as
reasonable a backstory as anyone could. As an example of high-level
page-turner storytelling, Footfall still rings my chimes. I've read it
three times, plus the last time I picked it up a couple of years ago, to
jog my memory to reply to a post, I got sucked in again and spent the
afternoon rereading the good parts. "Orion will Rise" -- all right!

Footfall is dragged down a bit by dated political background: the
USSR is alive and well here, and is portrayed as considerably
stronger and healthier than it actually was in 1985. I'd skim over the
Russian scenes; in fact the book is pretty slow-moving until the
aliens arrive, so a quick skim of most of this early scene-setting
material is all you need.

And make no mistake, once the action starts, you'll have no further
complaints. Good stuff, guys.

Happy reading!
Peter D. Tillman

... but I liked the Legacy of Herot better. This is a good, solid adventure story but it doesn't get going until almost halfway through the (very long) book. The first half introduces a *lot* of characters and most of them don't get fleshed out very well and don't seem to serve much purpose other than filling space. As usual, the detail that they put into providing a choherent background for how and why the aliens act as they do is fasinating. This has always been the strong point for this writing team. All in all it is a fairly good read but not something that I will ever pick up again.

I love this book.
(I've read it so many times) 1985ish alien invasion. big ideas and realistic! solutions.If aliens hadv invaded hope they couldnt read. Reagan wouldv know what to do, get larry and co. to save the planet.Lets just hope when the day comes we use Orion, which has to be the coolest spaceship ever.Even the Challenger shuttle's there, what more do you need? Read this today
great ideas, planetary destruction, elephants with two trunks
"clasp digits with me so that i may know your herd" (or something like that)
stomp the snouts!

Sorry, after 250 pages, I finally gave up and skimmed the rest of this book. (The ending was actually very good!) I found the alien dialogues hard to understand, and with SO MANY human characters, none of which you ever get to really know or understand or care about, (Explaining why there's a character list at the front of the book!), I just couldn't get into this book at all! And I really wanted to! Hey, I gave it 250 pages! The pacing is unbearably slow. I've heard about "Lucifer's Hammer" for years, but now, I am really not sure that I'll read it if it's anything at all like this book!

Footfall is another ambitious attempt by the team of Niven and Pournelle. The formula, previously used in Lucifer's Hammer, is an apocalyptic event with a huge cast of characters drawn on a relatively limited canvas. While Lucifer's Hammer mostly succeeded, Footfall mostly fails. While I admire the conceptions of this novel, the execution left too much to be desired. Only a handful of the dozens of characters are even somewhat compelling. The invaders mindset is brilliant, but the communication of the aliens motivations and goals is tedious and difficult to understand. Harry Red is fun up to a point but he turns into Uncle Joe from Petticoat Junction showing up in the cast of Alien. Everything in this book is either too much or not enough. Too many characters, not enough information revealed. Too much action, not enough payoff. There were several chapters where I just felt lost.

In fact, after a while, I just didn't give a Fithp!

I still think this is the best alien-invasion story I've ever
read. Granted, it's hard to write a sensible invasion story, given that
a) it's hard to think of a reason for rational aliens to invade, and
b) if they did, they should win overwhelmingly. See rifles vs. spears.
But it makes a great *story*, and N&P have given probably as
reasonable a backstory as anyone could. As an example of high-level
page-turner storytelling, Footfall still rings my chimes. I've read it
three times, plus the last time I picked it up a couple of years ago, to
jog my memory to reply to a post, I got sucked in again and spent the
afternoon rereading the good parts. "Orion will Rise" -- all right!

Footfall is dragged down a bit by dated political background: the
USSR is alive and well here, and is portrayed as considerably
stronger and healthier than it actually was in 1985. I'd skim over the
Russian scenes; in fact the book is pretty slow-moving until the
aliens arrive, so a quick skim of most of this early scene-setting
material is all you need.

