This was December’s book group selection. I thought I had already read it…it was on my book shelf which means I must have, right? Wrong. As book group meeting approached and I got to talking to the Father (who I talked into joining book group), I realized I had not read the book as I had initially thought. A quick search through the last two years of blogs didn’t turn up anything either. So it was with much embarrassment that I had to confess to my group that I had not read the book - but they are a forgiving group and I only had to promise to bring munchies to another meeting as my penance. Mortified, but undaunted, I started the book immediately that night.Lucifer’s Hammer falls into the “End of the World/Catastrophic Event/How Will the Human Race Survive” category, and it can be further broken down into those niche genres in SF which wipe California off the face of the map then discuss how Earth will survive.
Destruction of California aside, this was a really good book. Tim Hamner discovers a comet, which upon further investigation will be moving through Earths solar system in the immediate near future. Chances of it hitting are a million to one…nope, better make that 100,000 to one. Oops! Slight miscalculation, 10,000 to one. Wrong again! 1000 to one. Oh, drat! It hit in 6 places!
The first third of the book establishes the characters and how people react to the news of impending doom. And there are a LOT of characters. Some don't believe it, some go all out in their preparations, some wait till the very last day.
The second third of the book deals with impact and the days immediately after impact: how huge tsunamis wipe out any coastal area, cities and islands; the force of impact drives sea floor mud and ocean water far into the atmosphere and rains down upon the land causing huge flood events; mega-hurricanes are spawned affecting weather patterns over tremendous areas; earthquakes shake the continents and Russia and China launch nuclear weapons at each other. It looks at how people respond both individually and as small groups. It gets a bit gruesome, but I like that look at reality.
The third part of the book speculates what people would do to survive, how would they react to this new state of survival and I have to say the authors did a pretty good job on touching on a bit of every part of humanity, the good, the bad and the very ugly.
The third part of the book speculates what people would do to survive, how would they react to this new state of survival and I have to say the authors did a pretty good job on touching on a bit of every part of humanity, the good, the bad and the very ugly.
But I do have a few complaints, mostly with the third part of the book. This was written in the 70's and the 70's attitude toward women was still prevalent. Women were to be protected, took subservient roles to the men (housewives who volunteered, secretaries, accountants, cooks). What really got my goat was for one small group trying to survive, when the current leader died (predicted to happen anytime in the next "year") the new leader of the valley would be determined by whomever his daughter married. Three guys were posturing for her "attentions" while she was sneaking off to sleep with a fourth. Gimme a break!
It was also brought to my attention that blacks are stereotyped in this story as the poor inner city types who continue to rob, pillage, and rape both before impact and after. The authors attempted to counter this by sending a black man into space and have him return a hero, but his part is rather minor compared to the gangs roaming the countryside.
Still, if one can put aside some of the quirks and if you like end of the world type stories, this one was pretty darn good.
Still, if one can put aside some of the quirks and if you like end of the world type stories, this one was pretty darn good.
3 comments:
As you know, I never finished this one. And I tried to read it 15 - 20 years ago, so my memories are a little hazy. Disaster stories were really popular in the 1970s, which is one of the things that make Hammer's Slammers seem dated to me. I also seem to recall a scene with a guy surfing on the tidal wave. And the astronauts up in space who watch the destruction, realize that they need to land some time, and one of them argues that the best place in the world for them to go was California. Am I remembering this correctly? Ugh.
One of these days I'm going to have to devote some thought to my knee-jerk repulsion to all things 1970s California. I think it's because I grew up in the 70s, and watched the disaster movies and CHiPs and probably countless other things I'm forgetting, which seems to have led to distaste for that type of material. It justs seems so stale and dated and tack to me.
Tacky. I meant tacky.
You remembered correctly. Several surfer dudes just happened to be on the water when the fragments hit and they all went out to ride "the big one". He got sqaushed like a bug. Yeah, totally unrealistic, but kinda cool in it's surfer way.
The bit with the astronauts in space watching the destruction was kinda neat and kinda, unsettling. What would it be like to be safe in your tin can watching the earth get pummled by large rocks and then to watch two countries lob nuclear warheads at eachother? Odd, I suppose.
But landing in Calif seemed unrealistic to me, especially since the authors describe in great detail how the San Andreas fault let go and the San Joaquin Valley became a big lake. It seems to me it would have been better to land elsewhere. Afterall, they knew where the commets hit, why not go to the opposite side of the planet and find an airstrip there? How about Austrailia?
But I thought the book had aged well overall with the exception of the sexism and the discrimination against the blacks.
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