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Shiva Descending
A gigantic asteroid the size of a mountain, Shiva is set to hit Earth with the force of a hundred thousand nuclear bombs, poised to destroy all life on Earth and blast the human race into instant extinction. Only a last-ditch space mission has a chance of saving the Earth--or what's left of it after the first asteroid rainshower.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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184 people want to read
About the author
Gregory Benford
565 books615 followersGregory Benford is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
As a science fiction author, Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, beginning with In the Ocean of Night (1977). This series postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient mechanical life.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
May 31, 2013
Long before the movies Armageddon and Deep Impact, and in the same year as the paradigm-shifting Alverez paper in Nature, there was this book about a giant asteroid headed toward earth.
A boring treatment of the topic, with far too many talking-heads scenes. Most of what we know about protests, mass hysteria, wild orgies in the streets, as people in the novel understand the world will end, is only described in boring meetings, wherein bureaucrats tell each other it's happening out there. Tunguska-sized rocks hit the planet dozens of times, but we only get about a page of that action. Indeed, most of the conflict in the novel isn't about fighting the asteroid; it's about political jockeying for position, petty infighting in NASA and the White House and, briefly, in the Kremlin. Only the last 90 pages are what I expected the whole book to be about. Set, for its day, in the near future it missed predicting several advances, including the fall of the USSR, the internet, computing power advances, and what would happen with the space program. As pebbles hit the spacecraft, "Ping! Boing!" is repeated a dozen times, and I thought, boy, I'm glad those days are over in novel-writing, because that gets very old very fast.
A boring treatment of the topic, with far too many talking-heads scenes. Most of what we know about protests, mass hysteria, wild orgies in the streets, as people in the novel understand the world will end, is only described in boring meetings, wherein bureaucrats tell each other it's happening out there. Tunguska-sized rocks hit the planet dozens of times, but we only get about a page of that action. Indeed, most of the conflict in the novel isn't about fighting the asteroid; it's about political jockeying for position, petty infighting in NASA and the White House and, briefly, in the Kremlin. Only the last 90 pages are what I expected the whole book to be about. Set, for its day, in the near future it missed predicting several advances, including the fall of the USSR, the internet, computing power advances, and what would happen with the space program. As pebbles hit the spacecraft, "Ping! Boing!" is repeated a dozen times, and I thought, boy, I'm glad those days are over in novel-writing, because that gets very old very fast.
June 14, 2023
So, I’m like 100% positive that the movie “Armageddon” was written by someone who had either read this book recently, or who had a vague memory of this book rattling around somewhere in their memory, as there are just way too many similarities…to a point.
It starts with the discovery of the killer asteroid, then moves immediately to a scene of a space shuttle coming in for a landing with a mechanical error that causes an emergency landing – admittedly, not in the Los Angeles River, but an emergency landing, nonetheless. It kind of diverges from there, like there aren’t any oil drillers, but there is a plan to use nuclear weapons against the asteroid. There’s also a sort of “isn’t that convenient moment” as they realize they will need a nuclear weapon bigger and larger than anyone possess by several orders of magnitude…and then the Soviets pipe up and say “Hey, we just happen to have one here, exactly the size you require, which we had created for entirely peaceful reasons!”
The most depressing thing about this book is that it was published in 1980, and takes place sometime in the late 1990s, with multiple orbital space stations, Moon bases, and astronaut exploration of Mars. I feel totally ripped off! It’s 2023 and we have none of those things. I mean, there’s the ISS, sure…but that doesn’t count.
As the asteroid impact gets closer, the world starts going crazy, with scenes of masses of people assaulting NASA facilities reminiscent of scenes from modern-day Zombie movies (these religious zealots want the asteroid to hit, in order to usher in the “New Eden”). As the asteroid, Shiva, is also part of a large swarm of asteroids which precede it, trail it, and exist along its periphery, there are smaller asteroids continuing to rain down on the Earth throughout the length of the story, causing untold death and destruction everywhere.
This is also where it departs from my “Armageddon” comparison, as the world portrayed in this book is full of religious zealots, hopeless masses, hedonists, and the casts of all the various purge movies. The world continues to descend into chaos, anarchy (the bad kind), and mayhem as the asteroid approaches closer and closer – many even attempting to derail the mission to deflect the asteroid – instead of the fist-pumping, hero-worshipping, over-the-top, flooded-with-hope, quasi-patriotism of said aforementioned movie.
