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)

Apocalyptic story telling from 1977

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle teamed up to tell this apocalyptic tale in 1977, which was a time before such stories were a dime a dozen. This is a book composed of two distinct parts with the first half following various individuals as they go about their normal and somewhat boring lives, as well as following the cosmic events that affect an un-named comet formed along with our solar system. The comet is eventually named Hamner-Brown upon discovery, and it quickly becomes known as "The Hammer" as TV coverage ramps up post discovery. The odds are a billion to one that it will hit Earth, but of course that would make for a boring book, so the second part of the book starts upon "Hammer Fall" and covers the impact of this calamity to the planet as well as the characters from the first half.

For me personally the first half of the book was a bit slow and none of the characters really presented themselves as individuals that I wanted to get invested in, but after Hammer Fall that all changed. The pace of the story telling quickened dramatically and the character development felt far more meaningful once the world itself was irrevocably changed. The impact of the various pieces of the comet around the world was devastating and only a fraction of the population had any hope of survival. Of course humans being humans the apocalypse mostly brought out the worst in people and those that found themselves in positions of power had some tough decisions to make. This second part of the book was much more engaging than the first and when it ended I found myself wanting more, which was a dramatic turn around from the drawn out beginning.

Overall I would say the story holds up well despite the era it was written in. You should know that there are a few areas where it doesn't age well, including the representation of women and attitudes towards race, but I still recommend giving this classic a try. Marc Vietor does an excellent job on the narration and handles the large cast of characters well.

Another great Niven / Pournelle Masterpiece

Being a big fan of Niven I have to admit there isn't much he writes that I don't love but this was very well done. Despite the long length, I never tired of it and even though I had read the story years ago, I still enjoyed the audio version as well as if it were new to me. Great job!

Great Book!

I almost didn't buy this book because of some negative reviews. However, I'm very glad I did. It was one of the best books I've listened to. The book is well balanced on life before, during, and after the impact. Lots of characters, but that helps give lots of perspective to the story.

Not bad but...

This story took some time for me to get into. Parts of it made me feel more like I was in a science lecture. There was section after section of needless rambling about the universe and the characteristics of the comet. Some mentioning here and there would have been ok but this was so much technical info that it became quite boring or tmi as my daughter would say.

When the actual storyline did begin to pick up, about ten to twelve hours into the story, it was pretty good but very cliche. This is another end of the wold story where a local official who is from a small community more or less becomes the leader of one group, the good group which by the way, almost all of the members are white except for one astronaut an one female. All of the other minorites are part of the bad group. They are made out to be gangsters and thugs and druggies and thieves. oh yes, and they are also cannibals.

I think this story speaks volumes about the author's views on minorities, and of course they are lead by a psychotic preacher. Something else I'm sick to death of- every end of the world story making Christians the bad guys.

I gave this story three stars because it had potential, lord knows it was long enough, but it definitely fell short. I would love to read or listen to a catastrophe story that dares to be different!

A great read

This a very thought provoking book about a subject that is possible and has happenned in past history. It shows the extremes that man will go to survive when confronted by a natural disaster. It was a hard one to put down and even the second time around I found things that I had missed. I would recommend this to anyone unless they are troubled by vaguely graphic details of mans cruelty to man.

Science actually felt believable!

This book is a nice mix of apocalyptic and space science. I especially enjoyed the first third of the book that covered the discovery of the comet, realization that it would possibly hit earth, and then the fall-out. The authors spent plenty of time on the horror of the comet hitting Earth from different perspectives. Mostly you see people who live in the L.A. area, but there is also a nice bit from astronauts that are sent up to research the comet. The rest of the book follows the struggles of those that survive. I felt it was a pretty realistic perspective - you have the religious nuts that think it's God's doing. You have the soldiers and police officers that suddenly decide it's time for them to use their power for evil. You have the politicians that use their natural leadership to set up safe communities and those that use it for personal gain. If there's anything you can get out of this book it's that you can horde all the supplies you want, but if you can't protect it, someone else will take it. My only annoyance with this book is that it really does come off as a 70's book in some ways. Everyone is sleeping with someone other than their spouse. There's a lot of, "damn it man!" It wasn't so much annoying as made me chuckle. I just finished King's "The Stand" and the books are somewhat similar in their approach to telling this type of story.

Descent, but too long

Any additional comments?
I have read several books in this genre, and while this was OK, it was in my opinion inferior to one second after or the road.

A story of two halves

Lucifer's Hammer is a difficult audio book to rate as the quality of the writing seems to differ hugely between the pre-comet strike and the post-strike. Pre-strike is a lightweight, corny intro to a 70s disaster movie. There are way too many characters who are mostly shallow. The post-strike story is much better, and would almost standalone as a novel. If you have the stamina to listen through the first 12 hours of the story, then you'll be rewarded. The narrator did a very good job in reading a story with an excessive number of characters. If you want a good post-apocolyse story, then listen to The Road or Alas Babylon.

Awesome story, kept me on my toes and wanting more

A fabulous book and story line. Loved it and wish there was more of it. Great stuff !!

very good but very slow start

very good it's kinda hard to follow at first but , when shit hit the fan it very fast paced