And make no mistake, once the action starts, you'll have no further
complaints. Good stuff, guys.

Happy reading!
Peter D. Tillman

This is a great book for any science fiction fan. The use of alien vocabulary was different, but i found it easy to understand. Also, with the many characters in the book, it was good to have a reference guide at the beginning so we could keep track of all the characters. The authors do a remarkable job of developing the characters throughout the book, which allows the story to develop smoothly. I did feel that the ending was a little rushed. Other than that, you probably will enjoy the book even more after you read it the second time.

who didn't like this book. "What's wrong with me?", I kept asking myself. This is supposedly one of the classics, if not THE CLASSIC of the genre'. I kept waiting and waiting for the story to pick up steam and take off as promised - but it never materialized for me. This thing just plodded along!! I kept wanting to roll over on my back, put my legs up in the air and surrender to the "snouts". (You'll have to read the book to understand that last sentence.)
Now don't get me wrong, I loved Niven and Pourelle's epic novel, "Lucifer's Hammer". It was a great literary work that had me on the edge of my seat for days. "Footfall", on the other hand, left me wishing that I had spent my time doing something more productive - like starting a different book!
I really tried to get into this book, but the confusing plot, not to mention trying to understand just what in the hell was going on with the aliens half the time, really left me scratching my head. It was hard enough to keep up with the dozens of characters in the book, let alone trying to figure out what the "snouts" were attempting to say. I think I wore out the pages in the front of the book that listed the cast of characters from having to turn back and forth so many times just to keep a handle on "who was who".
Oh, I know that the vast majority of people who have reviewed "Footfall" have raved about it, but for my money, stick to the aforementioned "Lucifer's Hammer", George Stewart's wonderful, "Earth Abides", anything by Michael Reisig ("The New Madrid Run" is outstanding), or Robert McCammon's "Swan Song" if you want a little escapism in your life.

For some reason, I keep expecting Larry Niven to produce another 'Ringworld' or it's equivelent, and that is when I realize how unrealistic that loft is to reach. What I do find remarkable about Niven, (and Pournelle), is how often they actually get close.'Footfall' is such an example. Whereas, the rightfully acknowleged classic is one of those rare stories where EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING comes together- the writing,story,characters and plot one seamless, fascinating trek across an exciting and magical landscape-as is 'Ringworld',- to the merly good or very good as is 'Footfall'. 'Footfall' is amongst the best of what you will see on this second tier- a realistic, thought provoking adventure story with so many nifty twists and arcs laced through it's completly logical, and at best, believeable plotline that you can almost imagine that it actually happened. This, of course, is Larry Niven's forte. It is why he is amongst the elite. And, when plugged into Jerry Pournelle, they produce in spades. The only occassional weakness is draggy exposition and too many characters, some of which are so dull, you wish Marcia Brady would stroll in and get nailed in the face by a football,just to liven up some of the mundane conversations. Other than that, 'Footfall' is a 4 out of 5.

Another realistic possibility of how our "first contact" with aliens might unfold (ref. The Mote in God's Eye). As with all of the Niven and Pournelle books, they introduce some new perspectives on things (e.g., throwing rocks at us, the alien's battle strategies, and their concept of surrender and more). I enjoyed their use of parallel stories that all came together at the end. The use of alien vocabulary was interesting but sometimes cumbersome (I would suggest putting a glossary in the back of the book). The use of the cast of characters in the front of the book was helpful in keeping the characters straight, esp. the aliens. I would recommend this book to people who don't usually read sci-fi since it's not too "alien" or overly scientific. Whatever you do, DON'T READ THE LAST PAGE UNTIL YOU GET TO IT. Have fun and enjoy.

I read this book at it's first release and again just recently. I loved the concept of people putting aside personal differences to defend themselves from a common antagonist. Although, this has been done time and time again. It will never be tiring, and this book is the classic example. Even the bizzare aliens in this book are a perfect fit. These two guys, when they get together to write, creat magic. ie. Lucifer's Hammer, Mote in God's Eye etc. READ IT, You will be in for a ride.