There’s this whole plot line where the President slowly descends into insanity, I guess…as the asteroid approaches he begins to rely more and more on the opinions of his aides and staff rather than making unilateral decisions (this is portrayed as a “bad thing”) and he begins to enjoy playing on his banjo more and more and more…which I guess is maybe supposed to be some kind of comparison to Nero fiddling while Rome burned?!?! And his mistress commits suicide, which I absolutely did not see happening, as there was no real foreshadowing. I mean, she seemed to be an addict of anti-depressants and other types of mood-altering/stabilizing pills…but the book also seemed to indicate that this was kind of a normal thing in the late 1990s, so…??
Obviously, the book ends with the world saved, mostly, and kind of intact, with the asteroid being deflected and slowed just enough that it ends up entering a stable orbit around the Earth, becoming a new satellite, with the new President of the USA (the VP who was sworn in after the President was declared incompetent) declaring that it will become a grand new space colony.
It was entertaining enough, if rather dark and disturbing. There’s one scene where hundreds, if not thousands, of zealots are scaling the scaffolding of one of the “hero” rockets lifting off, all getting burned to ashes by the resulting engine flames, heat, and exhaust. Humanity descended into a sort of “fuck it, we’re all gonna die, it’s everyone for themselves” with relatively few people willing to step in to save everyone, and even then there wasn’t a lot of altruism…
It starts with the discovery of the killer asteroid, then moves immediately to a scene of a space shuttle coming in for a landing with a mechanical error that causes an emergency landing – admittedly, not in the Los Angeles River, but an emergency landing, nonetheless. It kind of diverges from there, like there aren’t any oil drillers, but there is a plan to use nuclear weapons against the asteroid. There’s also a sort of “isn’t that convenient moment” as they realize they will need a nuclear weapon bigger and larger than anyone possess by several orders of magnitude…and then the Soviets pipe up and say “Hey, we just happen to have one here, exactly the size you require, which we had created for entirely peaceful reasons!”
The most depressing thing about this book is that it was published in 1980, and takes place sometime in the late 1990s, with multiple orbital space stations, Moon bases, and astronaut exploration of Mars. I feel totally ripped off! It’s 2023 and we have none of those things. I mean, there’s the ISS, sure…but that doesn’t count.
As the asteroid impact gets closer, the world starts going crazy, with scenes of masses of people assaulting NASA facilities reminiscent of scenes from modern-day Zombie movies (these religious zealots want the asteroid to hit, in order to usher in the “New Eden”). As the asteroid, Shiva, is also part of a large swarm of asteroids which precede it, trail it, and exist along its periphery, there are smaller asteroids continuing to rain down on the Earth throughout the length of the story, causing untold death and destruction everywhere.
This is also where it departs from my “Armageddon” comparison, as the world portrayed in this book is full of religious zealots, hopeless masses, hedonists, and the casts of all the various purge movies. The world continues to descend into chaos, anarchy (the bad kind), and mayhem as the asteroid approaches closer and closer – many even attempting to derail the mission to deflect the asteroid – instead of the fist-pumping, hero-worshipping, over-the-top, flooded-with-hope, quasi-patriotism of said aforementioned movie.
There’s this whole plot line where the President slowly descends into insanity, I guess…as the asteroid approaches he begins to rely more and more on the opinions of his aides and staff rather than making unilateral decisions (this is portrayed as a “bad thing”) and he begins to enjoy playing on his banjo more and more and more…which I guess is maybe supposed to be some kind of comparison to Nero fiddling while Rome burned?!?! And his mistress commits suicide, which I absolutely did not see happening, as there was no real foreshadowing. I mean, she seemed to be an addict of anti-depressants and other types of mood-altering/stabilizing pills…but the book also seemed to indicate that this was kind of a normal thing in the late 1990s, so…??
Obviously, the book ends with the world saved, mostly, and kind of intact, with the asteroid being deflected and slowed just enough that it ends up entering a stable orbit around the Earth, becoming a new satellite, with the new President of the USA (the VP who was sworn in after the President was declared incompetent) declaring that it will become a grand new space colony.
It was entertaining enough, if rather dark and disturbing. There’s one scene where hundreds, if not thousands, of zealots are scaling the scaffolding of one of the “hero” rockets lifting off, all getting burned to ashes by the resulting engine flames, heat, and exhaust. Humanity descended into a sort of “fuck it, we’re all gonna die, it’s everyone for themselves” with relatively few people willing to step in to save everyone, and even then there wasn’t a lot of altruism…
October 26, 2023
DNF. What a frustrating book. Huge meteor predicted to hit earth in less than a year. The meteor is part of a swarm. One of the smaller meteors hits the U.S., resulting in the total destruction of Cleveland. This happened before page 20.
