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IT’S NO JOKE, ALIEN ELEPHANTS ARE A SCI-FI HIT

(from the Orlando Sentinel)

Just as the movie industry annually releases summer blockbuster films, the publishing industry has its own version of summertime madness.

And science-fiction fans this year are being offered a blockbuster called Footfall — a tale of an alien invasion authored by veteran science-fiction authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

What makes this alien invasion unique is that the monsters are portrayed as looking like baby elephants.

Why elephants, as opposed to the usual bug-eyed monster?

“Niven can make an alien as dangerous as you like, and without putting fangs on him,” said Pournelle. And Niven did just that, with the aliens — called the “Fithp” — nearly conquering the Earth.

This is the fifth time Niven and Pournelle, who live just 8 miles from each other in Los Angeles, have collaborated on a science-fiction novel. The other four books, including A Mote in God’s Eye and Lucifer’s Hammer, were all best sellers.

That Niven and Pournelle not only make the alien-elephant concept work in Footfall (Ballantine, $17.95, hard-cover) but work well, is a tribute to an intense effort on their part to remain well within the guidelines that logic dictates.

The book is no wild flight of fancy. The story line has the distinct attribute of flowing smoothly, quickly and logically. And the last is something not all science-fiction works achieve.

Pournelle said both he and Niven had to work very hard at making the story plausible.

“You see,” he said, “it’s really unlikely that aliens would be coming to our solar system to stay without some special circumstance — or else the laws of physics are different from what we think they are.”

“It isn’t as if they can return with treasure,” said Niven. “It’s just plain dumb to expect any species which has developed space travel and interstellar travel to arrive here with intentions to take Earth. They might want Jupiter to build a ring world or they might want Saturn for the ice, but they aren’t likely to want the Earth.”

“First we had to sit down and work out the obvious glitch — why somebody would cross interstellar space to conquer the Earth,” said Pournelle.

[MORE]

Jupiter Probe Shows Large Object Pushed By Aliens Toward Earth

SCIENCE ALERT: 

Achingly Beautiful Image Shows Us That ChaosManor Might Have Predicted Alien Invasion in FOOTFALL

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What does a Fithp Alien look like in a Space Suit?

Concept artist Michael Whelan recently provided this comp for the Legacy Edition of FOOTFALL.

We will be combining digital sampling of the original artwork along with incredible fan art by ALDO SPADONI.

Become a subscriber to ChaosManor to be the first to receive this all new digital work with ChaosManor™ rewards.

 

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The premise of ”Footfall” is alien invasion.  But the fun part is  [SPOILER ALERT] how we humans fight back.

The intelligent creatures from outer space who come to conquer Earth, the Fithp, almost succeed, look like small elephants with bifurcated, prehensile trunks. Though capable of independent action up to a point, they are essentially members of a herd whose allegiance to their peers and superiors goes far beyond the concept of loyalty. The strengths and weaknesses of this form of social organization are worked out in great detail by Mr. Niven and Mr. Pournelle, who succeed in conveying the aliens’ point of view while leaving no doubt in the reader’s mind about where the authors themselves stand -firmly in the anticollective camp.

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The heroes and heroines of Earth’s resistance to the alien invasion are self-sufficient military types, civilian survivalists who have been preparing for a nuclear holocaust, and a group of science fiction writers who conduct an impromptu seminar on alien psychology for the beleaguered United States Government. None of these people, including the writers, are sufficiently fleshed out to engage our interest; they exist only to advance the plot and to allow the authors to score some points against fuzzy-minded liberals and for two-fisted libertarians whose ethical outlook can be summed up in a simple slogan: ”Harry was a firm believer in natural selection.” There is enough perfunctory sex to keep the beach-blanket crowd awake and a rousing special-effects finale that bears comparison with the end of ”Star Wars.” But beneath all the fireworks, the fate of the Earth hangs on superior strategy, not superior weapons; if this tale has a moral, it is ”understand thy enemy” – not a bad lesson for any sentient creature emerging from the crucible of natural selection.

FOOTFALL by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (Del Rey/Ballantine, $17.95) tries to serve two masters, and gets away with it. I’m not referring to the collaborators, both of whom are science fiction writers whose previous books have attracted a substantial readership. Their latest novel is a structural hybrid that shouldn’t work but does. On the one hand, it is a big, fat ”crossover” novel clearly aimed at an audience more familiar with the formulas of mass-market fiction, such as pop psychology and boudoir athleticism, than the conventions of science fiction. On the other hand, its science fiction elements are handled with a skill found only in the best of the genre.

Nobody does it better than Niven and Pournelle. I loved it!”—Tom Clancy

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 asteroids.

Now the conquerors are descending on the American heartland, demanding servile surrender—or death for all humans.

Spoiler: Humans get pissed and fight back with an atomic powered craft called the Michael.

Praise for Footfall

“Rousing . . . The best of the genre.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Fast-paced.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

Plot[edit]

The alien Fithp resemble baby elephants with multiple prehensile trunks. They possess more advanced technology than humans, but have developed none of it on their own. In the distant past on their planet, another species was dominant. This predecessor species badly damaged the environment, rendering themselves and many other species extinct, but left behind their knowledge inscribed on large stone cubes

, from which the Fithp have gained their technology. Facing possible extinction due to the long-term effects of biological weapons, a group of high-ranking Fithp were selected to escape to the stars. The Chtaptisk Fithp (‘Traveling Herd’) are divided between ‘Sleepers’ and ‘Spaceborn’, as the ship is both a generation ship and a sleeper ship. The original leaders are subordinate to the Spaceborn, who are prepared to start a space based civilization, but are still dedicated to the generations-old ideal of conquest.

