Footfall
The book depicts the arrival of members of an alien species called the Fithp that have traveled to the Solar System from Alpha Centauri in a large spacecraft driven by a Bussard ramjet. Their intent is conquest of the planet Earth.
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11recommend
30mentions
24people
2014–2026years
40% recommend60% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Had a look at my bookshelf to see what I could find that was obscure, maybe these would be interesting:
First Contract (Greg Costikyan) - a book about the economics of first contact
John Courtney Grimwood (author) - science fiction, generally cyberpunk, told from the point of view of characters who don't understand the tehcnology, which gives his work a kind of mystic vibe. (Eg, Nine-tail fox is about a detective trying to solve his own murder)
Footfall (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle) - was a big release back in the day, but not so well known these days. Hard SF alien invasion novel (Independence Day might have ripped this off a bit)
The NASA trilogy (Stephen Baxter) - dark alternative future books, with bleak endings but great science. I think not so well known these days because of the bleakness, but that's also part of what made them memorable when I read them.
- Related: Footfall and Lucifers Hammer (Both by Niven and Pournelle)
- Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle wrote some great global disaster novels as well. Footfall and Lucifer's Hammer.
- There was a classic science fiction story with a twist on this idea; a low tech species was about to be discovered by a more advanced species. And according to the rules of the more advanced species, any planet that wasn't capable of space travel would become a client or vassal, and a planet with space travel would be seen as a peer. The protagonist built a pusher style rocket using an explosive, and launched the lightest person he knew into orbit, who happened to be his girl friend.
I keep thinking this was a Larry Niven story, maybe someone here is familiar?
Edit; another classic story was the novel Footfall by Niven and Pournelle which featured launching the USS Missouri into orbit on an Orion style pusher to battle the invading aliens.
- See "Footfall" by Niven & Pournelle.
- And Footfall by Niven and Pournelle. And the Galacti Milieu series by Julian May.
