Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle
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Book Reviews of Lucifer's Hammer
Book Review: Although The Charges Of Racism Are Silly
Summary: 5 Stars
Given their attachment to the Reagan administration, I suppose I should not be surprised to learn that N&P are conservatives. But it was a bit disconcerting to read about the evils of hippiedom n a sci-fi work. Indeed, given the obvious fear of black gangsters and white [addicts], and the heroic actions of boy scouts and rugged individualist Senators, this book can easily be seen as a reactionary screed against the excesses of the sixties. The misogynistic clichés about how women must retreat to the kitchen when the times get really tough are expected. Still, the macho posturing is par for the course in this field, and does not mar the work over much. The story is quite entertaining, one would hardly think that the tail of a rock hitting the earth would be engaging, but N&P are nothing if not master story tellers. In the pre-apocalypse the characters drive the book, in the post apocalypse it's the story of their fates. Either way, it's an engaging page-turner. Almost any N&P work is worth the price of admission, but this one is a bargain at twice the price. They should make a mini series out of it.Book Review: LIVE FOR TODAY FOR TOMORROW WE DIE!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book deserves 10 Stars. The characters are realistic, believeable, credible, and if my one- line summary was meant to read like a sensational tabloid headline, good. I grabbed your attention. Lucifer's Hammer is about a comet that's on a collision course with Earth. What happens in the ensuing three days, shows the best and worst of us. There's Johnny, an astronaut who's carrying on an affair with more than one woman, (very 70s. This was, after all, written before AIDS.) One of whom is Maureen--the daughter of a U.S. Senator from California. There are also a host of supporting characters. The main character, Tim Hamner, is an amateur astronomer who co- discovered the Hamner-Brown Comet. Remember four years ago when the Shoemaker-Levy Comet slammed into Jupiter? What if it had slammed into Earth instead? Don't think it can't happen, America. An asteroid with a diameter of 6 miles slammed into Earth 65 million years ago and made the dinosaurs extinct. The question is: Are we next? Maybe we are. Ninety years ago, what might have been a comet, slammed into Siberia near the town of Tunguska.Book Review: Action Packed End Of The World Thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
The two authors of this book were well ahead of Hollywood's apocalyptic endeavors with this classic. I found the characters to be well developed and the action non-stop, once you get into it. Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle take care to spend the first section of the book carefully detailing characters and relationships before enacting Doomsday upon them. The time they do spend on the beginning is not wasted as the bond you build with them from the start helps to root your excitement in their escaping the comet's fury.I think that they have, fairly accurately, detailed how humanity society would splinter under the duress of such an ordeal. How some would try with all their might to hang onto what they've been living with and create their own small society and others would abandon their humanity resulting in chaotic murder, unremorseful theft and cannibalism.
Overall, I couldn't put this book down. And of course, it being about Doomsday and the destruction and triumph of the human spirit didn't hurt either.
Book Review: Disaster fiction at its finest.
Summary: 5 Stars
What if civilization were destroyed by a comet?
Humankind has been essentially modern, physically, for 100,000 years, so who's to say there have not been many ages of civilization in the past, each completely destroyed by a comet impact? Perhaps such events could have been the origin of the fear and superstition with which comets were regarded by our ancestors.
These are typical of the thoughts that keep me awake at night, since reading this book. It's compellingly written, with the transitional breakdown of all orderly society described in heartbreaking detail.
In response to the reviewer who objected to the idea of the nuclear power plant being revived, when there must have been umpteen coal-fired plants around that were presumably less hazardous, the explanation is simple. The coal plants need ontinuous inflows of coal, requiring roads, trucks, trains, and transport fuel. A nuclear plant can probably store years worth of fuel onsite at any given time.
Book Review: The end of the world seen from the 1970s
Summary: 5 Stars
When a novel from the 1970s is reprinted and gets positive reviews thirty years later, you know you have something good on your hands.
In some respects, the book is a little dated. What's a TravelAll? A Tensor lamp? These are questions Google will help you answer.
However, the core of the book is timeless. The story is well-rendered. In many ways, this book is like seeing every disaster movie from the 70s crammed together. The first 150 pages build suspense, and you'll be glad you read them once the action happens.
The authors have a great philosophy behind the book, which is part of the reason the book still reads well. If it was simply The End Of The World, there are dozens of other books which cover that and have not been reprinted. The authors use the end of the world to say something meaningful about human nature and our relationship to reality.
In short, this book is worth the money and time you'll invest. Highly recommended.