Life after impact

[Jennifer]

I'm so curious about what happens after the final page! Even though Maia will strike Indonesia, Hank says that the experts predict the impact will be felt everywhere, but I'm wondering how strongly he'll feel it in Ohio. Will it feel like a small earthquake or will it be strong enough to kill everyone on the spot? The latter just doesn't seem likely; however, I know a blotted-out sun will follow soon after--basically nature's own version of a nuclear winter. I wonder how long it would be until that lack of sunlight and photosynthesis finishes off whoever is left?

[Cindy]

I'm thinking maybe the USA and it's inhabitants might last long enough for Ben Winters to write another installment in the series. Please!

[M]

I don't know if I can take another novel. Watching the world disintegrate around Hank was hard. He's found a place of relative peace and I'd like to leave him there.

Of course if there's another book, I'll be at the front of the line to get it.

[Bob]

If you're looking for a book that covers the aftermath of an asteroid strike, try "Lucifer's Hammer" by Larry Niven. An oldie but a goodie.

[Ellen]

Anosmia wrote: "I'm so curious about what happens after the final page! Even though Maia will strike Indonesia, Hank says that the experts predict the impact will be felt everywhere, but I'm wondering how strongly..."

The dust and/or water vapor kicked up by the asteroid's impact would cause a "nuclear winter" that would last 100 years or more. If you want to know what that looks like, watch "The Road".

[Jennifer]

Good comparisons. I read Lucifer's Hammer and The Road years ago (along with a huge spate of nuclear war books), and I do think the world portrayed in those books would likely be reflected in Winters's post-comet world.

[Ellen]

Lucifer's Hammer is far too optimistic. Society survives and people begin to rebuild.

Post-nuclear war or post-asteroid strike, the ants will inherit the Earth. 65 million years ago, an asteroid wiped out 95% of the planet's species. Know who shrugged and went on? The goddamned ants, that's who. The little picnic ruiners should've starved, but instead they burrowed deep in the Earth and started raising a strain of fungus for food.

So the ants invented agriculture 65 million years ago. Oh, and by the way, there's currently a major war between the North American supercolony and a Mexican supercolony of ants in which billions of ants are fighting one another. The leader of the North American supercolony is a queen who is colored orange (yeah I couldn't resist, sorry).

[Jennifer]

Hahaha! That is excellent!

[Ellen]

The North American supercolony is building walls in their tunnels so the Mexican ants can't get in.

I am not making this up.