Don't get me wrong. This is the best alien invasion book I have read in over five decades of reading SF. The book is long, but you will want to read it to the end. That's the problem. There is no end. Earth beats the aliens, and that's that. You really want to know what happens next. Most of the aliens are still alive, they are not going home, we are in control of their technology, then what? The book reads like the editor said, "Listen guys, the book is too long. You have to lose 50 pages." So the authors lopped 50 pages off the end.

Still, read it. You will enjoy it.

I found this book at a local used book store, and the owner said that if I liked Sci-fi I had to read this one. I have to say that he was right.
This is an alien invasion classic. It is a little dated but that wont matter once your start reading. I couldn't put it down.

I think what the aliens looked like was one of my favorite aspects of the book. They look like Elephants. The ending was heart pounding and clever also.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that's into Science Fiction

This book was enjoyable, and had the flavor of Lucifer's Hammer rolled in with creatures you might expect to find on Ringworld. It was fun to read, but seemed long at times and somewhat slow. It picks up towards the end, and you begin to see where the authors are finally taking you. If you are simply a fan of the Niven/Pournelle Duo, then you will read this one and enjoy it. I did not find it to be as good as some of their other works, however.

I fully understand reading should be about escapism. But elephants attacking Kansas??? Aircraft carriers in space??? The President calling on SF writers to devise a plan to battle the invaders. Ugghhh!!! You've got to be kidding me. Sad to say, I read Footfall after having just finished Lucifer's Hammer and The Mote in God's Eye, two excellent classics (sci-fi or not)that should be at the top of anyone's "must read" list. But for you LN/JP newbies just starting out... start with the aforementioned books first.

And if I could say something to LN/JP: you guys owe us another 50 pages to this story. I can't believe I suffered through 400+ pages for THAT ending??? Give me a break.

This book is everything ID4 could have been, in a word, Realistic. Niven and Pournelle weave a complex tapestry of different people and there experiences with the 'Snouts', strange two trunked 'baby elephants'. One of the great things about this novel is that the aliens don't have some massive superweapon that we have to overcome. The ending is always in doubt, even up to the last few pages, I was on the 'Very' Edge of my seat. Reccomended!

First of all, I have read Lucifer's Hammer and thought it was a great (and at times frightening) book. Yes, it was slow-paced at first, but the plot and characters were made just interesting enough to keep you hooked until the moment when the comet smashed into the Earth. I have also read N & P's Inferno and consider that nothing short of brilliant.

Footfall is not in the same league. I really wanted to enjoy this book and admittedly, I did...just not in a lasting way.

The most glaring misfires include:

- A glut of two-dimensional characters, many of which I never found worth my time.

- The aliens' appearance. They're silly. Although I have seen worse and Niven and Pournelle do not fall prey to the "Star-Trekification" of alien races (that's when an alien is anybody with a new wierd growth on their nose).

- The aliens' language. I understand creating a form of speech to enhance the cultural immersion, but to use wholly unpronounceable words and names on several pages is flat-out gimmickry at worst and plain annoying at best.

- The aliens' culture and customs. It seemed rather odd to create a race that not only looked like elephants, but acted like elephants, even down to the mud-baths. This was just lazy. I particulatly disliked the entire "surrender" custom used by the aliens. This was nothing more than contrivance...if they didn't have such a custom, many of the other events in the book could take place (such as the capture of Harpanet or the finale).

I had a few other problems with the book regarding the science, but they are mostly technical and did not detract from the story for the most part. And the occasional forays into political opinion didn't bother me either. I am pretty conservative, so my outlook may already be similar to the authors, and I found most of the reasoning cogent, although not always in character.

I plan on reading "The Mote in God's Eye" next. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants an entertaining read on a long trip or during a few cold, rainy nights in front of the fire-place. It's fun, but not a classic.

