Waiting at Halfdome

[V3rt1g0]

I remember one novel, the title and author of which is lost to me now, that was the story of the literal breakup of the Earth as the result of electro-magnetic forces deep within the core that had gone haywire.
Unfortunately my details are sketchy, although it was in English, and likely something read in the 70's...might have been written before then.
I hope the hive can help! TIA!
The central figure was a young scientist who had first stumbled upon the clues to this disaster and worked together with an international team to alert the world. The last third of the book follows those who are preparing for the end. Our young man drives from San Francisco to Yosemite and climbs Half Dome to witness the dawn of the last day on Earth. He knows the hour the cataclysm will arrive; he wants to be in a place where he can face the wave that is coming with stoic courage. But as he waits in the semi-darkness, feeling the first tremors around him, he hears the wafting of wings overhead as a flock of birds rushes up from the valley. He takes in the fragrance of the pines, feels the coolness of the stone beneath him, and he begins to weep, not from fear — he’s beyond that — but for the love of the body of the Earth which will be no more.

 

[CassFrank]

An educated guess: This is The HAB Theory by Allan W Eckert (1976). Overview

 

[Peter V]

Pretty sure it's the Forge of God by Greg Bear. Alien incursion into the Earth's core to deliberately dismantle the planet

 

[Cat's Cradle]

That sounds like it exactly, Peter! Terrific book. AND - I just checked on the U.S. version of Audible... if anyone's interested, both FOG and its sequel, Anvil of Stars, are on sale right now for $2.47 (not sure if other regions' Audibles would have the same sale). I got both as it's been awhile since I've gone through them, so thanks for answering this one.

 

[Peter V]

That sounds like it exactly, Peter! Terrific book. AND - I just checked on the U.S. version of Audible... if anyone's interested, both FOG and its sequel, Anvil of Stars, are on sale right now for $2.47 (not sure if other regions' Audibles would have the same sale). I got both as it's been awhile since I've gone through them, so thanks for answering this one.

I really enjoyed both novels and rate them highly but they really do get mixed reviews. FoG is without doubt one of my favourite end of the world stories (not quite Lucifers Hammer level though imo)

 

[Cat's Cradle]

I can understand why the reviews would be varied. I thought the concept was great (to me, it seemed a really unique end of the world story... I read FoG when it first came out, was that early 80s? I've read it once more since then.), and that the plot built in a very dramatic way, and to an exceptionally dramatic ending. But the characterizations were a bit cliched, if I remember correctly, and this isn't Literature. But dang, I remember it as being very exciting.

AoS is such a different book, really, in every sense. I seem to recall the writing style is even different... but the star-spanning, alien-encounterness of it all is also very exciting. I guess these would be more hard-SF than a lot of the things I would usually read, and to me they seem good examples of that genre. Any-who, really happy you mentioned FoG... I have been away from SF for awhile, and might as well revisit it with a book I already know I'll enjoy, CC

 

[Peter V]

I can understand why the reviews would be varied. I thought the concept was great (to me, it seemed a really unique end of the world story... I read FoG when it first came out, was that early 80s? I've read it once more since then.), and that the plot built in a very dramatic way, and to an exceptionally dramatic ending. But the characterizations were a bit cliched, if I remember correctly, and this isn't Literature. But dang, I remember it as being very exciting.

AoS is such a different book, really, in every sense. I seem to recall the writing style is even different... but the star-spanning, alien-encounterness of it all is also very exciting. I guess these would be more hard-SF than a lot of the things I would usually read, and to me they seem good examples of that genre. Any-who, really happy you mentioned FoG... I have been away from SF for awhile, and might as well revisit it with a book I already know I'll enjoy, CC

I enjoyed Anvil as well and overall like most of what Bear has written. Like you, I found Forge to be a very unique end of the world tale and agree that some of the characterisation is clichéd and agree also that once along for the ride it didn't massively detract from the book. The fact that he was able to create a viable sequel to the literal end of the world is a credit to him.
Bear definitely falls into the hard science fiction category - almost to the levels of Stephen Baxter and sometimes this can be a bit detrimental to the plot. Take his Way series. I thought Eon was superb - lots of science, (and quite a lot of it understandable) and an interesting plot, Eternity pretty good, even more science but the plotting didn't suffer overly and then Legacy... a lot of hard science at the expense of the plot imo. I had to see it through to get the conclusion of what he started in Eon but it was hard going at times. Admittedly I read them a long time ago and my memory is not my strength (other than one of the main protagonists of Forge sitting on Half Dome as it is ejected into space, that brought me to this thread!)

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thanks for the discussion, Peter! That helps me understand Bear better. I'd only read these two books by him - FoG and AoS - and I have read little hard SF in the last 35 years. But I might give Eon a shot one of these days. It seems the majority of comments I've read on it over the years have been positive.

Okay, sorry to have de-railed the thread everyone! I went ahead and de-railed as I suspect we may not see the OP again, since it's been three+ years, CC