So, a little while back when I was reading Lucifer’s Hammer I considered doing a month-long series of blog posts on various post-apocalyptic stories surrounding a world-killing meteorite. I didn’t really want to write a post on Armageddon, though, both because it is obvious and because it would mean I would have to actually watch it again and I am just not that dedicated. (Sorry Michael Bay, no matter how pretty Liv Tyler is to look at I just can’t sit through another one of your overblown steaming piles of cinematic crap). I wanted to dig a letter deeper, and on a whim I tried searching Netflix for Meteor – a true classic of 70’s excess with Sean Connery and Natalie Wood. Sadly, Netflix did not have it available. Also sadly, I instead stumbled across Meteor Apocalypse....

In the last 14 entries I have written a lot about apocalypse via nuclear warfare, as well a couple by zombie and a few random other causes. This week, I am here to talk about another major sub-genre of apocalyptica: the world-ending meteor strike. Back in the late 90's there was the pair of meteor movies, Armageddon and Deep Impact, but the real giant of the genre is the 1997 novel Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Lucifer's Hammer very rightfully won the Hugo Award in 1978 for Best Novel, and it earned that award by being simultaneously compulsively readable and scientifically accurate. Although a little slow to start, as it introduces its large cast of characters, once meteor actually hits (about 150 pages in) the book becomes a non-stop series of action set pieces and survival tales. Niven and Pournelle are both known for being hard science fiction writers, and there is quite a bit...