Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven [0]
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known…
LUCIFER'S HAMMER
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Acknowledgments
Excerpts from GIFFORD LECTURES, 1948 by Emil Brunner. Excerpt from a private speech by Robert Heinlein. Reprinted by permission.
From "Pure, Sweet, Culture" by Frank Garparik. Copyright @ 1977 by Frank Garparik. Used with permission of the author.
From How The World Will End by Daniel Cohen. Copyright 1973, McGraw Hill. Used with permission of McGraw Hill Book Co.
From The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris. Copyright McGraw Hill 1967. Used with permission of McGraw Hill Book Company.
Excerpt from The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan. Copyright 1973 by Carl Sagan and Jerome Agel. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.
Excerpts from The Coming Dark Age by Roberto Vacca, translated from the Italian by Dr. J. S. Whale. Translation Copyright 1973 by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc.
From Moons and Planets: An Introduction to Planetary Science by William Hartman. Copyright 1972, Wadsworth Publishing Co., Inc. Used with permission of Wadsworth Publishing Co., Inc.
Excerpts from Sovereignty by Bertrand de Jouvenal. Copyright 1957 by University of Chicago Press. Used with permission of University of Chicago Press.
From The Elements Rage by Frank W. Lane. Copyright 1965 by Chilton Book Co. Used with permission of Chilton Book Co.
Song "The Friggin Falcon" 1966 by Theodore R. Cogswell. All rights reserved, including the right of public performance for profit. Used by permission of the author and the author's agent, Kirby McCauley.
Dramatis Personae
TIMOTHY HAMNER, amateur astronomer
ARTHUR CLAY JELLISON, United States Senator from California
MAUREEN JELLISON, his daughter
HARVEY RANDALL, Producer-Director for NBS Television
MRS. LORETTA STEWART RANDALL
BARRY PRICE, Supervising Engineer, San Joaquin Nuclear Project
DOLORES MUNSON, Executive Secretary to Barry Price
EILEEN SUSAN HANCOCK, Assistant Manager for Corrigan's Plumbing Supplies of Burbank
LEONILLA ALEXANDROVNA MALIK, M.D., physician and kosmonaut
MARK CZESCU, biker
GORDON VANCE, Bank President and neighbor to Harvey Randall
ANDY RANDALL, Harvey Randall's son
CHARLIE BASCOMB, cameraman
MANUEL ARGUILEZ, sound technician
DR. CHARLES SHARPS, Planetary Scientist and Project Director, California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratories
PENELOPE JOYCE WILSON, fashion designer
FRED LAUREN, convicted sex offender
COL. JOHN BAKER, USAF, astronaut
HARRY NEWCOMBE, letter carrier, US Postal Service
THE REVEREND HENRY ARMITAGE
DR. DAN FORRESTER, Member of technical staff, JPL
LT. COL. RICK DELANTY, USAF, astronaut
MRS. GLORIA DELANTY
BRIGADIER PIETER JAKOV, kosmonaut
FRANK STONER, biker
JOANNA MACPHERSON, Mark Czescu's roommate
COLLEEN DARCY, bank teller
GENERAL THOMAS BAMBRIDGE, USAF, Commander in Chief, Strategic Air Command
JOHN KIM, Press Secretary to the Mayor Of Los Angeles
THE HONORABLE BENTLEY ALLEN, Mayor of Los Angeles
ERIC LARSEN, Patrolman, Burbank PD
JOE HARRIS, Investigator, Burbank PD
COMET WARDENS, a Southern California religious group
MAJOR BENNET ROSTEN, USAF, Minuteman Squadron Commander
MRS. MARIE VANCE, wife of Gordon Vance
HARRY STIMMS, automobile dealer in Tujunga, California
CORPORAL ROGER GILLINGS, Army
SERGEANT THOMAS HOOKER, Army
MARTY ROBBINS, Tim Hamner's assistant and caretaker
JASON GILLCUDDY, writer
HUGO BECK, owner of a commune in the foothills of the High Sierra
Prologue
Before the sun burned, before the planets formed, there were chaos and the comets.
Chaos was a local thickening