Lucifer’s Hammer

Home, not feeling well, so time to do some reading or in this case listening.  Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle is another one of those post-apocalyptic sci-fi books.  Tim Hamner, an amateur astronomer, co-discovers a comet that is coming towards Earth and sponsors his own tv documentary through the wealth he has accumulated as the owner of a soap company. His connection with political big-wig Senator Arthur Jellison allows him to study the comet with a space mission.  While many do not think the comet, renamed the “hammer” by the media hype, will hit, some earthlings get nervous fueled by televangelist Henry Armitage that the world is coming to an end! But guess what, the scientist are wrong and the “hammer hits!” with devastating results, goodbye Europe, goodbye east coast of Americas and most of the world.  The rest of the story focuses on the aftermath in the great old state of California; my favorite, right? Not!  Amazing to see how people respond, all for one and one for themselves.  Hamner struggles to survive riding up the vast mountains of the northern California region where he finds former colleagues, including Jellison, who is hiding out in a compound and unwilling to help others at the fear that his food supply will dwindle.  He is not the only challenge for Hamner (in his SUV which he paid $250,000 for after the comet hit).  Reverend Armitage has galvanized his forces and started a colony of cannibals who he says are the ones who will start the new world order.  A fantastic fight to the end occurs when Jellison, whom Hamner has convinced to fight to save those left, has it out with Armitage’s “religious cult.”  Will the cult win or will Jellison’s group defend human life?  Overall a pretty captivating tale.  I really am not into the sci-fi “end of world stories” but this one is better than most.  The authors utilize many of the beliefs scientists have of the fault lines and astronomers predictions, so kudos to them for making this pretty realistic.  I thought that the early portrayal of the characters was not in line with much of the story, i.e. they were pretty much a caricature of rich people, Russian cosmonauts, and the televangelists.   Some funny lines in the story as well.  Middle of the road book for me, would make an interesting movie.  Not on the top of my list.