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)

Wanted to like it more than I actually did

I really liked the idea of this book and I felt that the authors put decent amount of thought into what might happen to a society facing 'the Hammer'.

On the other hand, I wasn't really drawn into this story as I would have expected. Big, exciting events felt somewhat flat. It could be that variations of this story have been told and retold for decades now, but it never really felt that the story moved too far beyond the expected. That could just be a consequence of being a classic.

I'm so sad now, and i'm stacking up

I like this book. It makes you think about humanity and about yourself. I can relate to about all the characters in different ways and that is strange!

It is a great book, but I'm finding it a bit hard to finish.

timeless

this book had me rapt at attention the whole time. between listenings, all I wanted to do was talk about it.

could not recommend it enough.

I read it many years ago and it is an interesting

a good story overall but doesn't age very well it was written in 1977 and it's interesting what didn't carry forward

easy read

good character development, some filler but story moves along with ease. a little dated but doesn't hinder flow

Classic Sci-Fi Built on Hard Science

Don't pay attention to the reviews talking about "dated" technology. If that was a point to separate a good story from bad anything over three years old would be a "bad" story.

This story was written 35 years ago. Of course technology has advanced! When a character has a "pocket computer" it's not a smart phone it's a scientific calculator!

The voice talent is not spectacular but good enough.

This is a classic sci-fi story built on solid science.

Awesome end of civilization book

This was a great book that was well-written and well read. I would recommend it for anybody that likes end of the world storylines.

Enjoyable!!!!

I read this book in 1985 and really enjoyed it and that much more after listening to the audible version. The story will give thoughts of , "What would you do?" Even though the book came out in 1977, it still reads well!

Classic novel, well performed.

Any additional comments?

This is a true original daddy of the genre, one of the first truly well written end of the world novels.
Enough scientific data to be credible to the layman without getting bogged down in detail.
Interesting characters get the reader involved, even if the plot is a little set up at times.

Really awesome....

This title was really awesome. I was concerned about losing interest considering this book doesn't even take place in the century nor is modern technology even advanced to the point of cell phones and home Pcs. All-in-all in all really fun listen.