I've been going through a Harry Turtledove phase, and one of my favorite stories at the moment is Turtledove's Worldwar series. There are a lot of similarities between Footfall and Turtledove's Worldwar, particularly that the alien invaders in both novels are not quite as skilled at improvisation and deceit as us wiley humans. In the Worldwar series, the invaders are a race of reptilians, with fifty thousand of years of history, most of it under an dynastic imperial system. They are a methodical species, drilled from hatchlinghood to obedience. The Race, as they call themselves, have conquered two other life bearing worlds, both populated by pseudo-reptilian life forms like themselves. The story begins when they send a probe to the earth during the middle ages, where they record pictures of knights on horseback. Easy pickings for soldiers wielding automatic weapons, armored fighting vehicles and fighter aircraft. They'll get around to our world soon enough, after all, how much can a world change in only a thousand years? When they arrive, they are suprised to find us engaged in world war 2. That's the setting: The Nazis have been pushed back from Moscow, the Nipponese are advancing, the Americans have begun the island hopping campaign, when all of a sudden the aliens land and start kicking everybody's buttsThe Worldwar series is excellent, though I am now convinced that Turtledove, a notorious punster, wrote it solely so he could call the last book "Homeward Bound". >:)
His alternate history series with the US and Confederacy at constant war is tremendous as well.
-Eric
I liked How Few Remain, but I kind of lost interest during American Front. The Worldwar series, though, is one of my absolute favorites. Is Homeward Bound out yet? If it is, I can't wait to go pick it up. I read on some fan site that Turtledove had not intended to write a fouth book for the Colonization series, but he did so due to demand from his readers. What I like about both Footfall and the Worldwar series, is the setting with humans as comparitive underdogs who triumph through guile and improvisation. Right now I'm working through David Brin's Uplift novels, which have a similar theme.