Lucifer's Hammer

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Narrated by: Marc Vietor

Length: 24 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization.

But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival - a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known....

©1985 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Take your earthquakes, waterlogged condominiums, swarms of bugs, colliding airplanes, and flaming what-nots, wrap them up and they wouldn't match one page of Lucifer's Hammer for sweaty-palmed suspense." ( Chicago Daily News)
"Massively entertaining." ( Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

Great TEOTWAWKI

Spent to much time on building characters, but half way through it got really good. Great story about "the end of the world as we know it".

Holds Up Well!

There is a long buildup with back story and character development before the collision but for a science fiction novel first published in 1977 it still holds up quite well.

Wow, there are so many WOKE reviews.

PEOPLE The book was published in 1977. Sure, it's not going to be up to date now with so many woke people in the US. Take it with a grain of salt and enjoy the story. That was life in the 70s. When do you think womens lib started? No one can see into the future. I listened to I think it was Battlefield Earth (which is absolutely fantastic), and he was talking about programming aircraft with punch tape. Google it, Millennials. I'm sure you don't know what that is. But that's what top of the line programming was when the book was written. it doesn't take away from the quality of the story. So get over your WOKENESS and stop being so sensitive. I'm sure I hurt somebody's feelings. Bottom line don't pay attention to the woke reviews. The story was engaging. if I had one complaint, it would be that the buildup to the hammer falling was too long. Other than that, the characters were believable, and most of what happened would probably be real life if it did happen.

Outstanding, but a touch incomplete

Outstanding story, outstanding performance. Really enjoyed this listen. I learned something, felt a wide array of emotions and was always looking forward to starting my hour a day. Would liked to have seen a few more story lines develop a bit more. Would liked to have seen the epilogue expanded. Well done overall. Highly recommend.

Still Great After All These Years

A must read. Couldn't stop until the end. You will never forget this book which will leave you pondering every time you hear about a comet's near miss to our planet.

dark warning

a dark warning of a future event that will happen.
will we be ready? not yet

Best of the best.

Nothing more to say here. Don't wonder about it, just read or listen to this book.

Mighty fine, no matter when it was written

If you could sum up Lucifer's Hammer in three words, what would they be?

This was one of the the first serious stories depicting an earth wide catastrophe and it still stands as one of the best. The novel takes the reader form the first hints of impending cataclysm, through the apocalypse, and all the way through to the survivors trying to rebuild society. It starts out strong and stays strong all the way until ALMOST the end. At that point it becomes a little fluffy. The book was written in the 1970s and race relations as well as the role of women is a little out of date. This reflects heavily in the somewhat disappointing ending. The book seemed to need a bout 50 more pages to satisfactorily wrap up, instead it seems a somewhat abrupt ending.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No. I wanted to listen to it in 3 sittings: awaiting the cataclysm, going through the cataclysm, and then surviving the aftermath.

Written on the Moon, presented on earth.

While presenting a strong vocab and detailed plot-line this book is underwhelmingly submitted to thought by the given narrator.

Compelling story, realistic.

I found myself imagining this really happening. So sad that through such a catastrophe people would still behave as though it were an opportunity for gain. There were probably hundreds of scenarios like this in California all over the world after Hammer fall.