Review of Lucifer's Hammer

This week I finished Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's contribution to post-apocalyptic literature, Lucifer's Hammer.



Overall, I liked it, but it is a bit dated. It is set in the mid 1970s, in Southern California, and you could easily imagine the characters hanging out in a fern bar before going back to their homes for some white wine and a dip in the hot tub (and some casual sex in "a consequence-free environment," as Austin Powers might say).

It is a "cast of thousands" novel, with about 20 major characters in it, and reminds me of the great 70s disaster productions -- The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, etc. As I read it I kept saying "Lucifer's Hammer -- An Irwin-Allen production." It starts pretty slow, but by the ending, in which our 70s swingers take on an army of cannibals, it has become a pretty good book.

A few points it has in common with Forstchen's One Second After is the concept of the local government setting up roadblocks to keep outsiders out. This is, as I see it, one of the major questions in survivalist literature -- at what size is the "community" organized? In One Second After; Alas, Babylon; and Lucifer's Hammer; the answer seems to be "a small town". In books like Rawles's Patriots, the answer is a retreat of about a dozen people, which Rawles identifies as the smallest unit able to provide its own round the clock security. Earth Abides hits upon a like-sized group -- an extended family of four or five couples (which expands to a tribe over a few generations). In The Road, it is a man and a boy. In A Canticle for Leibowitz, it is a monastery. It is an important question, which I suppose is driven by the likely scenario one encounters. The question is, does local government dissolve when the federal government falls apart? For Rawles the answer is yes, and I suspect he is right. I can't see my local selectman imposing martial law and setting up roadblocks; frankly, I think they'd skedaddle pretty quickly.

A problem I see which is not addressed in any of these books, is what happens if a local police force (or National Guard company) decides to take over a town? Initially, they'd have a certain legitimacy which people -- not trained to think for themselves -- might be inclined to obey. If, after a disaster, the local police went around and knocked on doors and said "Everybody report to the high school, turn in your weapons, and hand over any food you have stored" -- a number of well-prepared people might be inclined to simply obey. Me, I think I'd say "Get off my property." But what if they then came back in force? In Lucifer's Hammer and in One Second After, the major characters have a seat on the town council, and are asked for their opinion. But what if the local constabulary simply seizes power and then rules badly? I think this would be a good topic for a novel -- a character has the foresight to see the collapse, prepares for it, and then has his property and goods seized by the town (with the threat of overwhelming force), and all his preparations go for naught.