Hot Fudge Sundae (which falls on a Tuesday this week). ( )

Like Armegeddon, the earth is the target, this time by a comet & it hits the earth. Excellent look at our civilization; how fragile, yet resilient. A must read. Well written & researched. ( )

I wasn't expecting much when I started this book, probably due to the cheesy cover and the images of the movie "Deep Impact" dancing in my head, but I was pleasantly surprised. The characters, although not incredibly deep or challenging, are still drawn out well enough that I cared about most of them. This is not an easy feat, considering the amount of characters that the authors introduce. The description of the actual "event" and the storytelling afterward are first rate, however, it does take awhile to get there, as there are extensive character introductions at the start. Also, be warned this book is from the 70's so there are some cold war themes prevalent throughout the story, which are not relevant today. Overall though, a very enjoyable book about apocalypse and its aftermath that kept me in suspense from the moment the action started until the conclusion. ( )

The book was written in the late 70's and, as such, has a big dose of the "Cold War" fears in it which seems a bit excessive (i.e. if the world is already being toasted by a series of comet hits, I seriously doubt that any nation would then go and nuke a neighbor... very "dated" concept). And, besides, the authors went nowhere with the nuking - just threw it in there but it ended up meaning nothing in the story.

Unlike many apocalyptic novels, the authors didn't have everyone being naive (i.e. nearly everyone realized that they'd lose electricity, etc), and the problems were believable - for example: the necessary items were unavailable, not that the people were too stupid to know what they needed.

My biggest complaint is that there were too many characters and their names were too similar so even after finishing the book, I'm not really sure who was who, and etc. I.e. there is a Harry, Harvey, Hamner, and Harv who are involved with women named Marie, Maureen, Eileen, etc... (and the women, in the entire novel, are only there as "mates" for the men; not one woman does anything other than be nurses/doctors or cooks or sex partners.)

Overall, the story is quite believable (minus the Cold War and useless women) and rather frightening. Makes you want to go learn a "useful" skill... ( )

Lucifer's Hammer is a book that asks a large question. What would happen to our society if it were interrupted by a catastrophic natural event? Even though humanity seems far beyond its primitive roots, are we really only a hair's breadth from chaos? How quickly can society disintegrate and how far can we fall?

For the most part, I believe that Niven succeeded in portraying a convincing scenario, at least from the point of view of most of the main characters. The characters had realistic motivations and behaved in ways that I found authentic. I also thought the characters were interesting and I felt curious to see how their individual "lives" would resolve.

There are a few weaknesses to Lucifer's Hammer. For one thing, I believe that the books is set in the 70's or 80's. Therefore, there are many technological advances that he does not anticipate. The complete lack of communication and large-scale transportation (helicopters!) is hard to imagine.

The other weakness for me, was the idea that so many people would just go crazy and totally freak out. Obviously, Niven keeps his main characters pretty sane. However, he describes a relatively large group of folks that just wig out. And these crazier people band together and terrorize others. I think that it is too bad that these crazy freaks happen to also be minorities and military. I suppose that the minority aspect is due to the age of the book? Maybe the military, too. Considering the fact that in natural disasters the military comes to the rescue........I just didn't appreciate the generalization. (maybe Niven is a friend of John Kerry-ha)

If you can get past the negatives, there is no doubt that the story is compelling and exciting. There is plenty of conflict and suspense. We may not all agree with Niven's hypotheses, but we can all enjoy a good story. ( )