I quickly became engrossed in Footfall's plot, and have re-read it several times. However, I really hate the fact that I cannot pronounce the alien's names. It's as if someone pounded on a keyboard to create each one. I also would have been happier if the aliens were not miniature, overly bright elephants. What are the odds of that happening. Despite these shortcomings I do recommend it.

This book was a blast to read all the way through. It suffers a little from the two dimensional characters typical to sci-fi/action books, but the main characters are fleshed out enough that it isn't a problem.

I just finished reading this book, it was my second Niven novel to read so far. After skimming through the reviews of the book, especally the negitive ones I felt like writing my own review. First off, yes, the book does have it's quirks for a Sci-Fi novel - Such as the Scifi writers working as presidential advisors who spent most of book admiring the effectivness of the alien invasion and also having the earth invaded by "commie elephants" (snicker..). However, the book was still a excellent read and I felt the ending was more than worth waiting for. Without giving away anything, I felt it showed that tide of a battle can turn in any given moment and you can end up with a slightly unpexected result.

If someone were to describe this book to you in just a few words, you might think it absurd. The "Snouts" invade earth? But don't be fooled for a minute! The Niven/Pournelle team is famous for imaginative insights into the alien perspective and fabulous character development. This novel could have been about giant slugs invading earth and you'd be interested in learning what they were thinking and what the human characters were going to do about it. Niven/Pournelle do what Stephen King does so well, - create characters that reflect so many aspects of human nature, and plunges them into a crisis so that we can watch regular guys and gals become heroes. Interesting, inspiring, and different.

A book in which Science Fiction writers save the world. Somehow, they know more about military technology than the military. Yeah, right. Every single thing the writers thought of turned out to be true and nobody but the writers understood what's going on. What an unbelievably self-important and self-indulgent premise for a book. Authors should make some effort to stay out of their own fiction unless they promise to maintain their objectivity. Well written, but deeply dissatisfying.

This book is astonishingly bad. Thinking about why, several answers come to mind: first, it was clearly written in hopes of selling movie rights as it resembles nothing more than one of those summer "blockbusters" that everyone is supposed to go and spend money to see because it is heavily advertised. Sometimes, of course, such movies can be entertaining, as with "Independence Day", but if that was Niven and Pournelle's intent, they failed badly. "Footfall" is needlessly complicated and quite frankly none of the characters are sympathetic or memorable. If there was a plot or point to this book, I sure didn't see it.
The second big problem, and one which cripples the story, is the authors' blatant self-aggrandizement. Science-fiction writers, we are supposed to believe, are the only ones who can save the world. They are flawless and universally moral, and twice as smart and creative as everybody else. Perhaps this is the result of Niven and Pournelle spending too much time at conventions where they are the center of attention, or the result of some deep sense of insecurity within them that they are trying to work out; I neither know nor care. What I do know is that what had been a laborious read up to that point became downright painful when the science-fiction writers appeared, and I'm still amazed that somehow I actually managed to slog through to the end of the story.
Both Niven and Pournelle had written better books before this one; I enjoyed "The Mote in God's Eye", for example. They may have written better ones since, but I wouldn't know, since I refuse to read their work anymore, thanks to "Footfall".

The plot was developed believably and I read the whole (495 pages) because I had to know how it ended. I compared it to LUCIFER'S HAMMER which was not fair since HAMMER is the best "end of the world" book I have EVER read.

I truly enjoyed this book. Once I started, it was hard to put down. I though the author did a great job protraying man's resourcefullness and showing that man can overcome any obstacle that is tossed at him.

Can't say it is a good book, when it isn't. Lucifer's Hammer was MUCH BETTER, like if written by some other author. This one is pushing slowly, nothing really happens, you know it all ahead, only perhaps the end is a little fun, but it is not unexpected. It is all so very unfinished, a lot of stuff happens, but is left open, perhaps they tried to do too much in too little space. It could be twice as long but who the hell would read it then. With one word: BORING !

