Lucifer’s Hammer, first published in 1977, is a result of the fruitful collaboration between Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is a page-turner of a sci fi/disaster novel, focusing on the impact of a sizable comet colliding with the Earth.
The book got some attention at publication for its attempts at being “scientifically realistic” (whatever that means) at depicting the devastation such a comet strike would cause. I wonder if those models hold up 50 years on: we’re talking about 800 foot tidal waves and the simultaneous activation of most volcanic activity on the planet, with strikes concentrated from the California coast through the Gulf of Mexico and into the Atlantic. It reads plausibly, though.
The novel suffers from being a product of its time in two ways. First, the Cold War mechanics of the geopolitical reactions to the comet are clearly rooted in the realities of the 1970s (and are key to a nice plot line that revolves around a US/USSR joint attempt to observe the comet from space); second, the non-western world gets pretty short shrift. Africa is dismissed with the destruction of its coastal areas and South America is waved away as being awash in chaos and revolution.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is how much time–nearly half the novel–is spent before impact, introducing a large cast of characters in different Californian locations, ranging from a playboy who jointly discovers the comet to various politicians to a gangster looking to take advantage of rich people fleeing their homes to just “normal” folks reacting to the possibility of a looming disaster. There is an attempt to build some suspense as to whether the comet will hit or not, but the cover and the blurbs on the back of the book (not to mention the title) give that away well before you start reading.
Still, it’s a nice choice, as it makes the characters matter to the reader in ways that otherwise could be more challenging; and, it raises the stakes for seeing how these characters will respond to the disaster.
There is something … innocent about Lucifer’s Hammer. We are a bit desensitized to dystopian futures, and most contemporary writing move very quickly into the rapid destruction of morality and ethical behavior. Niven and Pournelle don’t avoid those topics, but this novel is grounded in a time when our faith in science, technology, and even humanity was higher than it is right now. That makes it a surprisingly refreshing read.
#WhatIWishICouldDo
Niven and Pournelle make some interesting choices in the final 1/3 of the book in terms of not detailing major events, but rather moving straight to a scene after the event, and using that to both shed light on what just happened and hit a beat in the plot of the characters involved. It’s a challenge to pull off–and they largely do–and something I think I could learn from, as I tend to want to write out every. single. thing. that happens.
Was this the first time you had read it? I think I may have to borrow it back to check my memory of it. I agree about it being a different time. Sometimes it’s good to go back and look at the “roots” of a genre.
I don’t remember reading it before–although I do remember it’s spine being on the book shelf. I would love to know more about the partnership between them–both were decently successful on their own, and the writing is relatively seamless throughout (it’s not clear who wrote what to a casual reader, for sure).