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 story. Still resonates!

Despite being written in the late 70's, this story is still very relevant. I mean what's changed since the 70's. The internet and yoga pants. The technologies and social-political issues remain the same but instead of referring to Vietnam, we refer to Iraq and Afghanistan.

The story is great. While I concede that the first third is a tad trying as it sets up characters for the final 2/3rds of apocalyptic-goodness, it's important investment. I loved the science and all the hypotheticals around what would happen if a massive asteroid hit the earth and really enjoyed the pace and atmosphere of the first few days following the strike. Pretty riveting stuff. And all throughout you're having a real debate with yourself regarding whether or not one particular act or decision is what you would have done to survive the end of the world. This is opposed to my usual status of gobsmacked as some idiot main character clearly makes the most stupid decision you've ever read in the history of (zombie apocalypse) literature. I mean ever.

IMO: This story is about 50 times as good as the glut of end of world zombie tripe that is out there right now (then why do you listen to it if it's so bad....don't ask). Granted it's a bit long, but on the whole, it's worth it.

Finally - props to the narrator. A very nice job. Does a good job selling different voices, including the female ones and gets the right tone and deliver throughout.

Couldn’t finish it

I just couldn’t get into this as an audiobook. Was just too dry for me.

Amazing!

GREAT book! Changed the way I look at packing my bug-out bag; doesn't take long for humanity to slip away....

Slow start, worth sticking with it

Though it takes a while to pick up, and there's a lot of introduction of many, many characters, when the story picks up it's hard to put down. This is also probably one of the absolutely best researched books I've ever read. And bear in mind, it was researched back before a Google or Wikipedia existed

Needs real women narrating women's parts.

A really good read, but it needs multiple people acting in actual roles, with background effects, similar to the radio soap operas from the pre-television era. This mostly applies to all audio books based off of novels.

Sensitive people beware

This is a pretty good prediction, but sensitive people will be triggered. The language is written for different time, I will not be surprised when this booked will be band. Awesome book! A must read!

racist as all get out.

if you've been wondering why boomers are the way they are this is the book for you it's full of racism andachronism and a lack of understanding of collective action it's also clearly been made in the hopes of being turned into a movie in the '70s

Good plot, if a little far-fetched

Good plot, but a bit far fetched. I don’t see how a nuclear power plant could survive and function in those conditions. The good vs. evil aspect was vaguely like Stephen King’s _The Stand_, but not nearly as engrossing or dramatic.

very good

It is very good and interesting and I enjoyed listening to the entire book.

1970's future is now outdated

The premise of the book was good and I think I would have loved it as a kid in the 70's/80's. Reading it in 2022 just reminded me how annoying the background misogyny was back then. Even though this would have been a forward thinking book at the time. The main characters were all men with annoying character flaws. The women who came and went were unidementional with occasionally interesting points of inner conflict, but overshadowed by the lack of being able to escape being a women of the 70's. If you want a slow paced, pre and post-apocalyptic Sci-fi, to remember how far the genre has come, this is it!