Footfall

This is a long novel about an alien invasion of Earth in the near future—a theme avoided by most sf writers because, well, it's been done before. This version is competently put together, with a large cast of characters showing the impact of events on a variety of disparate groups. It's quite reminiscent of [b:Lucifer's Hammer 218467 Lucifer's Hammer Larry Niven https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388268115l/218467.SY75.jpg 1842237], their 1977 disaster novel about a comet striking the Earth: the scenario, the writing style, and the scale of the disaster are similar, only this time the comet is replaced by a large spacecraft full of aliens briskly intent on colonizing Earth and subjugating the natives.Creating alien species is what Niven does best, and I think he must be judged by that. In his first years as a writer, he also wrote quite warmly and credibly about people, but he failed to develop in that direction. His aliens have been imaginative, vivid, each one different from the last, and each viewed sympathetically from its own point of view, no matter how hostile or unattractive to humans some of them were.The aliens in this story are a recognisable continuation of the tradition, and superficially satisfying as an imaginative creation. Their history is moderately interesting. However, in fact they're relatively disappointing. Their mentality is so human that their physical appearance seems a merely cosmetic distraction, and their social psychology, while unusual, surely falls within the range of human variability.Previous Niven aliens have all differed from humanity in some significant way that affected their function in the story. It seems to me artistically wrong and a bad use of sf to create characters that might as well be human, and put them in oddly-shaped bodies just for the hell of it. In this case, it was a story of alien invasion, so there had to be aliens; but they should have been made more alien than this.What's worse is that these aliens have about them elements of the ridiculous. It's almost as if Pournelle wanted to write another grim disaster story, but Niven was feeling playful. This does make the book more palatable for those who, like me, may not want to read five hundred pages of Pournelle in grim mood; but it considerably weakens the impact of the story.I borrowed this book from a library in 1985 and read that. I've never felt the urge to buy my own copy.(Review written in 1985 and edited in 2024)