Author:	Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Copyright:	1977
Date Reviewed:	7/13/86
Rating:	9.0

Synopsis: A comet is discovered by amateur astronomer Timothy Hammer which is going to fly by Earth very closely. The probability of it hitting Earth is one in a billion but as the comet approaches, the probability drops until it does strike. In the Earth's atmosphere the comet breaks up and smaller pieces hit all over the globe. The parts that strike land cause local devastations and the pieces that strike water cause tidal floods which destroy all coastal areas. The devastation is almost total.

Before the strike, some people prepared for a disaster. Some of those and the lucky ones survived but the camps of survivors jealously closed their doors to most outsiders. One such strong hold was the town where Senator Jellison lives. They turned most outsiders away except for a small few who could prove their worth. Two were the comet's discoverer and reporter Harvey Randall. When a large band of cannibals attack their territory, the stronghold lures them into the valley and kills most of them with home grown mustard gas. The fighting is not over after this first battle but this community will survive to form a new kind of society.

Review: No brief synopsis could do justice to one of the most comprehensive science fictions I have ever read. The novel is 640 pages long but unlike the complaint I have had about other long novels, this one has enough detail to justify its length. I did catch one mistake. In one scene a woman is killed and in another she is happy at winning the battle.

The best parts of the book follow the cast of characters as they prepare for Hammer Fall and then as they try to make their way to safety. The weakest part of the book was the battle at the end. There was nothing new here that I hadn't read many times over. This section must certainly have been written by right winger Jerry Pournelle. I didn't enjoy this book so much as when I read it (some parts were tedious) but I realized it made a large impression on my as I went over it time and again weeks later. Eventually I'll read "Footfall" by the same two authors but I'll want to get through some smaller science fictions first.