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| Cover Art by Michael Whelan |
| FOOTFALL Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle New York: Ballantine Books, May 1986 (© 1985) |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-345-32344-? | ||||
| ISBN 0-345-32344-0 | 581pp. | SC | $4.95 | |
The collaborators Niven and Pournelle are perhaps best known for The Mote in God's Eye, a novel of the far future when humanity has spread across the stars using tramlines, a sort of space warp that forms naturally between pairs of stars close to each other.1 That novel depends on a number of technologies for which we have no scientific justification, although not so many as Niven crams into his solo works.
Footfall, on the other hand, takes place in our present and without FTL drives or similar magical technology. There are powerful lasers and particle beams, fusion drives on spacecraft, and a Bussard ramjet.2 None of these are precluded by the laws of physics, although they do represent major engineering challenges.
The premise of the story is that an astronomer detects a new object by comparing some recent photographic images.3. It's immediately apparent that the object's course is hyperbolic: that is, it cannot be part of our solar system. Further observation shows that it is decelerating and heading for Earth; thus, it must be an interstellar craft. By tracing its course back through older images, astronomers find that it dropped a large heavy object as it came in, headed for Saturn and had remained there for fifteen years.
But these puzzles are swept aside by the anticipation of the visitor's arrival in some three months. Every possible kind of signal is beamed at it, but it makes no reply. There's no clue whether it will be friendly or hostile, and either outcome threatens to complicate the Cold War standoff between America and the USSR. In fact it does come in shooting, first smashing the Soviet space station and taking prisoner the survivors from its international crew. Daughter craft take up polar orbits and wipe out dams, power stations, highway intersections, and anything that shoots back or transmits a radio signal. Retargeted ICBMs manage to take out one or two of the daughter ships, but very soon the aliens achieve a dominant position.
However, it develops that they have their own problems. There are two factions on the ship, one of which thinks war against Earth is a mistake. Also, these aliens are herd creatures; should the leader of a group of them surrender, the entire group would go along. Thus they are mystified to the point of distraction by human recalcitrance. In the end, Earth undertakes a last-ditch counterattack on the mother ship; but success depends as much on sussing out and taking advantage of these cultural factors as it does on superior firepower and piloting skill.
The action is gripping, the science is hard, and the characters are believable in this excellent science-fiction novel. Full marks, and it's a definite keeper for fans of the authors.
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