The Hammer of Eden is a work by Ken Follett published in 1998.

Plot

It is about a group of people living together in a commune cut off from the rest of the world. When their commune is threatened by a plan to build a dam, they turn desperate and devise a devious plan to arm-twist the governor of California to abandon the project. They transform themselves into eco-terrorists and threaten to start an earthquake if their demands are not met. They set off a series of earthquakes using a stolen seismic vibrator truck from an oil firm. Their leader is an illiterate man called Priest who is helped by a seismology student called Melanie in his plans. Judy Maddox, an FBI agent, is the only one who can stop them and the rest of the story revolves around how she tries to do so.

List of characters

Main characters

Secondary characters

Reception

Carlos Ramet noted that the character of Judy Maddox, one of the novel's main protagonists, is an example of the a change in Follet's writing that begun with The Third Twin, i.e. "the change in emphasis from male to female perspective" and the development of capable and heroical female characters. He also observes that Maddox's contempt for her superiors, described as the "suits" and "the big shot[s]" from Washington", is representative of Follet's "post-war British ambivalence towards American materialism". With regards to the novel structure, Ramet argues that it combines the "formulaic hunter/hunted device" with "Buchanesque and Hitchcockian elements", and also shows inspiration from Ian Fleming's works.