Pros: Wonderfull imagery intensified by well rounded characters.
Cons: Constant mention of the need to colonize space.
The Bottom Line: I'd recommend this book to anybody, but particularly those that are interested in what makes humans tick, and how they might react under stress.
KGZotU's Full Review: Larry Niven - Lucifer's Hammer
I love everything from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, the coauthers of this book. Time and time again they've come together to write wonderful books. Writing about people as well as science, they manage to do each justice in their average book length of 600 pages. I would not hesitate to read anything by these authors.
That said, Lucifer's Hammer is one of my favorite Niven and Pournelle books. The science is, admittedly, lacking and outdated, but the number, depth, and variety of characters make this book an excellent read. Before I start, here's a rundown of the plot:
The book is set in the 70's of California. When Tim Hamner, playboy and amateur astronomer, co-discovers a comet, the world takes little notice; projections show it's likely to miss by millions of miles. As the months wear by, and the odds of a strike move from billions to one against to millions to one against, and eventually to a thousand to one against, humanity starts to loose its sanity. People stockpile food, and maladjusted criminals act out in hope of the coming doom. The Hammer, a derivation of Tim's last name, does strike and millions die from the resulting tidal waves, floods, and volcanic activity. Left among the destitute are our main characters. Harvey Randall, the man behind the documentary of the Hamner-Brown comet, drives in search of safety and his Boy Scout son. Dr. Dan Forrester, after preserving hundreds of books like The Way Things Work, hikes towards shelter in the valley of former US Senator Arthur Jellison, the valley around which all of the book's main characters revolve. Bereft of all of society's consumables, they must fight against the coming winter and the more horrible aspects of human nature for even a chance at survival.
The Good
Majestic Beauty There's a certain beauty in the large, unexpected things in life. A comet, and the resulting death of millions is an event at which one can only gape. Here in Oregon, there's a mountain in our coastal range from which you can see either the ocean or the Cascades, on a clear day. Reading this book, I imagined myself there, watching the comet strike. I pictured the head, like a second sun leaving a streamer of smoke is it plunged into the Pacific. I could see the pillar of steam shoot upwards, covering the sky in dark clouds. I watched as the ocean receeded, and then spit itself onto the shore as a 500m tall tidal wave devour the cities and, within minutes, rush through the passes to lap at the base of the mountain I was viewing from. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the fact that it was all a fantasy, I couldn't help but feel overwhelmed at the beauty of something so much larger than myself destroying my world. Whether it's the quality of the imagery or the way they make you a part of the situation, Niven and Pournelle are incredible authors capable of evoking incredible emotions.
Deep Characters Of the 20 or so central characters listed in the book's "Dramatis Personae" each is unique. They all have definable motives and interesting personalities. In its investigation of human nature, Lucifer's Hammer takes you into a lot of heads that you might rather not go; we see through the eyes of a sex offender, a cannibal, and a deranged preacher. Even these, though, are valuable, because they provide insights into the causes and effects of all sorts of lifestyles. Niven and Pournelle masterfully create one scene characters in one scene settings wonderfully capable of inspiring emotion. My favorite scene is one such; two men climb a granite knob on the Greek, I believe, island of Thera to watch the comet pass over. When it strikes, one is blinded by the glare of the descending head. As the fragments burn through the atmosphere overhead, the other describes to his friend calmly the sights of the end of the world. The two make a sort of peace before the volcano below them erupts. Isolated scenes like this as well as ones that fit into the larger story allow the well developed characters of Lucifer's Hammer to shine.
The Bad
Colonization, Colonization, Colonization Even though this book deals almost exclusively with the social, rather than the scientific, the authors are obviously sci-fi writers. I'd wager that at one point or another every single protagonist muses on how we should colonize space. This gets boring after the fourth time.
I rate this book a 5 for incredible imagery amplified by sympathetic characters and events. This is the second time I've read it, and while such things as the colonization topic were more apparent, it was otherwise just as wonderful a read as the first time. I'd recommend this book to anybody, but particularly those that are interested in what makes humans tick, and how they might react under stress.
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of...More at HotBookSale
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