ab3@pucc-h (Darth Wombat) (12/20/83)
Just a short note to tip off those of you (all 3, no doubt) who
haven't read this yet -- do so. It is based on one "science-fictional"
premise -- pieces of a wandering comet come down on earth with some
advance warning. Some of the book falls into the standard "It's-the-end-
of-the-world-anyway-so-let's-{steal, rape, murder, eat lunch}" category,
but by and large the authors avoid this trap. (Niven/Pournelle)
The characterizations are vivid, the events are believable, and the
storyline is well-structured. Go buy it.
Darth Wombat
{ allegra, decvax, ihnp4, harpo, seismo, teklabs, ucbvax } !pur-ee!rsk
--
Darth Wombat
{ allegra, decvax, ihnp4, harpo, seismo, teklabs, ucbvax } !pur-ee!rskcas@cvl.UUCP (Cliff Shaffer) (12/21/83)
Just to balance things out on the review of Lucifer's Hammer, I have
also recently read it. I didn't care for it much for several reasons.
First, it uses the narrative style of jumping from one character to
another every few pages, trying to follow several plot lines at once,
hopefully connecting them eventually. I don't like this style, so I
guess that means I am less likely to appreciate a book using it.
Second, it is mostly standard science fiction/adventure stuff. Good
guys try to rebuild their lives, large group of bad guys try to move in.
No new ideas here, very suprising considering who wrote it.
Third, and worst of all, it is a LONG book without a LONG plot to
sustain it. It could have used a lot of editing, maybe getting rid of
some of the sub-character episodes.
In summery: Average SF, if you got enough to read already, don't go
out of you way to read this.
On the other hand, if you want to read a great book by Niven and
Pournelle, try "The Mote in God's Eye." The only reason I can see why
this book didn't win the hugo or nebula for its year is because (I
think) it was up against "The Dispossessed" by Ursula K. LeGuin
(another very good book, but I don't think it is quite as good as
"The Mote in God's Eye").
Cliff Shaffer
{seismo,allegra,ihnp4}!rlgvax!cvl!castmh@ihldt.UUCP (Tom Harris) (12/22/83)
I really had some problems with Lucifer's Hammer. It was alright, except the diaster was only bad news if you lived on the seacoast or happened to be standing under one of the rocks. The story is told from the point of people in L.A. so they are pretty well wiped out by a tidal wave, but from the things they were saying most of the Midwest would have survived alright. There was another depressing theme running throughout the book and that was that given any opportunity the U.S. as a country would break up. It was also sort of bad that both Russia and China launched their Nuclear Warheads at each other and there is no effect on the characters in this country. I have been a fan of both authors works and the Mote in God's eye was definately a superior book, but this one was a disappointment. Tom Harris
donn@sdchema.UUCP (12/27/83)
Lest the (probably more than 3) people who haven't read LUCIFER'S HAMMER be overwhelmed by Darth Wombat's glowing recommendation of the book, I would like to mention some of the negative things about the book. It is written in a fairly lurid pulp style; at points the writing (especially dialogue) becomes so bad that it parodies the genre. I found parts of the novel to be almost unreadable for this reason. It is bloated. There are far too many characters doing much too little to advance the story. I would feel less annoyed by this if the characters seemed at all realistic -- as the book stands, I have a hard time telling many of them apart. It is hard to follow. Many plotlines are constantly switching back and forth. The effect is supposed to give you a broader picture of the effects of the disaster, but since so many of the characters were uninteresting, I found myself skipping over the dull parts. There wasn't as much motivation to follow everything as there was in (say) Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR, which has similar problems with size and complexity. I was rather disappointed by LUCIFER'S HAMMER -- I thought of it as a quick hack to produce a bestseller. I know Larry Niven can do better than this. All of Niven's novels have been weaker than his stories, however (in my opinion)... Donn Seeley UCSD Chemistry Dept. RRCF ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdchema!donn 32 52' 30"N 117 14' 25"W (619) 452-4016 sdcsvax!sdchema!donn@noscvax