Can people trigger an earthquake?
Judy Maddox , a young FBI investigator is assigned to check this out.
A charismatic cult leader named Priest, is on the other side of the story.
Priest has lived under the radar for 30 years and now, with the help of various people of the hippy cult he established and leads, he is trying to make the governor do his will with the threat of creating a deadly earthquake.

The story includes the typical characteristics of the genre:
A young attractive talented investigator who has to confront her bosses in order to do her job.
A charismatic and talented villain who is obsessed with the woman who is investigating him.

I liked the book and found the cult atmosphere of the book interesting.
As for the seismographic part of the book, I don’t know.

Si tratta di thriller, avvincente, quanto può essere avvincente la maniera di scrivere di Ken Follett, che a mio parere o ami o trovi pesante.
Io propendo più per la seconda anche quando avevo letto in precedenza "I pilastri della terra".

All’inizio del libro troviamo l’alternarsi di capitoli che vedono due storie correre in parallelo: un gruppo di hippie rimasti negli anni 70 ed un’agente dell’Fbi, intenta nella sua scalata lavorativa.
Pian pianino, nello svilupparsi della vicenda, queste due storie si intersecano fino a diventarne una sola.
Trovo molto carino l’espediente dell’autore di inserire in corsivo i pensieri dei protagonisti che commentano la vicenda, ogni tanto sono pensieri che ti fanno anche sorridere.
Ci sono riferimenti al sesso, ma nella “maschia” maniera.
Ci saranno esplosioni, colpi di pistola, inseguimenti in macchina ed anche in elicottero.
Ci saranno litigi, il nascere di una storia d’amore, il concludersi di un rapporto ventennale.
Direi che in linea teorica non manca nulla, ma c’è qualcosa che non è stato in grado di tenermi incollata alle pagine, come mi aspetterei da un thriller.

Aceptable novela. Cumple con lo justo. No le pidan que cabecee.

Così così. E' avvincente, come praticamente tutti i libri di Ken Follett, ma secondo me è anche pieno di cavolate e di ingenuità nella storia, che non mi sento di dire per non spoilerare. Perfetta lettura estiva, da aereo o da treno.

muy entretenido pero que cringe el protagonista!!

Oh Mr Follett, you have done so much better than this book. I have to think that everyone needs a loser now and again and unfortunately this book was a loser. It was written in a juvenile manner and the plot while it did have some "earth shattering" moments lacked any wow factor.

Listened to around thirty minutes

If I try to finish this book, I may literally die of laughter. I'm in no way mature enough to listen to a book about a "seismic vibrator" -not what it sounds like- especially when coupled with the title THE HAMMER OF EDEN. I was snorting so hard it hurt.

No one can say this novel is just like the author's medieval stories about cathedrals and such! “Hammer” is about a cult left over from the sixties that turns into terrorists (mostly their leader) when a government project threatens to flood the land where they’ve been peacefully settled for three decades, successfully making wine to generate what little monetary income they need. The threat is that the group will cause an earthquake – seemingly a far-fetched idea which the author makes so believable that the suspense builds throughout the entire book with little respite. The gist of it is that a massive truck used in oil field exploration – a seismic vibrator – could indeed incite earth tremors if applied near a fault line.

When the government fails to pay any attention to the group’s threat, they make good on their claim and cause a quake too little to cause damage but too scary to be a coincidence. After that, it’s a race between a determined FBI agent, Judy Maddox, whose career has been thwarted at almost every turn by the “old boy club” surrounding her; and the villain of the cult, “Priest”, who is not above murder and mayhem to accomplish his goals. The detective work is outstanding, but on more than one occasion, we almost found ourselves rooting for the cult to survive – they were basically harmless, with an interesting set of mores, until the earthquake scheme threw everything into chaos.

Follett shows off all his terrific writing skills herein; to us, it was a most entertaining, suspenseful thriller that kept us turning pages as rapidly as they would go!

Priest, leader of a peacefull commune, organizes his group to become terrorists when their group is going to be ousted for a damn.

I've never read a bad Ken Follett novel until now. A group of eco terrorists make demands and if not met cause earthquakes with a stolen seismic vibrator. I can't believe I made it through in its entirety! Just awful.

This was the seventh Ken Follett book I've read and the first one that took a little effort to get into. I appreciated the twist that the book started with a long section about who turned out (pretty quickly) to be the villain in the story, but with how unlikable Priest was, I just couldn't find a rhythm. Compared to the last Follett book I read, Triple, which I couldn't put down right from the beginning. I thought it started to turn around when Judy Maddox was introduced but Brian Kincaid put a dark cloud over the first half of her story arc. I was finally able to get into the book around half way. From there, it was a quick read as the story really picked up. I was glad when Judy came out ahead in the end.

Overall, as always it was a very well written book. Follett's creativity never ceases to amaze me. Environmental terrorism is outside of something I would have normally read but he made it exciting and fun.

A northern California cult leader steals a seismic vibrator to trigger earthquakes to force the governor to stop the construction of a power plant lake that will flood his commune.

I got this as a mindless vacation read because I had read Follett's Kingsbridge series and liked them (although the first was the best and they kind of went downhill from there). He's a great story teller, but this story is preposterous on so many levels that it was disappointing.

Our cult leader takes a temporary job working for an oil exploration company so that he can get access to the seismic vibrator machine they use to find oil. He kills the driver and steals the machine, but for some reason no one seems to connect him going missing at the same time as the machine.

The FBI does a voice analysis and comes up with size, age, education and other characteristics, and they fit perfectly!

Our beautiful FBI agent ends up taking on the bad guy one on one. Her policeman dad makes some guesses about what the guy will do and, surprise, that's what he does.

It was all so predictable, and in several ways, so stupid. But, at least I didn't strain my brain trying to figure it out while on vacation.