"Footfall" by Niven/Pournelle

This book is touted as the best 'alien invasion' book ever written (apparently NYT says so), and is also one of the best books the dynamic duo Niven/Pournelle have written.  That doesn't make it an amazing book.  It is a good book, but not amazing.  "Contact" is amazing, "Footfall" is merely good. 

The book is definitely too big.  I dabble in writing myself and was caught off guard when one publisher stated that he would not publish a novel under 60,000 words.  Another said 100,000 words is the minimum. Why?  Why pad the book with 'words' and 'pages' if it doesn't make sense for the story.  If a story can be told in 40,000 words, why add more as a filler just to satisfy some imaginary (and unfounded) artificial 'lower limits'. ? For "Footfall", the first 100 pages can be comfortable skipped - they add nothing to the story.  Further, most of the chapter where there's no Fithp can be skipped without missing anything of the main story.  All those pages (dozens and dozens) where the authors tried to be 'modern' by exploring adulteries, cheating, sex thoughts and motivations are completely useless for the main story.  I got this book to see baby elephant aliens and that's all I want!

So, yes, the Fithp are baby elephant-looking aliens from Alpha Centauri, who used to be pets to an older race, the "Predecessors", who destroyed themselves and most of the environment aeons ago.  Since, the Fithp have discovered 'knowledge cubes' which taught them science, from basic fire and tools, to Bussard Ramjets and orbital transport spaceships.  The Fithp are always at war on their home planet, so the "Traveller Herd" left for our Solar System, to conquer it and settle there, calling it "Winterhome".

In the beginning the Fithp are winning because of their advanced technology.  They bomb most of the developed nations, especially the USA and the Soviet Union, and later drop an asteroid, "The Foot", into the Indian Ocean and kill all of India and most of the coastal cities around.  However the Fithp are herd animals, and cannot understand individualism, which they consider 'roguishness' to be cleansed out of the DNA pool.

Eventually, the humans get viscious and inventive and nuke or otherwise destroy all Fithp installations on Earth and go after the Fithp mother ship "The Message Bearer" almost destroying it before the Fithp offer complete surrender to the humans and seal their fate as the dominant race.  The book is well done, especially the habits of the herd-bound Fithp and the resulting psychology, but the length is really a problem.  The most interesting part of the book are the last 30 pages.

"The Gripping Hand" by Niven/Pournelle

Since I feel obliged to read at least the next-following sequel of books I read (same with Ringworld and Gateway) and usually don't go further than the next sequel, as it is disappointing enough not to want to read the next-next one, I went on to "The Gripping Hand" although it was not in my original read list for this year.  The sequel is written in the early 90s (first book was in early 70s), and the two decades added some technical detail to flesh out the 2 decades of technology development, so it sounds a bit more convincing.  The emphasis is not on technology though, which was extensively explained in the first tome, but on interactions with the moties and the developments in the Motie system that happened in 3 decades (things with moties change very fast).

 Although an overall weaker book than the first tome, it does get into the action with Moties much quicker.  I am not sure what's the purpose of the New Utah plot in the beginning.  Renner gets roughed up a bit, but nothing serious.  Then he just 'forgives' the perps and is off to Sparta with Bury.  Really?  The mormons of the True Church (all of them claim to be 'true' :) kidnap a Navy Intelligence Captain and nothing happens to them?  Not even court marshal?  Wow.  Weak.

Anyway, the second Alderson point opens and Kevin and Horace scramble a few ships and are off to guard it, but too late.  Seven Motie ships enter and scatter, only 3 captured.  The fleet goes into the Mote system and learns that the Mote Prime has been destroyed by its inhabitants and whomever survived was back to stone age technology.  The real Moties are now the asteroid and moon (and Oort cloud) 'civilizations' or better 'families.'  The one that made contact with Renner and Bury is called the "Medina Trading Company" and most of the space moties take Arabic names in respect of Bury, as his Fyunch(click) has gone rogue and started selling her services to the highest bidder (making Bury proud). 

Follow lots of flash-made and flash-broken space alliances, double-playing and even a threat of complete annihilation by the "Khanate" family, which are eventually defeated by the nuclear weapons Bury brought and the timely arrival of the cavalry (Imperial Space Navy).  Much more sex in this book, though it's all PG-13.  Good follow up read, but I won't be reading further into this series.

"The Mote in God's Eye" by Niven/Pournelle

This is a good book.  A cornerstone Sci Fi classic.  However the first 2/3ds are reaaaaly stretched out and borderline boring.  Yes, I get it.  The CoDominium future history that Pournelle worked so hard to create had to be properly explained and put in context, however I got this book for the Moties!  Get to the Moties already!

Niven is notorious for inventing interesting aliens (although they are not very science-based, apart from a few broad strokes) and the Moties do not disappoint.   The physical caste adaptations are a bit much when looking from a perspective of a human culture, but not that out there when comparing them to ant culture.  The 'secret' revealed by the Moties at the end of the book was obvious already in the first dozen pages after encountering Mote Prime, but it is still entertaining to read.

The Motie characters are very well presented (maybe because there's nothing to compare them with?), but the human characters are just paper figures.  Except Sally/Sandra, who is the only female character in the entire book, and does not get that much screen time, all the other characters sound and talk like they are the same character.  Very little differentiation.  Everyone walks around speaking their thoughts, which in themselves are very similar.

There have been some complaints online that Pournelle made his CoDominium very sexist and misogynistic, but, ultimately, it is his prerogative.  In a nutshell: human of the Second Empire in the early 3000s discover the first non-human intelligent species, bottled up in an isolated star system and organize an expedition to meet the Moties.   And get more than they've bargained for.  Better than 99% of the shows on SyFy.