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Laddar... Lucifer's Hammer (urspr publ 1977; utgåvan 1985)av Larry Niven
VerksinformationLucifer's Hammer av Larry Niven (1977)
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I'd heard this was a classic of the post-apocalyptic genre, so was pleased to finally nab a copy second hand. The book starts with the discovery of a comet and revolves around the humdrum lives of a bunch of LA locals, tending toward the wealthy socialite class. At first predicted to narrowly miss earth, the comet's odds of hitting escalate steadily the closer it gets to Earth. The build up to Hammerfall is suitably suspenseful and the impact itself seems to be handled realistically from a scientific point of view. Now our intertwined point-of-view characters must escape the collapse of society, floods and tsunamis to find safety in a world in which the thin veneer of civilisation has been suddenly torn away. Personally I'm not sure that the immediate reversion of society to violence, rape and cannibalism in the wake of Hammerfall is realistic. When real-life disasters hit people seem to band together for a short time at least. On the other hand, the formation of the cannibal cult coalition seem to parallel the formation of ISIS in a land that has lost all semblance of power structure remarkably well. My criticisms are similar to other reviewers. The approach to race and gender is ham-fisted. Hammerfall wipes out women's lib (as one character gleefully observes) and women are simply trophies who seek out the strongest male to protect them, and sex appears to be the only tool available to them. Outside the relative civilisation of our protagonists' valley a life of rape or sex-slavery awaits. There's a range of characters who are given point of view in this book but only two are women and neither are the unlucky sort, say for example the girl scouts who have been turned into sex slaves. I guess that while this book is a darker take on the apocalypse, the authors didn't want to go quite that dark. And that is one point of difference in this book. It's a dark take on the apocalypse that includes that part that most post-apocolyptic works conveniently skip: the End, with all its death and horror and messiness. The characters face some hard moral choices: do they sentence people who do not conform to their new society (teetering on the brink of collapse) to death, do they use horrid chemical weapons against the attacking cannibal army, do they re-introduce slavery? Unfortunately, all to often they seem to lean on the side of ruthlessness. On one hand, it demonstrates the harshness of the new world, but on the other it feels too much like the authors have an unsavoury agenda to push. My favourite character was the diabetic scientist who decided in the face of the apocalypse to save books and knowledge for the survivors. A worthwhile take on the end of the world with its scientific believability and dark themes, but marred by outdated ideas and strange authorial agendas. The book feels a little dated now but was still worth the read. One of those books that I have been meaning to read for years. I enjoyed it but there were a few parts that went a little long and a few parts which are riddled with clichés about human behavior. Don't regret reading it but would probably have been a much more enjoyable book if I had read it as a kid.
"Good, solid science, a gigantic but well developed and coordinated cast of characters, and about a megaton of suspenseful excitement." PriserUppmärksammade listor
As the great Hamner-Brown comet, dubbed Lucifer's Hammer by the press, approaches Earth, various business executives, politicians, criminals, journalists, and scientists await the impending cataclysm and its general and personal effects with decidedly differing feelings. Inga biblioteksbeskrivningar kunde hittas. |
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Welcome to the Stronghold. Welcome to the cannibal army. Welcome to the nuclear power plant. Welcome to Hammerlab above the Earth, and everything and everyone in-between.
I read this as a young adult. I reread it in the last month. I am just as impressed with this book now as when I first read it. It made both Nivens and Pournelle my favorite authors ( )