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Lucifer's Hammer
Copyright 1977 by
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
I first read this in 1981.
A giant comet is going to hit the Earth. Well, you've seen "Armageddon",
so you know that the best way to handle this is to stop it before it hits.
In Lucifer's Hammer, that isn't possible, so this book is about the
preparation and the aftermath, whether and how humanity can survive the
collapse of civilisation.
This is a superb, and in my view the very best, disaster novel. It has
a memorable set of characters:
Tim Hamner - co-discoverer of the comet; Harvey Randall - the reporter;
the lovely Maureen Jellison and of course the astronauts. My personal
favourites have always been Dan Forrester the scientist and postman Harry.
Hell of a book.
Hell of a binding, too, on my original paperback - it's still perfect after
all these years. On the other hand, the Fawcett Crest edition that I
bought recently (the long-term storage facility in Wing Zero being
temporarily inaccessible) fell apart while reading.
Loaded on the 16th May 2001.
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