Lucifer's Hammer

Lucifer's Hammer

First edition
Author	Larry Niven Jerry Pournelle
Cover artist	Anthony Russo[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Science fiction
Publisher	Playboy Press
Publication date	1977
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)
Pages	494 pp
ISBN	0-87223-487-8
OCLC	2966712
Dewey Decimal	813/.5/4
LC Class	PZ4.N734 Lu PS3564.I9

Lucifer's Hammer is a science fiction post-apocalypse / survival novel by American writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, first published in 1977.^[2] It was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978.^[3] A comic book adaptation was published by Innovation Comics in 1993.^[4]

Plot summary

Starting with the discovery of a comet in a close approach orbit to the earth, the story details a collision with the Earth, the end of civilization, and the battle for the future course of mankind. Focusing on several diverse characters whose fate it is to be among the few who survive the cataclysm and the resulting breakdown of social order.

When wealthy soap company heir and amateur astronomer Tim Hamner co-discovers a new comet, dubbed Hamner-Brown, documentary producer Harvey Randall persuades Hamner to have his family's company sponsor a television documentary series on the subject. Political lobbying by California Senator Arthur Jellison eventually gets a joint Apollo-Soyuz (docking with Skylab B) mission into space to study the comet, dubbed "The Hammer" by popular media, which is expected to pass close to the Earth.

Despite being unable to accurately project the comet's path due to constant outgassing and fragmentation, the scientific community repeatedly assures the public that a collision with Earth is extremely unlikely. Many members of the public, however, catch "Hammer Fever" and begin to hoard food and supplies and head for the hills. Some are fueled by the religious fervor of evangelist Henry Armitage, who teaches that the arrival of the comet signals the End Times.

Eventually, to the shock of scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, multiple pieces of the comet's nucleus impact across the western hemisphere with devastating results. The strikes on parts of Europe, Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, and both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans set off volcanoes, destabilize fault lines, including the San Andreas fault, and cause tsunamis thousands of meters high, destroying major coastal cities around the world, including Los Angeles, killing billions and initiating long-term climate problems due to the massive quantities of vaporized seawater in the atmosphere. The impact events are showcased with a series of vignettes that include; passengers on a 747 over New Jersey, two archaeologists on the summit of the island of Thera, a gigolo who tries to surf the tsunami caused by the Pacific strike, and two SAC officers in a Minuteman missile silo beneath Montana.

Immediately following the Hammer's impact, the crew of Skylab notice the launch of nuclear missiles from Russia. The American commander warns Looking Glass of the launch only to discover that the Soviets were defending themselves. China, anticipating the coming ice age had launched a preemptive nuclear attack on Russia. The last Soviet Premier reassures the US that they are not the target, and he requests help against the unprovoked attack.

After the strike much of the world is left in ruin, and the survivors have to contend with weeks of nonstop rain, causing flooding which destroys almost every dam and levee. Electrical power is lost and commerce breaks down as long-distance travel and communication become difficult or impossible. Civilization crumbles as people use the few remaining weapons to protect themselves from each other, leaving the search for food and security as top survival priorities.

Surviving "Hammerfall" is shown to be primarily a matter of random chance, with preparation being only a distant second factor. Hamner goes from being a dilettante astronomer to a determined survivor, with his new wife, Eileen. Randall shows true leadership abilities under fire, while Jellison and other land owners, farmers and ranchers become lords over their fiefdoms and the serfs they employ to provide labor, skills and security. Jellison's ranch forms the centerpost of these fiefs in the Sierra foothills, dubbed "the Stronghold," where he presides over a small population of survivors who struggle to maintain civilization. The tone of life after "Hammerfall" is one where those who do not have valuable skills for a world without power or civilization are relegated to being manual laborers, regardless of their socioeconomic status or profession before the Fall.

Shortwave radio, the only surviving means of mass communication, is eagerly monitored and reveals a chaotic situation after the Fall. Several people, including some who were previously officials of the former United States Government, claim, with varying levels of support, to be the new or currently acting President of the United States, while others are now self-proclaimed monarchs of various regions or areas. Many people subsist by looting former stores and by catching rats and various fish, especially the now-plentiful giant carp, which are mostly either former pet goldfish or their progeny, engorged by the massive supply of food available to them, primarily in the form of human and animal corpses. Some advanced technical knowledge was maintained by the means of the preservation of a collection of books which had been wrapped in impermeable plastic and submerged in a septic tank shortly after Hammerfall and later retrieved by a JPL scientist who realized their potential value and likely scarcity in a post-Hammer world.

While doctors and farmers are still valuable, lawyers, executives and many other professionals are unnecessary, but if civilization is to be rebuilt, scientific knowledge is the most valuable skill of all. Soldiers and police are diminished in status, and provide security alongside gang members and bikers, both within the Stronghold and within the New Brotherhood Army. This latter group forms the legions of Reverend Henry Armitage, who managed to take control of the remnants of a former United States Army unit which had largely survived the Fall due to its being on maneuvers in the Sierra Nevada mountains, at altitudes high enough to survive the flooding. Armitage integrates the soldiers and his pre-existing band of followers, initiating them into cannibalism to shame them into loyalty, and maintains even more loyalty through a strict egalitarianism, where racial, social, or other prejudice is severely punished.

Armitage's charisma and his followers' strict, military-derived discipline makes the New Brotherhood Army into a formidable force. Jellison's stronghold is located slightly east or northeast of Springville, California, where the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the Tule River meet. West of this stronghold, the city of Porterville has been destroyed by the collapse of the dam at Lake Success. Massive and sustained rainfall has turned the former San Joaquin Valley into a swampy lake. Other small enclaves of civilization exist in this area until the band of cannibalistic zealots led by Reverend Armitage and his army of heavily armed soldiers begin a rampage through the area, culminating in a series of battles with the inhabitants of the Stronghold. Jellison's force prevails, saving the Stronghold while also defending a nuclear power plant nearby, thus preserving a supply of electric power needed to rebuild civilization.

Literary significance and reception

Judith T. Yamamoto in her review for the Library Journal said that the novel was full of "good, solid science, a gigantic but well developed and coordinated cast of characters, and about a megaton of suspenseful excitement." Her one negative comment was that the pro-technology pitch might turn off some readers but "all in all it's a good book, if not a great one."^[5] Lucifer's Hammer received a nomination for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978.^[3]

See also

• Footfall, by the same authors, which uses a similar impact-damage plot device.
• The Hammer of God, novel by Arthur C. Clarke about an asteroid strike.
• Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, in which the Moon disintegrates and falls to Earth as "Hard Rain".

References

External links

• Lucifer's Hammer at Worlds Without End
• Lucifer's Hammer sample chapters from Baen Books (the Hot Fudge Sundae scene is in "April: One")