Post-apocalyptic Novel - Two viewpoints: one alien and one human

Question

I'm looking for the title of a novel I bought this novel from a thrift store when I was younger. It was obviously very old because it was falling apart. I remember that it was a very long book. I believe it had two different viewpoints that it kept going back and forth between.

One, I believe was a giant alien and it was searching the Earth. The Earth has been ravaged (it reminded me of Mad Max, humans live like nomads and travel with horses and sleep in tents). One man goes out exploring or something. These two viewpoints then meet. The alien sees the man on the horse and it thinks it is some weird creature. That's all that I remember of it but if someone could get me the title, it would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

You might be searching for Battlefield Earth.

The early parts of the book switch between the viewpoints of the human Johnny, and the alien Terl. Both are out searching and meet, and Johnny is riding a horse at the time, which confuses Terl:

Terl didn't know what he was looking at.

He had bunked down in the car in the outskirts. He had the old Chinko map of the ancient city, but he had no curiosity about it.

With a few shots of kerbango, he had eased himself off into sleep, intending to be gone with the dawn, through the city and into the mountains. Senseless, even risky, to go on in the dark.

The car, however, had grown hot with the morning sun before he awoke. And now he stared out at an odd thing in the street before him. Maybe it had been the footfalls that had awakened him.

He didn't know what it was. He had seen horses– they were always falling down mine shafts. But he had never before seen a horse with two heads.

That's right. Two heads. One in front and one in the middle.

And a second animal of similar sort behind. Only this one only had a second body in the middle, as if the second head was bent down out of sight.

Which matches your recollection of the alien thinking the man on a horse was a single weird creature.

The novel is also a very long book.