I got as far as 100 pages, and the Cleveland situation was never referenced again. There’s a press conference with one of the astronauts assigned to deflect or destroy the Shiva meteor, wherein the skeptical reporters express their disbelief that a massive meteor strike can happen. Excuse me, but CLEVELAND WAS OBLITERATED BY A METEOR. Did they forget? Did the writers forget?
The rest of the book (through page 100) follows the various astronauts as they prep for their mission, it follows the President, and some preacher with his cult who are welcoming the end of the world. We get lots of updates to their love lives too. But nothing about the repercussions of a meteor destroying a major U.S. city. Months of book-time have passed during those pages, too.
Come on man.
I got as far as 100 pages, and the Cleveland situation was never referenced again. There’s a press conference with one of the astronauts assigned to deflect or destroy the Shiva meteor, wherein the skeptical reporters express their disbelief that a massive meteor strike can happen. Excuse me, but CLEVELAND WAS OBLITERATED BY A METEOR. Did they forget? Did the writers forget?
The rest of the book (through page 100) follows the various astronauts as they prep for their mission, it follows the President, and some preacher with his cult who are welcoming the end of the world. We get lots of updates to their love lives too. But nothing about the repercussions of a meteor destroying a major U.S. city. Months of book-time have passed during those pages, too.
Come on man.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2011
Half decent ending, a lot of filler and very much a dated feel about it.
August 6, 2009
I thought this book was a bit slow to start and it actually took me a lot longer to read than most other books. What I like about apocalyptic novels is how people deal with the situation. I thought this one was probably pretty realistic with it's bleak view of a planet gone crazy. I would have liked to hear more about it. Anyway, slow or not, it flew once Alpha and Omega were on their mission.
August 31, 2019
Lucifer's Hammer was better.
July 8, 2019
A passing swarm of comets and meteors strikes the Earth causing severe damage in several countries. However, it is determined that the swarm is on an orbit that will bring it back to Earth in around 11 months. More importantly, a massive comet in the centre named Shiva is predicted to strike the planet, causing the likely extinction of all life. It's not long until everyone know this and some handle it better than others!
The book follows the international (but basically American) effort to launch space shuttles to deflect Shiva. There's quite a lot of semi-technical space mission details and many meetings of government bodies etc. This is a bit more interesting than it sounds, and the tension is gradually increased as Shiva gets closer and time starts to run out. The short snippets of incidents around the world give an indication of how things are progressing. The ending is particularly exciting.
The book was published in 1980 and it shows its age in some respects. For example, the Cold War is still a factor and the technology used seems a bit old fashioned now.
The book follows the international (but basically American) effort to launch space shuttles to deflect Shiva. There's quite a lot of semi-technical space mission details and many meetings of government bodies etc. This is a bit more interesting than it sounds, and the tension is gradually increased as Shiva gets closer and time starts to run out. The short snippets of incidents around the world give an indication of how things are progressing. The ending is particularly exciting.
The book was published in 1980 and it shows its age in some respects. For example, the Cold War is still a factor and the technology used seems a bit old fashioned now.
January 10, 2022
A little dated but ok. Lucifer’s Hammer was better.
April 7, 2015
3.5 stars.
While I'm not normally a fan of apocalypse fiction, this one was pretty good. Mr. Benford got a little too deep in the details, and had a few too many characters (about 20-30 pages could have been cut) so the story bogged down in places and I had to rethink who some of the characters were.
Had it been a little tighter, I would have gone 4 stars.
While I'm not normally a fan of apocalypse fiction, this one was pretty good. Mr. Benford got a little too deep in the details, and had a few too many characters (about 20-30 pages could have been cut) so the story bogged down in places and I had to rethink who some of the characters were.
Had it been a little tighter, I would have gone 4 stars.
February 27, 2009
A novel about a giant asteroid on path to hit and destroy the earth, and the astronauts who are sent up to try to stop it. I wonder if this is where they got the idea for the movie Armageddon, though this story is a bit different than that movie.
December 4, 2010
Not that great, but it's apocalyptic.....
July 31, 2017
4.8 |Besprechung folgt !
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews