"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.

"The Gods Themselves" by Isaac Asimov

Asimov doesn't usually write about aliens.  Also, Asimov doesn't usually write about sex.  Well, this book, Asimov's favorite and Hugo and Nebula winner for 1972 is mostly about aliens with quite a bit of sex thrown into.  It is mostly the aliens that have sex, though.  Humans have a go at it, in the last line of the novel, but we're left out of the details. 

The novel consist of three parts; part 1 happening on Earth, part 2 in the ParaWorld, and part 3 on the Moon.  In Part 1 a mediocre scientist, Hallan, discovers that a certain material in his lab is getting exchanged with a radioactive isotope that cannot exist in our universe, with its strong and weak nuclear forces as they are.  He soon discovers that aliens from a parallel universe (ParaWorld) are exchanging the materials, each of which becomes radioactive in the other universe and emits free energy until it stabilizes.  This is used by Earth people to construct "Electron Pump" stations which provide free, clean, unlimited energy, obfuscating all other sources of energy.   Hallan becomes the most famous scientist on Earth and grows into vindictive, vicious fellow who destroys anyone who questions his authority, as is the case with a scientist historian who claims that it was actually the ParaMen who invented the pump, and Hallan has only been their puppet.  The historian also claims that the pump can destroy our universe (or at least our part of the Galaxy) because it is subtly changing the natural laws. 

In the second part we learn about the ParaMen who exist in a universe where matter is not as tightly woven together and the creatures on the ParaWorld can 'meld' with each other, which is how they propagate, and some can also 'meld' into solid rock, being able to turn themselves into almost a mist.  The ParaMen have three sexes, left, right and middle, and a child can only be produced if all three sexes meld.  The ParaMen are worried because the sources of energy in their universe are disapearing, since all their suns are getting smaller, which is why they invented the "Positron Pump", but some of them have actually discovered the dangers of changing the natural laws, and the destruction that could follow.  One 'Middle' alien, Dua, tries to communicate the danger to the humans in the other universe, and even manages to spell FEER (fear) figuring out the language of the humans.

The third part is the weakest.  Happens on the moon, where Loonies and Immis live, and dislike the Earthies from the home planet.  Halans assistant from the original discovery moves to the moon to experiment on his theories that the Pump can destroy the universe, but doesn't have to, if he can construct a 'safety valve' of sorts.  The assistant meets a Loonie tour guide, who is actually an "Intuitionist" (coined by Asimov, intuitive scientist) who joins him in his research, despite being a member of an underground Loonie movement that seeks to remove the Moon from the Earth's orbit and leave the Solar system.   Eventually the experiment is successful, the universe is saved, Hallan's reputation destroyed, and the assistant and the tour guide are just about to have sex when the book ends.

Like most Asimov's books, it can be read as a scientific treatise and the science insights are stunning, however the characters and plot are paper-thin, and only serve to explain the amazing scientific conjectures.

"Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

This book is called science (or speculative) fiction, but that's far from the central theme which is about human relations, compassion, meaning of life and the justness of the world.

A developmentally challenged individual, Charlie Gordon, 32, has an IQ of 68 and works as a janitor in a bakery, but has an enormous wish to learn and become 'smart.'  He is recommended by his teacher at Beekman College school for retarded individuals, Alice McKinney, for an experimental surgical enhancement of his intelligence.  The researchers at Beekman College already performed the surgery and enzyme therapy on a mouse named Algernon, and he outperformed any mouse in the lab.

After the experiment, eventually, Charlie gets a genius IQ of 185 and even starts doing research on the topic himself (and writes a piano concerto), but is abandoned by his old friends and circles, as they only used him to make fun of him and feel themselves smarter in comparison.  His memories from childhood traumas come back and he has problems emotionally integrating them, as well as starting romantic relationships.

Eventually he discovers that his condition will revert and he will go back to IQ 68 or even lower - and writes a scientific paper to prove this.  His attempts to start a relationship with Alice eventually works, but when he sees his IQ dropping precipitously, he sends her away.  Eventually he reverts ack to his old IQ, but now finds that he cannot resume his previous life and job, so he commits himself to the Warden Institute for retarded individuals. The mouse Algernon dies, in a harbinger of the reversal of the condition that later happens to Charlie, and Charlies last words are not to forget to put fresh flowers on Algernon's grave.

