Reddit reviews Lucifer's Hammer: A Novel
We found 21 Reddit comments about Lucifer's Hammer: A Novel. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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We found 21 Reddit comments about Lucifer's Hammer: A Novel. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Lucifers Hammer - Pre and post asteroid impact.
One Second After - Post EMP, this is well written but the setup is a little to perfect. If you're a dad you will probably cry.
Patriots - Post financial collapse. This one has a decent premise but parts of it are really bad. There is also at least one sequel/prequel/companion.
One of my favorite subgenres by far, by a long run. Some of my favorites:
ESSENTIAL
Earth Abides (George Stewart) - Essential reading for the genre. It is the death of civilization by plague, and then its slow rebirth as seen through the eyes of a lone survivor. Compelling, thought-provoking ending. Again, essential reading.
Lucifer's Hammer (Niven/Pournelle)- a combo disaster book and survival book, you get both the whole surviving disaster aspect, as well as the early portions of trying to rebuild society. Since I'm also a fan of disaster/survival books, I consider this one essential reading.
The Stand (Stephen King) - Obvious choice, and all the caveats apply. It's 2/3s brilliant and 1/3 rubbish. Still, despite the poor ending, the disaster and survival parts of it are some of the best of the genre. Well worth reading.
The Road (Cormac McCarthy) - Stunning, moving, inspiring, painful, brilliant, essential. Just know you're getting no action, no suspense, no real plot to speak of. It is a boy and his father walking the ruins of society. And it is amazing.
RECOMMENDED
Farnham's Freehold (Robert Heinlein) - A family emerges from their bunker to find that nuclear war has wiped out society. Great tale of survival. The last third veers into pure science fiction and may be off-putting to some, but it's worth it for the early portions if you're into the kind of build-a-new-world-with-your-hands thing Heinlein does here.
Eternity Road (Jack McDevitt) - Set 1,000 years after a plague has wiped out most of mankind. Society has rebuilt itself to roughly 18th Century levels. An expedition from a small enclave in the American south ventures north and explores the ruins of society looking for a fabled city. I love books about exploration, lost civilizations, old ruins, etc. This one is all about that. Not top-tier stuff, but worth reading.
The Penultimate Truth (Philip K. Dick) - One of his overlooked gems. People live in bunkers, Fallout style, and hear propaganda from above. One man finally ventures above ground to see what's really happening with the world. PKDish story ensues.
The City of Ember (Jeanne DuPrau) - it's a book for younger readers, yes, but don't let that stop you. Great premise -- generations of people have lived in a city deep underground following a disaster -- fun story, good characters. The sequel, The People of Sparks is also good and picks up right where this leaves off. Did not care for the others.
ALSO CONSIDER
On The Beach (Nevil Shute) - Widely considered a classic. It's slow and melancholy, more about waiting for an inevitable death than it is about survival or rebuilding or a post-apoc world. A great book, but maybe not what you're looking for.
Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (Philip K. Dick) - Like many PKD books, describing it is difficult. It boils down to a post-nuclear war world and a cast of bizarre people trying to eek out their lives in a fractured world.
Plague Year (Jeff Carlson) - A nanotech virus has forced a sparse few thousand survivors to live on remote mountaintops. A few are trying to stitch together a government and combat the virus ... but they're not all on the same page, and conflict erupts. Great premise, though doesn't quite live up to its promise. Short, though, so a quick read.
The Postman (David Brin) - almost put this in skip because in the end it veers into silly stuff with super soldiers and the like -- the book is kind of unfocused -- but there is too much goodness here to do that. Great vision of a world set many years after society has been wiped out. worth reading despite its flaws.
SKIP
Dies The Fire (SM Stirling) - A LARPers wet dream. Technology suddenly stops working. gunpowder, too. We're thrown back into the Bronze Age. Really cool premise and some GREAT stuff on fracturing society and survival and rebuilding, though to be honest the "lifelong D&D players and LARPers are the only ones fit to survive" becomes a joke by the end. Way too much of that. I started off loving it but by the time I finished found it laughable. Also, it starts a whole series (which I have not read).
If you do comics, two are essential reading: Y: The Last Man and the sprawling epic Akira. The former gets right into it and features great characters and a compelling hook, while Akira is huge huge huge, WAY bigger than the movie, and the last half is set in a post-apocalyptic world. (Well, technically it ALL is ... but if you read it you'll see what I mean.
That's what springs to mind. There are already many other good suggestions here, too. Hope that helps.
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven is pretty good.
Alas, Babylon is one of the classic post-apocalyptic scifi novels. As is a "A Canticle for Leibowitz", mentioned above.
EDIT: I just noticed that "Lucifer's Hammer" won the Hugo award, which is a big deal if you didn't already know. Another book that comes to mind that you might like is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein. Not quite the same genre, but similar, and a real classic as well. And really good!
Steal a boat and get to deep water asap.
Edit: A great book that has an escape from the LA basin after a asteroid strike is Lucifer's Hammer
It's been a long time since I read it but I believe they escaped via an aqueduct tunnel through the mountains and then via driving on a raised railroad bed through the flooded San Joaquin Valley.
Personally, I'm headed to the middle of the ocean.
On My Shelf:
Nonfiction:
[where there is no doctor] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-No-Doctor-Handbook/dp/0942364155)
[where there is no dentist] (https://www.amazon.com/Where-There-Dentist-Murray-Dickson/dp/0942364058/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0942364058&pd_rd_r=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES&pd_rd_w=zUT5r&pd_rd_wg=bQSPa&psc=1&refRID=P7QG34TNRGWWJ4VG3CES)
[emergency war surgery] (https://www.amazon.com/Emergency-War-Surgery-Survivalists-Reference-ebook/dp/B007FH3S8C/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111178&sr=1-1&keywords=war+surgery)
[Seed to Seed, a seed saving book] (https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Growing-Techniques-Vegetable-Gardeners/dp/1882424581/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111210&sr=1-1&keywords=seed+saving)
[mini farming] (https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Farming-Self-Sufficiency-Brett-Markham/dp/1602399840/ref=pd_sim_14_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1602399840&pd_rd_r=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC&pd_rd_w=ZSjVd&pd_rd_wg=MKw9N&psc=1&refRID=QYQGAKY6D2PJX21W5DBC)
[square foot gardening] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Square-Foot-Gardening-Revolutionary/dp/1591865484/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1591865484&pd_rd_r=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M&pd_rd_w=kMSVD&pd_rd_wg=v6qzT&psc=1&refRID=NW7HBPKNFJ2J8JYTR22M)
[Ball Canning Guide] (https://www.amazon.com/All-Ball-Book-Canning-Preserving/dp/0848746783/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111296&sr=1-1&keywords=ball+canning)
[Steve Rinella's Big Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/081299406X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111322&sr=1-1&keywords=rinella+guide)
[Steve Rinella's Small Game] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Hunting-Butchering-Cooking/dp/0812987055/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0812987055&pd_rd_r=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R&pd_rd_w=j1UjP&pd_rd_wg=OWNY6&psc=1&refRID=HSSM813BSWTXN5Q77P1R)
[root cellaring] (https://www.amazon.com/Root-Cellaring-Natural-Storage-Vegetables/dp/0882667033/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111429&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=root+cellarig)
[country wisdom and know how] (https://www.amazon.com/Garden-Wisdom-Know-How-Everything-Harvest/dp/1579128378/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111470&sr=1-3&keywords=country+wisdom)
[timberframe construction] (https://www.amazon.com/Learn-Timber-Frame-Craftsmanship-Simplicity/dp/1612126685/ref=sr_1_9?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111553&sr=1-9&keywords=cabin+construction)
[Ham radio -tech] (https://www.amazon.com/ARRL-Ham-Radio-License-Manual/dp/1625950136/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492111593&sr=1-1&keywords=ham+radio)
[ham radio general] (https://www.amazon.com/General-Class-License-Manual-Amateur/dp/1625950306/ref=pd_sim_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1625950306&pd_rd_r=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ&pd_rd_w=EfgM9&pd_rd_wg=jqqg2&psc=1&refRID=12TE98J0V80PC5Z8PMNJ)
[The FoxFire Series ] (https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Collection-Anniversary-Editions-Anniversay/dp/B00MRH3RYU/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1492879953&sr=8-4&keywords=foxfire)
Also pickup up books on useful skills: raising rabbits, welding, different random construction books.
