Lucifer's Hammer

This is a remarkable post-apocalyptic novel written in 1977 by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It certainly challenges the 1957 novel On the Beach by Nevil Shute. The only difference is that Earth is destroyed by a comet, not by a nuclear war as in Shute's book. Although, Niven does have Russia and China exchanging warheads after the comet hits Earth. The other disparity is that mankind attempts a rebound of civilization versus the suicidal ending of On the Beach. Anyhow, this was a very enjoyable novel that precedes all the current "end of the world" disaster books and movies. Which novel is better is a matter of conjecture.

Once again Niven has a dramatis personae in his book, which means..."Hello to numerous characters"! Wow, how about at least ten main characters and dozens of side characters, all fully developed. It means you, as the reader, will really care what happens to these people whether good or bad. That is a talent of Niven's that I've noticed in his other novels. The only flaw is with his Dr. Charles Sharps character, the Science and Project Director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratories. After the comet impacts, he disappears from the story and never returns. I wonder if that was done on purpose or an oversight.

The story begins with Tim Hamner, a amateur astronomer, along with a similar sighting from a youngster named Brown, discovers a comet heading towards Earth. The odds of this Hamner-Brown Comet hitting Earth are millions to one. Harvey Randall, a Documentary Producer for NBS television, decides to do a TV series on this event. The comet's name gets changed to Lucifer's Hammer by Johnny Carson on the Tonight Show. The U.S. and Russia send four astronauts in orbit to study the comet. The U.S. Senator Arthur Jellison, the man behind the space program, retreats to his California ranch. As the comet rounds the Sun and approaches Earth, the unthinkable happens...it calves, changes course, and strikes Earth in many places!

The rest of the novel deals with the catastrophic events that happen after the strike, man's reaction, and ultimately man's survival. There is so much happening that you really have to read this great book yourself. All of the human elements pertaining to survival are completely believable. And kudos to Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for keeping the technical stuff out of the book and just tell the story. I don't remember what man's attitude was when the Kohoutek Comet passed Earth in 1973, but if another stray comet approaches Earth, one would hope it will not be as cavalier as Lucifer's Hammer was.

RATING: 5 out of 5 stars

Comment: Halley's Comet passes every 75 or 76 years, but the Kohoutek (or Kouhoutek) Comet has a course so far from Earth that we will only see it every 75,000 years! The next time it passes, man may not be living on Earth.