I absolutely loved this novel. The creation of an alien culture based on the herd psychology and biology was good. The insight displayed concerning the human drive to not just survive but overcome and prosper was exhilerating. The end of the book was however, abrupt and unsatisfying.

At the least, a good epilogue describing the further interactions of the humans and aliens would have been cool.

On the other hand, Larry and Jerry are the artists, and they can do it any way they want!

Paul

Footfall is a decent read. It's fairly long, involving, and complex, but that doesn't seem to be a problem here. By complex, I refer specifically to the fact that there are several different story lines, and a slew of characters that can, at times, be a bit confusing and tiresome. It's no classic, and it's not as good as other Niven-Pournelle books, but it holds its own. Some very interesting things happen, and ultimately I recommend it.

This book was good- mindless entertainment (I mean this in a good way- the give your mind a break from stress, give it a treat :P)....humorous (having the aliens look like elephants), believable characters, action, fantasy, hidden messages /political statements (again, having the aliens look like elephants....) from the author. Definately worth the money, pick up a copy today and enjoy.

This book probably spawned the idea for Independence Day. Aliens resembling elephants and with interesting rules of fair play, invade the Earth. All countries on the Earth must work together if they are to stand a chance. Intriguing reading.

Not just among the best invasion books ever written, but possibly THE best. Not only a great genre book, but good literature besides. These two are good authors by themselves, but when they work together, they approach Heinleinian levels of greatness. Fantastic.

I don't know how people can say that this book is anything less than 5 stars. Alien invasion is a classic sci-fi theme that is usually trite and redone. However, this book is extremely original in its portrayal. The only other alien invasion book I can think of that is better is "The Forge of God" by Greg Bear. This book should be read by anyone who likes great writing and a great story.

I almost gave this book a rating of 9 however the absolute stupidity of the last few pages dropped my liking of this book 5 whole points!
The book is another great piece of work by P&N but they ran out of steam and just wrapped it up. I suggest reading the end of this "Alien Invasion - So humanity must save the eath" book alone, As I was unhappy that there were people around when I flung the book clear across the room. There was no need for me to scare people like that over a REALLY bad ending.

After reading the first 100 pages, I knew it wasn't going to be much good. Finally, after arriving at the end, it was entirely without point, just meaningless and dull like a drawn-out soap opera with stupid characters.

Excellent invasion story with good character interaction and detailed analysis of the aliens and their technology. The ending is rather abrupt, but that should not detract from a superior story that is hard to put down. Please don't compare this to the B grade (or C grade) "Independence Day" movie. Unlike the movie, Footfall has a plot, interesting characters, and sympathetic (though misguided) aliens.

If your sf taste runs to alien invasion -- and, really, whose doesn't -- this is a great weekend. Well-conceived aliens, well-conceived conflict, lots of imagination. It drags in spots, but that's the price you pay for a big novel with lots to entertain you.

Well, I have to agree with many of the critiques about the use (or misuse) of the cast of characters. Overall I really wasnt very impressed. One amusing bit is that the book is also a not so subtle anti-liberal screed. Characters mutter about the liberals every 50 pages or so and then of the two characters described as liberal: One ends badly (cowardice apparently) and the last we see of the other he's lamenting his opposition to industry and nuclear power as that might have saved everyone from the aliens (midway through, not giving anything away here).

I was curious about the right-wing slant so I did some googling and found that Jerry Pournelle is apparently well known for this kind of material. Liberals and eco-terrorists figure prominently as villains in his work. Its just an amusing, if slightly nutty, undercurrent. My real problems with the book were the jumble of characters and the somewhat abrupt ending.

