A Great read ( )

Wes Dawson is a congressman. When the aliens are on their way, he finagles his way to meet them. He suggests meeting them on neutral ground: outer space. But only the Russians have a space station: ask them for permission.
He meets with the president; he didn't say no, he couldn't go.
He walks back from the Whitehouse, observing the tourist spots, and giving me an excerpt that curled my lip:
Paperback. Sphere Books, Ltd. 1985
P.13:
"... It was all there. Government granite, magnificent buildings in the old classics stype, built to last back when America had Craftsmen able to compete with the great builders of old Greece and rome. and more than that. The archives, with the original Constitution and declaration of Independence to make you misty-eyed and silent and remind you that we've done great things even the Romans couldn't, we'd invented a stable government of free citizens. Beyond that was the smithsonian, old castle and new extension."

The Russians are suspicious, especially the KGB. They believe it's a trick of the CIA, inventing the aliens in order to get their cooperation, put them on the offensive, and then attack. Bondarev goes to Moscow to speak with a Party leader, and observes all the peasants in line, waiting for the permits needed to do anything. (It's so obvious that this was written during the cold war.)
P.23:
"...Today there were not so many farmers; in Fall there would be hundreds wanting to sell the produce from their tiny private plots.
Bondarev shook his head. Absurd, he thought. They should be working, not standing in lines here. But it is typically russian, and if they didn't stand in line they wouldn't work anyway. They'd just get drunk.
if there were not residency controls, everyone would live in moscow. once while visiting Washington he'd heard a song at an American's party: 'how are you going to keep them down on the farm?' it was evidently a problem for the Americans as well as the russians."

For some reason, everyone expected the aliens to be benevolent. Nearing the space station, they smash through the hull, taking prisoner those not killed: Wes the congressman, and several of the russians. The aliens, who look like baby elephants, imprison the humans in a cell:
P.198:
"Wes struck the wall opposite the door and managed to absorb most of the recoil.
another baby elephant with two trunks entered, similarly dressed, similarly armed. They took positions against the bulkhead to each side of the door. Their claws sank easily into the thick, dampened padding. Their weapons were aimed into the room, not at anyone, but ready. A third, unarmed, stayed in the doorway.
the cell was getting crowded. Giorge was finally showing signs of life, staring wall-eyed, making feeble pushing gestures at the air. Arvid pulled the black man behind him. The recoil drifted him into the first Invader. It skillfully turned the rifle before Rogachev could impale himself, Then gently thrust him away with the butt."

Meanwhile, on planet Earth, the aliens have"paraglided" in the thousands, into kansas. They have also bombed all dams and bombed bridges all over the globe, using meteors hurled with a powerful force. Wherever they encounter humans, they either take them as prisoners, or they practice a strange ritual: they force the human onto its back, and plant their powerful"feet" on their chests, sometimes breaking ribs, then they let them go.
Some humans try to fight back. Two of the aliens "tanks" are rolling down the street. They hide in some bushes, and when the tanks are close, hurl Molotov cocktails at them. Reynolds is a science fiction writer watching from the apartment where a sci-fi convention groupie lives. Her husband is one of the humans waiting to throw the homemade bombs.
(Crazy--in this book, science fiction writers are consulted for ideas on how to beat the aliens.)
P.306:
"Two more gasoline bombs arced out.
the second vehicle began rapid fire. Holes the size of baseballs appeared in the buildings behind bergson and his crew. The men dashed behind the McDonald's building.
the gunfire continued. The McDonald's building was chopped nearly in half. The upper part of the building fell into the lower part.
from somewhere far above a beam of greenish light speared the McDonald's building. The wreckage exploded in flame. the green light - pencil Drew an expanding spiral around the pillar of flame, first tightly, then in ever-spreading arcs that grew and grew...
Reynolds dived away from the window. there was the sound of crashing glass. The tank outside continued to fire, and two large holes appeared in the wall in front of him. Carol and Roger Brooks [a reporter for the Washington Post] dove into the hallway. Carol lay next to reynolds. 'jesus,' she whispered. 'Jesus christ. They're killing everybody - you knew!'
Reynolds shook his head. 'I didn't know, but it was a good guess. Look at them! Herd beasts. No speed, and all their defenses in front, and have you ever seen less than six together? I bet their ancestors stood in a ring to fight. It was a reasonable guess that if someone does something they don't like, they go after the offender's whole herd, not just the individual!' "

The aliens are attempting to learn about human culture by watching absconded videotapes. When the human prisoners aboard the mothership are given make-work jobs cleaning the air ducts, they find ways to climb out of certain passages to spy on the aliens. One of the russians reports back to the others:
P.393:
" 'the room is circled by television screens, square and thick, with the same proportions as the podo thuktun [this is a cultural relic of the aliens]. I saw our prison, empty, of course. I saw Dawson and one of the newcomers, a red-haired woman, working in the garden. They worked together, but they ignored each other. I saw you, comrade Rogachev. Heh-heh-heh. Very industrious you looked.'
'go on,' arvid said.
'there was much on those screens. One showed three of the fithp [aliens] watching a viewscreen. On the screen they were watching, were scenes of a man and a woman - comrades, the man had an enormous pecker, and she swallowed it, all of it.'
'what is this?' Dmitri asked sharply.
'I have told you what I saw,' Nikolai said. 'on one viewscreen were three fithp who watched a viewscreen. On that viewscreen was that scene, and others like it.' "