A touching and powerful book about choices, ethics and the human condition.  Several publishers tried to force a happy ending on the author, but the sad ending makes the story much more powerful.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller

The only novel published by Miller during his lifetime consists for three novellas previously published in SciFi magazines, but significantly modified to fit the novel form.  The three parts depict a post-apocaliptic world, after an all-out nuclear war has wiped most of humanity in the 1960s.  The first part happens around 2700s, the second part happens around 3100s, and the last part around 3800s when humans have developed space flight, extra-solar colonies, and (unfortunately) nuclear weapons again.  The idea promulgated is that the time between bronze age and nuclear age is around 3-4,000 years, and will always follow that pattern.

In the first part, about 6 centuries after a moronic nuclear war among moronic nations has devastated the Earth and killed off most of the humans.  The remaining humans called themselves "Simpletons' and started killing off all scientists by burning them alive, and when they killed all of them - they started killing anyone literate, moronism and illiteracy being haled up as the highest virtues among the human-animals populating the planet.  Only the Catholic order of Leibowitz has dedicated itself to preserving the remaining knowledge of the human race, be it scraps of written paper or half-burned page of a physics textbook.

Brother Francis from the wild wastes of Utah is doing his Lent fasting while discovering a fallout shelter with important artifacts inside while the canonization of the Blessed Leibowitz proceeds in the Abbey (within the borders of the Empire of Denver) and in New Rome (somewhere in West Virginia).  The roads between the few populated cities are populated by mutated half-humans half-animals who kill everything that moves for loot and food, and that befell brother Francis as well.

In the second part, another six centuries later, human civilization has achieved around medieval scientific development, the first electrical light experiment is successful and the primitive empires on the North American continent are vying for supremacy, most people still being illiterate; living in squalor and primitivism, both in social customs and in overall development.  The Abbey of St. Leibowitz is now a center of learning, having preserved many books from the last nuclear age of humanity, which are essential for re-discovery of science.

In the third part humanity has surpassed the current scientific age and has not only Solar but also colonies on other star systems (Miller mistakenly hoping that atomic drives would take us to the stars).  However the moronism of human politicians and their artificial creations called 'nations' - 'patriotism' 'us vs them' and similar money drivel causes another nuclear war that devastates the planet yet again, despite the politician snakes and reptillian disgustoids who run the society blaming  the 'other' side. Crazed monkeys be crazed monkeys.

I've read some complaints about the "Catholic-ness" of the novel online.  I guess there's a streak of Catholic-haters out there.  I am not Catholic, but have nothing against Catholicism and Miller has converted from Judaism to Catholicism, so it is only expected Catholic themes to have a prominent place in his work.  The theme of Catholicism is appropriate and justified in the book and not out of step with many historical parallels (after all, many of the great scientists of the past have been catholic monks and priests).

"The Time Machine" by Herbert George Wells

This is a relatively short book, though I 'read' it in the audio version, which wasn't the best, as the voice volume would go up and down (bad post-production/equalization) which is pretty sucky for commuting purposes on the train.

H.G. Wells was one of the most prolific authors of all time and in the most varied plethora of subjects.  The Time Machine is a classic of world literature, and together with War of the Worlds, it helped define the genre of Science Fiction. 

In the novel, the unnamed time traveler builds a time machine (with cogs and levers) and travels 800,000 years in the future.  Our planet resembles a garden, with many scattered ruins of previous civilization, but seemingly inhabited by small, blonde, smiling little people who only frolic around all day long, eat fruit, laugh, dance, place, make love and sleep.  The time traveler calls these happy creatures Elloi.  Only later he discovers that there's another race of post-humans, which he calls Morlocks, who live underground, look like albino vampires, and provide everything for the Elloi above ground until they are fat and ready - wait for it - to be eaten!  Apparently all other animal species died out all over the planet, so the Morlocks use the Elloi as their meat source (the Elloi being strictly frutarian). 

The obvious social commentary on upper and lower classes in the XIX century English society is obvious, however it does not detract from the enjoyment of the story by itself.  The time traveler barely escapes the cannibalistic Morlocks and travels even further in the future when the planet is covered by an infinite ocean and populated only by intelligent crabs.

Eventually the time traveler comes back to London, but his friends do not believe him, and after a few days of depression and frustration he leaves forever in his time machine. 

The Time Machine is probably one of the most copied books, both plot and characters, in the history of literature.  It has served as a basis of so many other works of art that they are too many to count.  In recent years it is the underlying inspiration for the Traditional Humans and the Calibans in Dan Simmons' Ilium and Olympos dilogy.