Good Stuff

1. Aliens are unique

2. Nulear wars

3. Cataclysmic weapons

Bad

1. Thin Plot

2. Too many characters

3. Very Very Slow beginning and middle

4. Story gets better around page 400

5. Bad ending

I read this book years ago. The story is great and still interesting and believable.
My only complaint is that to me some of the imagery is anti-republican(Maybe just me???), but don't let that get in your way of enjoying this.

I read this book based on numerous glowing recommendations...apparently I need to choose my sources better. While not the worst book Ive ever read, Footfall is certainly the worst written bad book I've ever read. In the end the reason I hold it in such high disdain is that you can feel a really good book begging to be written in there...but alas it doesnt stand a chance against the huge problems this story give you to deal with;

1) There are far too many "main characters", many are not needed but are included to needlessly bulk up the person count.

2) The Aliens names are needlessly confusing and impossible to pronounce, and you are assaulted by the book trying to force you to learn the aliens language. I'm not saying that I need "Jeff the alien" but "Pfsstrosft-Angualrspht" or similar is just annoying and does nothing to add to the enjoyment of the story.

3) The ending is bad.....REALLY BAD!

4) Somehow the saviors of the word are science fiction writers?!?!?! Lets not call real scientist for guidance or ideas...screw that Michio Kaku guy, never mind Nima Arkani-Hamed...get me the people who write Stargate Universe!....really?

In the end I really regret wasting a few days on this book

I though the story would be another version of Independence Day, but I was wrong. The story telling was very engrossing. The authors should have added at least another chapter. Can we say denouement?

THis excellent sci-fi epic makes ID4 look like a children's nativity play! Although written and firmly set in the 1980s, it is still one hell of a blinding read even today! Elephant-like aliens(more feasible than 'raygun-wielding cats'(!!??) in the latest STARGATE spin-off book) in massive spaceships head for Earth where a takeover is planned. As the aliens attack dams, bridges and other means of communication, and cause natural disasters and even precipitate nuclear devastation with an ingenious Soviet plan to rid the world of the Thukthunthp, as they are known(I think that's how you spell it - the alien vocabulary is pretty strange!), it is up to the military and sci-fi writers, not to mention bumbling politicians, to save the day. And the climactic battles are just stunning! Don't miss this. When you read this, you'll wonder what was so wonderful about ID4 and THE X-FILES.

I closed the book half way through when I had to admit I didn't care what happened to anyone in it. I know it's the accepted way to write a novel skimming over dozens of unimportant and unlikable characters, but I, for one, prefer a few characters portrayed with depth to many cardboard cutouts shuffled about rapidly in an attempt to substitute sleight of hand for substance. If you feel the same try any early Jack Vance or Sisters of Glass.

This book is great It's not quite as good as Lucifers Hammer but I still loved it Larry niven and Jerry Pournelle are right up there on my list of favorite authors tied with Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, J.R.R. Tolkien And Stephen R. Donaldson a great team

Niven and Pournelle have written some really fine books. A Mote In God's Eye and Inferno are especial favourites of mine. This book was just not of the same calibre, and to top it off, they blew up my home town!

My family has lived in Bellingham for 150 years. It is one of the greates places in the world, and the authors picked it to turn into a crater. If they had to destroy a place they should have picked someplace more deserving! (I'm only partly kidding)

Ok, it's dated, blahblah, but it's a good solid hard sf story, along the lines of Hogan.....and it has the best description of design, construction, and flight of an Orion drive ship that I've ever seen. Worth it for that alone

Larry Niven is one of my favorite Authors. This is a very riveting book. Hard to put down. I believe if we had malignant aliens land here in such a way, We would do as much the same as the heros in this book.

"Independance Day" is said to have ripped off this book.
Whether you agree or not, you will have to admit that this
book is MORE exciting than the movie. This is an epic
story of an alien invasion of earth and our struggle to
fight back. There is earth-shattering catastrophies,
incredible battles and great human drama. I found myself
sitting bolt upright in bed, furiously turning page after
page through the entire last third of this book.

