The Hammer of Eden: Amazon.co.uk: Ken Follett: Books

Amazon.co.uk Review

Ken Follett shook the mystery world with his debut (now classic) novel The Eye of the Needle and now he's shaking the earth again with The Hammer of Eden. Or, at least his bad guys are shaking it. The novel begins with a series of flashbacks while Priest and his girlfriend Star plot to steal a seismic vibrator. Priest, an illiterate street-tough-turned- hippie-guru, is rallying his commune to fight back against the state of California. Living out of time and out of society, the commune grows its own food, makes wine and smokes a lot of dope, but the lives of Priest and his cohorts are about to be destroyed by the construction of a new power plant in their valley. Priest takes his cue from Melanie, a seismologist who joined his commune after being shaken by marital difficulties. With their seismic vibrator and under the code name Hammer of Eden, they plan to rock California with earthquakes until they get a promise of work stoppage.

But Judy Maddox is on their case. Daughter of an Irish American cop and a Vietnamese mother, Judy is slight in form though a rising force in the FBI. Office politics have placed her on a ludicrous case involving an earthquake threat, but the more she looks at the Hammer of Eden, the more she is convinced that the threat is for real. Her contact, seismologist Michael Quercus, provides compelling evidence that a major catastrophe is in the offing. From there, the novel becomes a race between Judy and Michael and the increasingly deadly and desperate Priest and his followers. The Hammer of Eden isn't, in the end, as groundbreaking as some of Follett's earlier work; the commune's jump from peace-loving band of hippies to state terrorists happens just a bit too quickly. Nevertheless, Follett's gift for plotting and intrigue keep the cracks in the narrative in check, and the denouement is sure to send tremours through the most sturdy of readers. -- Patrick O'Kelley, Amazon.com

Review

In earthquake-vulnerable California a disaffected latter-day hippie group, threatened with eviction from their vineyard, 'acquire' a seismic vibrator and blackmail the local governor with their (all-too-attainable) ability to activate an artificial earthquake. But feisty Judy Maddox of the FBI is having none of it and moves in, guns metaphorically blazing. Another of Follet's scalp-tingling thrillers to chill the blood. (Kirkus UK)

A man-made earthquake is at the epicenter of a dull thud of a thriller. Richard Granger - semi-reformed thief, occasional murderer, practicing guru - heads a cult hunkered down in an idyllic California valley. The cult, in fact, has been hunkered down for 25 long years, making wine and babies and fashioning a life free of the crassness seen as endemic to capitalist America. But now the valley is threatened with extinction. It's The Guv'ment! It's nuclear testing! It's a situation that cannot be tolerated, decides Granger, who sets about stealing something called a seismic vibrator. This, in addition to generating a fair number of wink-wink, nudge-nudge jokes throughout the story, is the piece of equipment needed to implement a counter threat, the artificial earthquake. You use the vibrator to pound the earth at strategic places along a sensitive fault line - places that can be identified by any well-disposed seismologist, one such happening to be the cult member who is Granger's lover. The Guv'ment is duly warned: Cease nuclear testing, Granger advises via a talk-radio show, or watch while we make a disaster. Enter Judy Maddox, a sprightly young FBI agent with obligatory great body and groovy brain. With her comes hunkish Michael Quercus, seismologist for the good guys. Then, this being the kind of novel it is, also enter some nasty, plot-thickening office politics. Tension heightens when the cult (a.k.a. the Hammer of Eden) demonstrates that its capability is for real. And next time, Granger promises, we won't be wreaking havoc on some worthless expanse of uninhabited desert. But will there be a next time? Will there be a showdown/shootout? Will there be a clinch at the end? Pat, predictable, relentlessly formulaic. Still, Follett's (The Third Twin, 1996, etc.) eager and ample following will no doubt come through again. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

Ken Follett is not at his best 27 Sep 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I am a little disappointed by this Follett reading though the end was more of the page turner I expect from Ken Follett. The beginning kept me reading hoping for more of the romance and lust of Lie Down with Lions, or the breath stopping plot of Eye of the Needle but this plot of terrorists causing an earthquake for their noble cause just didn't catch my attention. I will keep reading Ken Follett, as long as he keeps writing them, but this one was disappointing.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

A good suspense thriller that seems worryingly authentic. 2 Mar 2000

Another good yarn from Ken Follett. It isn't the best book I've read of his, suffice to say I was able to put it down for a couple of days, to find other amusements. I found in the early stages of the book where the chapters were more categorised, I was more interested to read about the FBI agent than the terrorist group. That said once I got into it, the story was fast paced, explosive, tense and had just enough romance to keep me interested.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

Hammer of Eden 6 Oct 2003

Format:Audio CD

As a sales rep I bought this CD to keep me occupied in the car on long journeys and it certainly did the trick. It is really well read by Lorelei King and it is a great story.
I didn't want to get out of the car, but wanted to carry on listening to it to the end.

Couldn't put it down

I had forgotten just how good Ken Follett books are and "The Hammer Of Eden"grabs your attention straight off and doesn't let it go until the final word.

Published on 17 April 2009 by Mr. P. T. Smith

My first Follett book and it caught my attention

This was my first Ken Follett book and my ealry entry in to this sort of thriller. I enjoyed it. It wasn't the most complex of plots, but as someone else mentions in their... Read more

Published on 24 Aug 2006 by N. Bailey

Another great book from Ken Follett

A gripping book from start to finsh. A book that makes you think is it possible to do what they did. Read it to see what I mean you will not be disapointed.

Published on 19 Feb 2000 by deansandean@aol.com

Couldn't put it down.

An extraordinary book that had me hooked from start to finish. The book successfully empathises with two very different characters, each chapter alternating the viewpoints:... Read more

Published on 11 Oct 1999

Very, very good

It's a great novel and one of Follett's best to date. The characters are well developed and instead of the foreign characters that are becoming so commonplace in novels today,... Read more

Published on 7 Dec 1998

The Hammer of Eden [Hardcover]

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