Fw: Footfall (off-list)

>Greetings,
>  Is Footfall worth the read?
>  As I may have mentioned at some time on the list, I am
dyslexic, so it
>takes me MUCH longer to read something than most people. I
enjoy reading,
>but often invest a couple of weeks into a book and find out
that it is not
>worth the read (let alone the cost) and so quit and start
something else.
>Your comments would be appreciated.

a) you may be interested to know that the first (possibly
"only") person to win all four Navy warfare badges--surface,
air, submarine, and ground, IIRC but that's a big "if"--is
dyslexic.   I happen to know him--Robert D'Agostino, SEAL, now
retired.  (He's quite modest about it, by the way--in fact, I
only found out about it because the newspaper had an article on
him.  His comment: "When you're sitting in a sub, you have
plenty of time to study.")

b) Footfall is good but not great.  I've read it twice since it
came out--by comparison, I'm on my second  _copy_ of Mote in
God's Eye.  I had difficulty following the alien politics (Niven
doesn't seem to like giving his aliens short names), and I felt
it could have been shorter without losing anything.  I'd
recommend instead The Warrior's Apprentice or The Vor Game by
Lois Bujold.