After reading Niven and Pournelle's book Lucifer's Hammer I figured I'd give this book a try. Lucifer's Hammer is easily my second favorite book of all time, a close second to The Stand by Stephen King. However, after getting 400 pages in, I put it down. I simply could no longer buy the garbage they were selling. Here are some issues I had:

**Spoilers**

1) After 400 pages there were maybe 10 pages spent on the survivors left on land. I was hoping for a little more on how people dealt with the situation on the ground, similar to Lucifer's Hammer. The survival, post-apocalyptic part was what I was looking for. Instead, the vast majority of the book once the plot gets going is spent on the space ship.

2) I first rolled my eyes in this book when the authors tried to explain to me how such a small group of people were all connected. A senator is married to a woman who was high school friends with a woman who is married to America's best astronaut. The woman married to the astronaut happens to have a long relationship with America's premier reporter and has several affairs with him. This woman's sister also happens to be a high ranking army person who just so happens to go on a random date with an astronomer who just so happens to be the first to observe the alien ship coming in. The world-class astronomer also just so happens to be good friends with Russia's best astronomer, who is coincidentally married to the daughter of the second-highest ranking Russian political figure.

Then comes the promotions. After randomly going on a date with the world-class astronomer who just so happened to find the ship that very moment, the army woman is flown to a meeting with the president who then immediately promotes her to Major and puts her in charge of everything (no qualifications needed). In Russia, the astronomer who received a phone call from the world-class American astronomer is immediately promoted and put in charge of everything. Also, after the discovery of the ship, Russia's leader steps down and puts the second-highest ranking Russian political figure in charge. Remember, his son-in-law is the astronomer.

So see, simply being around when the space ship was discovered immediately puts you in charge of the country. Interesting. I rolled my eyes so hard I think I sprained them.

Oh, and the senator who is round-about friends with the astronaut, asks for permission to go on a convoy to greet the aliens, and gets it. Just know the right people and you can go into space!

3) Too much of the book was spent convincing us that the invaders were herd-animals who always did was the herd required, and never went rogue. Then to finish them off, there's a rival faction within the herd who goes rogue and destroys their chance of taking over Earth. Why spend so much time convincing us that they never go rogue, and then make them go rogue. Frustrating.

4) After capturing some human captives and bringing them to their ship in space, what do they do? Well, they turn the humans loose and allow them to go freely through the air vent systems throughout the entire ship! Sure, makes sense, I guess. If I captured ENEMIES, I would turn them loose in my ship and allow them to explore at their own leisure. And then after discovering that the humans had gone to parts of the ship they weren't asked to go to (shock!), THEY DO NOTHING! They still let the humans go where ever they want and do whatever they want. Give me a break.

5) In zero gravity the human captives on the ship are given a pond to use the restroom in. A small body of water. In zero gravity. Anyone see an issue with that?

6) Oh, and who does the government and the president turn to when he needs help? Why, the science fiction writers, of course! He gets a group of science fiction writers together in his mountain retreat, and they certainly know everything before it happens! They know that the aliens use flying crow bars (wtf?) to attack tanks before it ever happens. Duh. Who wouldn't think that flying crowbars would take out tanks? Give me a break.

And do you want to know their solution to attack the aliens? Get a nuclear bomb, put it underneath a fortified battleship, and detonate it. That will launch the battleship into space so that we can attack the alien space ship. What? That doesn't even make any sense. And guess who the president put in charge of this task? Why, America's best astronaut, fresh from space of course! Who else? Now, what this astronaut knows about nuclear bombs or battleships is beyond me, but still, the president obviously believes that he is capable of heading up this project. Why not?

7) A ton of time in the beginning was spent talking about a group of survivalists named the Enclave who have the foresight to prepare for this disaster. Then you don't hear from them again for over 350 pages. What's the point? The authors waste a ton of time talking about characters in the beginning that they soon forget about. I wonder if an editor took them out in the middle and end of the book, but forgot to remove them from the beginning. It's all very strange and pointless.

