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Footfall

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Footfall

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
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About this listen

They first appear as a series of dots on astronomical plates, heading from Saturn directly toward Earth. Since the ringed planet carries no life, scientists deduce the mysterious ship to be a visitor from another star. The world's frantic efforts to signal the aliens go unanswered. The first contact is hostile: the invaders blast a Soviet space station, seize the survivors, and then destroy every dam and installation on Earth with a hail of asteriods. Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender - or death for all humans.

©1986 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2010 Audible, Inc. Adventure Science Fiction Space Opera Fiction Solar System Soviet Union Military

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Critic reviews

“Nobody does it better than Niven and Pournelle. I loved it!” (Tom Clancy)
"Rousing – the best of the genre.” ( The New York Times Book Review)
All stars
Most relevant
Ok so it’s a VERY long book and I can’t help but believe that being shorter would not have distracted from the overall experience

Also there are a couple of lose ends which I was expecting to get answered but unless I missed them left me with gaps - without giving anything away for example, the question of the origins and relationship to humans was raised several times but not addressed.

The ending was pretty abrupt too, almost as if the authors had run out of steam and had to wrap it up quickly.

I liked the narration which some have criticised, but why oh why were these aggressive aliens based on baby elephants!!! A scarier creature would have been more in line with the story- I struggled with this element.

However, all that said, if you can overcome these issues an entertaining listen if you have loads of time

Great and irritating at the same time.

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always liked this book, now listened to it as an audio story, still really engaging where characters matter and the story of desperate plight of human kind is brilliant.

Great book great narration

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A dated backdrop, but still an excellent space yarn. A very good speaker too. recommended.

Loved it. Took me back to my youth.

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One of the best first contact stories with a very realistic depiction of an alien society. The female characters are a bit wimpy (which is sexist by today's standards), but was fairly common at the time the original book was written - at about the time when women's lib was beginning to take off. I am old enough to remember the bad old times. Excellent narration.

A Classic SF masterwork

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Had the book, lost it. . found this. . Great story by these guys together with The Mote in God's eye they nailed it.
Apart from some dodgy Russian accents and the women all sounding a bit. . weak. . Its a great listen. .

One of the better First Contact novels

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