Fiction:
[Lucifer's Hammer] (https://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Larry-Niven/dp/0449208133/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880068&sr=1-1&keywords=lucifers+hammer)
[One second After] (https://www.amazon.com/Second-After-John-Matherson-Novel/dp/0765356864/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880115&sr=1-1&keywords=one+second+after)
[the martian] (https://www.amazon.com/Martian-Andy-Weir/dp/0553418025/ref=pd_sim_14_41?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0553418025&pd_rd_r=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX&pd_rd_w=vAle5&pd_rd_wg=9wBYx&psc=1&refRID=D4JHG0ERDKJXA7NYCZHX)
[the road] (https://www.amazon.com/Road-Cormac-McCarthy/dp/0307387895/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880272&sr=1-1&keywords=the+road0)
[alas babylon] (https://www.amazon.com/Alas-Babylon-Pat-Frank/dp/0060741872/ref=sr_1_10?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492880316&sr=1-10&keywords=babylon)
Lucifer's Hammer
My answers are in alphabetical order. I don't have any items for the game category.
Movies: The Book of Eli, The Day After, The Postman
TV Series: Jeremiah, Jericho, The Walking Dead
Book: Lights Out, Lucifer's Hammer, Patriots
Alas Babylon, Pat Frank
Alas, Babylon https://www.amazon.com/dp/0060741872/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ebNOyb0RVVA8F
Lucifers Hammer, Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle
Lucifer's Hammer https://www.amazon.com/dp/0449208133/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_QcNOybDZMX7AJ
Edit: The top post has most of my favorites, but these two are missing from the thread.
I always mix it with Lucifer's Hammer, they are so similar, and both very good.
Some preppers do it for the masterbatory idea of letting all this shit go and starting over. The what if's pile up, and the next thing they know they have a firm definition of what their line gear is, and are playing with load outs.
Me, I'm old-ish, wiser, and a realist. I know with my family I'll be bugging in for almost any reason. I'm not in peak condition, though I can likely hold my own better than most folks my age, mainly because of training.
I have a couple grab bags, sure, but I don't plan on starting over after getting out on foot.
My main preps are for my home.
As for planet killing things, look at[ Lucifer's Hammer.] (http://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Jerry-Pournelle/dp/0449208133) It's a well thought out example of what could happen. I don't want to sit idly by and look my kids in the eye and say sorry, even if it looks dire.
Survival is about being a survivor. Do what you feel is necessary.
Clearly you need to read Lucifer's Hammer, the award-winning granddaddy of them all.
These are books which I have read twice or more and would read again and again on the topic of post-collapse:
Alas Babylon
On the Beach
The Postman - not like the movie with Kevin Costner (just based upon and quite different)
One Second After - currently the most realistic and scariest of the bunch I think.
Earth Abides
Lucifer's Hammer - this one I wouldn't read without many years between as the start is sooooo slow but the second half is good.
> pinko commie cannibals (yes, I'm not exaggerating, they have cannibals)
Rawles must have enjoyed Lucifer's Hammer by Niven & Pournelle.
Lucifer's Hammer.
Obligatory wiki links: Dystopian Literature. Although, some of the titles listed don't seem to fit (The Dispossessed?). Nuclear holocaust fiction, and your general apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction.
Some of the better/more popular ones:
Zombies: World War Z, Raise the Dead, Marvel Zombies, Zombie Survival Guide, Day By Day Armageddon, I Am Legend.
Also, just for kicks, some of my favorite dystopian movies:
Brazil, Soylent Green, 12 Monkeys, Blade Runner, Akira, Children of Men, Dark City, A Boy and His Dog, Logan's Run, Idiocracy, Equillibrium.
Read this book.
https://www.amazon.com/Lucifers-Hammer-Larry-Niven/dp/0449208133
Surprisingly still relevant to your interests.
You should also read a novel about an asteroid that strikes the earth! It's really apocalyptic. The novel is called "Lucifers Hammer".
Lucifers Hammer
Current book: Wingsuits, fuck yeah! Unlimited leisure time, whooooo hooo!
Last book: set around an apocalyptic meteor strike, in a matter of days the US is returned to agrarian levels of technology. This book really showed me that I have no useful skills or assets in such a scenario.
Holy shit, I can't believe this thread has been going on for an hour and no one has thrown out:
Same authors, different stories, great post-apocalyptic vision.
No but thank you, I will look into it!
Here is a link to the book I found on Amazon - is this the one you are talking about? I just didn't see anything about astronauts in the reviews/description.
I think "the hammer of god" (Arthur C. Clark) and "forge of god" by Greg Bear, and "lucifer's hammer by Larry Niven qualify.
edit, I'm not sure about the second title, but it's a book where earth gets blowed up by paranoid aliens and some survivors set out for revenge.
edit edit - the second title is not Fist of God but rather Forge of God.
*edit edit edit - added Lucifer's Hammer because it was needed to add to the blacksmith theme.