The Fithp are herd creatures, and fight wars differently from humans. When two herds meet, they fight until it is evident which is dominant; fighting then ceases and the losers are incorporated into the winning herd. The Fithp are confused by human attempts at peaceful contact. Upon arrival, they attack the Soviet space station (the Soviets still being a major world superpower) where Soviets and Americans wait to greet them. They proceed to destroy military sites and important infrastructure on Earth. United States Congressman Wes Dawson and several Soviet cosmonauts are captured from the ruins of the space station.

The human characters fall into two major groups, those on Earth and those who are taken aboard the Fithp spaceship as captives. Civilians are used to show the effects of the war on day-to-day life in the United States, while military and government personnel convey a more strategic overview of events. Science fiction writers are employed as technical advisers on alien technology and behavior; the characters are based on real writers, including Niven (“Nat Reynolds”), Pournelle (“Wade Curtis”), and Robert Anson Heinlein (“Bob Anson”).

After their initial assault, the Fithp land ground forces in the center of North America, primarily in and around Kansas. They initially repel attacks with orbital lasers and kinetic energy weapons, but a combined Soviet and U.S. nuclear attack wipes out their beachhead. The Fithp, who are familiar with nuclear weapons but prefer to use cleaner ones, are shocked by what they consider the barbarity of humans’ willingness to “foul their own garden” with radioactivity. The Fithp respond to the defeat of their invasion by dropping a large asteroid into the Indian Ocean, whose impact results in environmental damage on a global scale, in particular the almost total destruction of India. The Fithp then invade most of Africa, successfully subjugating most of the people on the continent. On numerous occasions, the Fithp are assisted by warlords seeking to keep their power over the masses.

The U.S. secretly builds a large, heavily armed spacecraft in the State of Washington propelled by nuclear bombs (a real concept known as Project Orion). The ship is named after the Biblical Archangel Michael, who cast Lucifer out of Heaven. The Michael launches and battles through small enemy “digit” ships in orbit. Though seriously damaged, she pursues the alien mothership. One of the space shuttles carried aboard Michael rams the Fithp ship, seriously damaging it.

On Earth, U.S. President David Coffey receives an offer of conditional surrender from the Fithp. Coffey is willing to let the Fithp withdraw into space, and is reluctant to destroy their technology and cargo of females and children. He is opposed by his advisors, who feel that by allowing the Fithp to escape and regroup, he risks the whole of humanity. When Coffey seemingly folds under the pressure, National Security Adviser Admiral Carrell stages a bloodless coup d’etat, circumventing the President and communicating the rejection of the aliens’ terms. An act of sabotage by the humans aboard the alien vessel disables the Fithp engines, allowing the Michael to inflict heavy damage, which forces the Fithp to accept humanity as the stronger species and surrender themselves to become part of the human “herd”. In the final scene, the Fithp leader lies down on his back in a submissive gesture, and allows former captive Congressman Wes Dawson to place his foot on his chest, this being the formal Fithp gesture of surrender.

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Timeline

• c. 1915:
• The Chtaptisk Fithp (“Traveler Herd”) leave Alpha Centauri for Earth on their spacecraft, the Thuktun Flishithy (“Message Bearer”).
• c. 1919:
•  The sleepers go into their death-sleep.
• September 1976: Thuktun Flishithy swings around the Sun, maneuvering towards Saturn.
• November 1976: Thuktun Flishithy reaches Saturn.
• June 1980: Thuktun Flishithy has been resupplied.
• June 1981: The Fithp have established themselves on the Foot, an asteroid colony.
• April 1995: The Thuktun Flishithy begins its journey towards the Earth.
• May 1995: Human astronomers in Hawaii realize that there is an alien ship on a trajectory towards the Earth.
• June 1995: The initial attack of the Fithp. Kinetic weapons wreak havoc on the Earth, and satellites are shot down; the Soviet space station Kosmograd is destroyed, and its surviving passengers captured.
• July 1995: The Fithp launch an invasion of Kansas. Shortly thereafter the Jayhawk Wars begin, a conventional attack against Fithp forces which is rapidly destroyed using space support. About two weeks later, the Americans and Soviets cooperate in a combined nuclear retaliation that defeats the Fithp forces and wrecks much of Kansas in the process.
• August 1995: Footfall. The Fithp drop the Foot into the Indian Ocean; tsunamis devastate surrounding landmasses, while the entire globe is enveloped in an endless salty rainstorm. India is practically destroyed, while the Fithp successfully invade much of Africa.
• July 1996: The flight of the Michael; ends with the formal surrender of the Chtaptisk Fithp to US Congressman Wes Dawson.

Reception

Footfall was nominated for the 1986 Hugo Award for Best Novel and the 1986 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel,^[1] and was a No. 1 New York Times Bestseller.^[2]

Kirkus Reviews considered it to be “(o)verblown and largely underdone”, judging it to be “more tedious and less thoughtful” than previous joint Niven–Pournelle works, with “barely relevant” subplots and a “cumbersome cast of thousands”, but praising the fithp society as “particularly well worked-out”.^[3]

David Langford called it a “ripping yarn”, but stated that it had “typical blockbuster flaws”, including slow pacing and an overly large cast with less-than-relevant characters; he also noted that “(t)he authors’ enthusiasm for space weaponry comes over disturbingly strongly”.^[4] James Nicoll found it to have “the mediocrity and tedium of a much longer novel”, with weak characterization, and a scientifically inaccurate portrayal of the effects of the asteroid’s impact, but conceded that it was better than the majority of works in its subgenre, and commended Niven for his portrayal of the fithp.^[5]

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