The title for this newsletter and the title of the folders that hold the Apocalyptic Reflections is based on a favorite movie “Searching for a Friend for the End of the World” starring Steve Carrell and Keira Knightley. Apocalypse and post-apocalypse stories are a fascinating sub-genre to me. They automatically become alternative world stories since we are still here. Although most Apocalyptic stories are current to the time they are written, they quickly become alternative history stories due to changes in technology. The world of “Alas Babylon” is not the world of “The Stand” which is not the world of “Lucifer’s Hammer”- Technology and politics dating each of the works. So, I read these stories a little bit as alternative historic fiction but also because of the statements they make about being human. Hopefully I can entice you to try one of these books even with them being solidly placed in the time they were written.
Lucifer’s Hammer
A reflection by M. J. Moran
Lucifer’s Hammer
By Jerry Pournelle & Larry Niven
Del Rey
1977
This particular reflection is hard to write. Lucifer’s Hammer was and is one of my favorite books. An apocalypse story steeped in science but focused on human interactions. A story of many strong characters but also a story tied to the late 70’s. I imagine many modern readers having issues with some characterization but also feeling that it is ground already visited in the movie, Deep Impact. In considering the storyline published in 1977, the scenario could happen today with similar results but the technology would look different.
Lucifer’s Hammer is a pretty straightforward end of the world story (ok end of civilization as we know it story) about a newly discovered comet calving and hitting the earth. Pournell, who worked for NASA and Niven, walked us through the discovery and the cosmic history of the comet. A nice touch is that the comet is an extra character in the book with inserts describing what has happened to the comet to bring it into this collision course.
We follow the main characters from Tim Hamner, the comet’s discovery and Harvey Randall, a new documentary producer who working with Hamner filmed a documentary about the comet. There is a sphere of people who orbit around these two characters including a very decisive Senator Jellison and his daughter Maureen. Hamner and Randall are the main focus in the first chapter of the book titled “The Anvil”. The Hammer” and “The Quick and the Dead” chapters describe surviving or not surviving the comet strike and how the separated characters from the first chapter come together. All books work on a basis of bold coincidence, the better stories give the reader good enough explanations that you don’t feel that the coincidence is forced. Niven and Pournelle deftly bring the characters together, laying the foundation in the first chapter. The last chapter is “After Doomsday” continuing the story literally after the dust settles. The climax of the book is a clash between haves and have nots but also civilization against anarchy.
The last two chapters give me the most consternation in actually recommending the book especially in more enlightened times. I won’t accuse Pournelle or Niven of racism, especially in that I know at least one friend of Niven’s would not be a friend of his if he were but the story has a racist element to it. Mind you, that the element is reflecting the times with inner city Blacks being portrayed as militants or criminals denouncing white people. It was a trope of many movies and sadly believed by many people at the time. The main antagonist is an inner city black man who exploits the system for his own gain and a black Army sergeant who turns to cannibalism. They will join up with a white televangelist but still the writers are running with stereotypes. Although Pournelle and Niven give us Rick Dalanty, the first black astronaut and Mayor Allen, the first black mayor of Los Angeles, they really don’t balance out the main bad guys being inner city black men. On the flipside you have two lesser villains who are white but don’t really balance out against the white leaders at the end of the story. If either author was writing today, I'm positive that the characters would have different back stories not so steeped in their ethnicity. Also I would think that the surviving world would have more diversity in it.
It’s an excellent book with strong characterization and vivid descriptions. The surfing scene has stuck with me since my first reading over 40 years ago. It is the template for a good end of civilization saga. But go into it realizing you are reading a book from 1977 that reflects some of the thoughts of people of that time.
I feel less generous on the anti-Black racism after reading Pournelle’s Exiles to Glory which is all about gangs of inner city Blacks chasing an enterprising young man off the planet by threatening him and murdering his cats.