8) The alien names are ridiculous and annoying. It's too difficult to tell the aliens apart and to remember them from one conversation to another. Here are some examples of their names: Pastempeh-keph, Fathisteh-tulk, K'turfookeph, Chowpeentulk, Fookerteh, Koothfektil-rusp, Tantarent-fid, Takpusseh-yamp, Fistareth-thuktun, Koolpooleh, Paykurtank, Pretheeteh-damb, Tashayamp, Chinitithpit-mang, Shreshleemang, Siplistepth, Rashinggith, Birithart-yamp, Pheegorun, Thiparteth-fuft. Did you get all that. Now good luck trying to remember who is who. I understand the authors were going for realism, because alien names won't fit within our normal name structure. I wasn't exactly looking for names like Bob, or Tommy, but for goodness-sake, if you can't distinguish between aliens or even pronounce them inside your head, then you can't grasp the story as well!

9) Have no fear, however, because the humans on the ship are almost fluent in the alien language after just a few days. It doesn't take long for them to comprehend and somehow speak this language. And the aliens themselves also learn how to speak English pretty well. So well, in fact, that in one conversation an alien explained to a human how their mating seasons worked. This was said, "For most of the year, for many days to come, you may see me as a neuter." Seriously? After a few weeks with humans the aliens understand our language with such depth that they know the appropriate way to use the world neuter? Hell, I've spoken the language for all of my life, and I've NEVER heard the word used in such a context, and yet in a few weeks the aliens have? Give me a break.

Bottom line, I was looking for a book about survival, a book similar to their other one Lucifer's Hammer. I was vastly mistaken. I wouldn't even go so far as to call this an alien invasion book. The aliens landed for a little while and then retreated. After 400 pages, I can honestly say that there is almost NO time spent on the post-invasion Earth. I'm sure somewhere I after I quit reading that they invade again, but I simply don't care. I don't care how the characters end up, I don't care how things end. The book is just stupid. Stupid characters, stupid connections, stupid promotions, stupid aliens, stupid alien names, stupid solutions to stupid problems. I was asked to suspend my disbelief a bit too much for me to finish this book.

If you liked Lucifer's Hammer, NEVER READ THIS BOOK. This book can't even clean the shoes of Lucifer's Hammer, which was actually a quality book.

who would think that and alien invasion could go casatrophically right and yet the good old human race turns around and fighs back and wins. This book wasan icredable read and i would really like to know if larry will right another (similar sort of story- or a follow up) Anyway Larry Niven as usual shows us his grasp of dizzying mathematics and what he can do when his imagination mingles with that of Jerry Pournelle. I strongly recomend it to any sci-fi reader.

I started hating this book pretty early and it went downhill from there. Unsympathetic characters who kid around like middle schoolers with each other even though the planet is being overrun by elephant-like creatures. About 2/3 of the way through I deposited this horrible story into the round file.

I quit reading SF in the early 70s. See I haven't been missing much. Found this one in the 15 cent bin at Goodwill. It wasn't even worth that. It was nice, though, seeing Heinlein as one of the minor characters in the book, but he must have been embarrassed to be appearing in such a turkey.

I love all Larry Niven's books...Except this one. This is just bad. Jingoistic, simplistic, portrays the russians as mere cartoon characters, and the aliens are just so dumb. I just can't get over how bad it was. Incredible that a genius like Larry Niven wrote this boring piece. Pick any other book by Niven and you'll be pleasantly surprised...Just not this one.

I love this book and I was hesitant at first. There is a lack of modern tech and a phobic attitude toward the Russians. But if you remember this was written at the tail end of the Cold War with Russia, then you can really sink down and enjoy the heck out of it. The first chapter introducing some of the human characters is worthless, but then the introduction of the aliens starts and from that point on the story picks right up and keeps moving to the last page.