In this bestselling novel by the authors of THE MOTE IN GOD'S EYE, a massive comet breaks apart and bombards the Earth, with catastrophic results: worldwide earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, thousand-foot tidal waves and seemingly endless rain… With civilization in ruins, individuals band together to survive and to build a new society. "A MEGATON OF SUSPENSEFUL EXCITEMENT ... which should keep readers going non-stop, cover to cover" - Booklist."A work in the grand tradition ... even the miracle of Sensurround may be inadequate to convey all the imaginative reverberations." - Los Angeles Times "A 'Disaster' thriller of rare quality ... for its expertise and the scale of its apocalypse ... Strings out the suspense almost unbearably." - John Barkham Reviews "The first satisfying end-of-the-world novel in years ... an ultimate one ... massively entertaining."- Cleveland Plain-Dealer "Take your earthquakes, waterlogged condominiums, swarms of bugs, colliding airplanes and flaming what-nots, wrap them up and they wouldn't match one page of LUCIFER'S HAMMER for sweaty-palmed suspense." - Chicago Daily News