The aliens bring the new prisoners to their screening room to watch the"entertainment" and explain it to the aliens:
P.402-3:
" 'you will watch,' Tashayamp said. She bellowed something in fithp.
The screen lit up. Jeri caught a glimpse of the lead-in.
Deep throat
'what is this?' Jeri asked.
Carrie Woodward had a puzzled look. 'john, didn't we hear something about that movie?'
the Russian Dawson had called Dmitri frowned. The other one seemed amused. 'for this they have taken casualties?'
the screen raced past the titles to the sex scenes. Then it slowed to show Linda Lovelace doing her stuff in living color.
Carrie Woodward watched just long enough to be sure of what she was seeing. 'gary! Melissa! Come here. You're not to watch this. Come --'
'Gary capehart went to her at once. Melissa looked doubtful.
'you come here, young lady. Now.' Carrie was insistent. Melissa looked to her mother for guidance.
oh lord. Now what? 'melissa, do as she says.'
'Aw, mom - '
'now.'
Carrie gathered the children to her ample bosom. 'how dare you?' She shouted. 'Don't you critters have any sense of decency at all? No shame?' "

Carrie Woodward's husband John dies aboard the aliens' ship. The aliens "bury" their dead by burying them in a giant compost pit. The aliens allow the humans to have a burial ceremony. Carrie says remembered funeral prayers over her husband's corpse. Meanwhile, the aliens have instructed teacher Tashayamp to remember the words and translate them back to her bosses in order for them to learn more about the humans. The teacher has difficulty translating Carrie's words beseeching God to destroy the "evildoers":
P.592:
" 'return to your place,' Tashayamp told them. 'follow the guards.' she herself departed with the Bull and the priest.
'eat them. Rage and eat them, that they will die and know that God leads everywhere. That's as near as I can translate,' Tashayamp finished.
'you see!' Fistarteh-thukton trumpeted. 'of course we might have learned something by dissecting the creature, but this we would have lost! We have never before witnessed such a ceremony.'
'and what do you think you have learned?'
'I was wrong,' said the priest. 'despite their shape, they are not totally alien. We can lead them. Herdmaster, do you see it? they have no Predecessors. None lead them, they must lead themselves. They have made for themselves the fiction of a Predecessor!'
Pastempeh-keph signaled assent. 'it must be a fiction. This God would hardly have tolerated our incursions. I wonder how they see him? Does their God have thumbs? and they give him male gender --'
'I cannot make myself care. They seek a leader greater than themselves! Tashayamp, did you render that phrase accurately? 'fear god?' "

There's more, so much more. I give the authors stars just for the imagination needed to make these elephant aliens and their crazy names. But also, the book is kind of sad, given the upright-kind of president of the United States, who is really trying his best for the people who entrusted him with this job. And the kind of patriotic feelings of the Americans, especially at the end. This was written before Reagan and his ilk got a good foothold. ( )

Great fun, clever, builds slowly to a worthy climax ( )

Great book that gives you an idea of what extra terrestrial life could look like. I actually got mixed up while reading it, which can happen, and had to restart in a solid part that I knew I had pictured. I tend to use my mind to go into the story of books.
This was my first sci-fi read and couldn't be happier for it.
-Koty
💯🌬️🧩✝️🗺️👣🪐🛸👽👍♍ ( )

I strongly suspect and freely admit that my expectations going into a book substantially impact my enjoyment and ratings. I seem to be unable to manage this. Well, I went into this particular book with low expectations. It’s a 1985 hard sci-fi dealing with first contact and alien invasion. I prefer my sci-fi with a little less science and a little more wonder and atmosphere than most hard sci-fi. But dang it if I didn’t enjoy the heck out of this one. Sure, it starts a bit slow, it’s mildly misogynistic, a tad bloated, and it features gun toting baby elephants as the invading aliens. That’s right, small elephant-like aliens with a bifurcated truck that splits again with creating four digits on each trunk. This is no spoiler as it’s shown on the front cover (at least on my hardbound). Even the book’s characters can’t help but laugh the first time they see the aliens. But like the plot, there’s more beneath the wrinkly skinned exterior.

Let’s start with the plot, on the surface, it’s straight-forward. Aliens are approaching with a large generation ship, and they haven’t just come for our peanuts. The authors (yes, plural - Niven and Pournelle) do a skillful job of slowly revealing the aliens and their motivation, culture, and capabilities. I appreciated how not only were humans confused about the alien’s herd thinking, but the aliens are equally confused about our individualistic approach. It takes a while to get beneath the alien’s thick skin and really understand their backstory, society, and ethos, which is well thought-out and helps to drive a number of plot points. This is what really kept me turning pages and make this book fun.

It’s also epic (sort of like the movie Independence Day was epic). There were over a hundred characters and dozens of locations. The plot has plenty of twists and turns, nothing mind-blowing, but satisfyingly unpredictable. With Niven and Pournelle as ringmasters, I assume the science is accurate enough, and takes on some big technical challenges (especially the ending). The story is also a good blend of intrigue, suspense, and action.

The book isn’t perfect. I think it could have been trimmed in some places and expanded in others. I would have love to experience things like how the aliens dealt with jungle warfare and meet their first earth elephant. Instead, we are told about these events briefly and second hand. Meanwhile, we get to experience much detailed and tedious government organization and decision-making firsthand. Also, the aliens come across a bit thick. This is somewhat cleverly explained, but I still was bothered balancing their impressive capabilities with their lackluster intelligence. Of course, aliens might say the same thing about us.

An alien invasion extravaganza, driven by a slow reveal of the alien race’s history, purpose, and abilities, that makes for an entertaining tale by putting the entire planet in peril. Four stampeding stars! ( )