psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (08/01/85)
(The usual caveats: Jerry Pournelle is an acquaintance of mine.
We've exchanged letters, he's bought me some drinks, and it's
conceivable that the character "Brant Chisholm" got his name from mine.)
(Second caveat: nowhere on the cover do the words "science fiction"
appear. This is a mainstream novel by two SF writers, with an SF plot.
Whatever that means.)
Alien invasion stories have been done before. They seem to be
enjoying a renaissance. They're a natural for excitement, suspense, and
lots of action. They can also serve as a platform for neat ideas,
political and philosophical statements, and examination of just what in
our world is worth fighting for.
FOOTFALL is long on excitement, suspense, action, nifty weapons,
and characters. Oh, lord, characters. There are one hundred and
twenty-two characters (they're listed inside the covers, and again after
the table of contents). A lot of them are spear carriers. None of them
is very three dimensional, though some are original enough to come alive
slightly. If you read novels for characterization, skip this one.
If you read SF for brilliant, original ideas, you too may not be
very interested. Niven and Pournelle don't touch Fermi's Paradox ("If
there's intelligent life in the universe, where is everyone?"). There's
not much motivation as to why the Fithp are in our solar system (the
motivation is in fact mentioned near the end of the novel), or why,
aside from being a warrior race, they want to take over our planet and
keep us alive. There *are* some reasons they want to take over our
planet, instead of just building space habitats, and those reasons are
part of the conflict.
So, FOOTFALL doesn't do for alien invasion stories what STAR WARS
did for SF movies; it does entertain. There are some really spiffy
weapons in here (orbital tank killers?!) The prose is more than
competent. The high stakes make the suspense nearly unbearable. And,
dammit, the pages turn and turn, and the story keeps going on, picking
up steam as it goes.
This isn't *THE* alien invasion story. It's just a pretty good
one.
--
-Paul S. R. Chisholm The above opinions are my own,
{pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc not necessarily those of any
{mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc telecommunications company.
(*sigh* ihnp4!lzwi!psc does *NOT* work!!! Use above paths.)
"Of *course* it's the murder weapon. Who would frame someone with a fake?"