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Heart of the Comet

Heart of the Comet

List Price: $15.30
Your Price: $15.30
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Adventure science-fiction at it's literate best
Review: Ah, this was such a satisfying novel. It follows three primary characters over a century as they are part of the effort to study Halley's comet. They discover a primitive life-form which attatches itself to the humans in a symbiotic relationship and eventually causes them to be an imagined threat to Earth.

The theme of genetically enhanced humans (Percells) and the rivalry between them and the normal humans is explored. Some consider this an overworked theme, but the authors here approach it from a logical perspective.

This is a good read and quite recommended for science-fiction readers.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Adventure science-fiction at it's literate best
Review: Ah, this was such a satisfying novel. It follows three primary characters over a century as they are part of the effort to study Halley's comet. They discover a primitive life-form which attatches itself to the humans in a symbiotic relationship and eventually causes them to be an imagined threat to Earth.

The theme of genetically enhanced humans (Percells) and the rivalry between them and the normal humans is explored. Some consider this an overworked theme, but the authors here approach it from a logical perspective.

This is a good read and quite recommended for science-fiction readers.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful Hard Science Fiction Book
Review: Finally!! The blurbs on the book cover do it justice. What a woderful book written by two science fiction masters. I had put ofrf reading this book and had it for several years. I picked it up after a friend recommended it and WOW!. It is truly a world building story and the characters are lovingly portrayed and the plot moves along quickly. This is one "hard" science fiction book that does not get bogged down in science facts and details. Just enough to keep you interested. I can;t say enough good things about this book. Too bad these two authors didn;t collaborate on another project.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Great Acheivement in Hard SF
Review: HEART OF THE COMET is one of the best true science fiction novels I've read in a very long time. In some ways, it is classic hard science fiction, with very convincing scientific extrapolations that stay well away from the science-fantasy cliches of FTL travel, transporter beams, and the like. On the other hand, the book is rather atypical for hard SF, in that, as a result of the hostile indigenous life and endless factional fighting, it makes the grand task of colonizing Halley's Comet seem about as appealing as a life sentence in a third-world prison. This results in a continual tension between the sweeping, go-where-no-man-has-gone-before scope of the book and the spectacularly unpleasant living conditions to which the characters are subjected.

The three main protagonists (and a lot of the supporting characters) are very well-drawn. Like good hard-SF lead characters, they overcome the adversity of their circumstances with their technical expertise and willpower. We see them shaped over the years by life on the comet, in once case, growing believably from a rather callow youth into a confident, skilled leader. Some of the antagonistic supporting characters, and there are many of them, are well drawn, but others have a tendency to become stereotypical amalgams of the sorts of irrationality of which the authors clearly don't approve.

On the whole, I found myself enthralled by this book. It creates a plausible, coherent environment unlike just about anything else I've read, and populates it with (mostly) interesting and well-conceived characters. One blurb on the book said that it was better than DUNE; I won't go quite that far, but it certainly was impressive.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good stuff!
Review: Hey i'm only 16 but i read this book and thought it was good. It was a great concept. I like David Brin. I read Startide Rising and that was awsome!!! I gave it 4 stars because at some small parts it was slow. It caught my attention cause all of the good comments on the back like: "Better Than Dune!" so i read it to see if it was. Not quite in my opinion but it comes to an equal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful. Awe-inspiring
Review: I couldn't put the book down. It was a surreal, awe-inspiring adventure. The imagery was such that I could visulaize it in my mind as I was reading. I felt like I was there. A wonderful masterpiece of science fiction that doesn't degrade itself by including sex, slave girls, etc. that a lot of other 3rd rate science trash puts out. This is a classic forever!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent and thought-provoking
Review: I enjoyed this book a great deal. I was fascinated by how the authors created such tension and drama around little things, like molds and bacterias. Also, it was refreshing to see a "new" trajectory for the development of humanity in a sci-fi novel: cometary man. Good stuff!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent and thought-provoking
Review: I enjoyed this book a great deal. I was fascinated by how the authors created such tension and drama around little things, like molds and bacterias. Also, it was refreshing to see a "new" trajectory for the development of humanity in a sci-fi novel: cometary man. Good stuff!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent and thought-provoking
Review: I enjoyed this book a great deal. I was fascinated by how the authors created such tension and drama around little things, like molds and bacterias. Also, it was refreshing to see a "new" trajectory for the development of humanity in a sci-fi novel: cometary man. Good stuff!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome Hard Science
Review: I enjoyed this book immensely! The perfect balance of exploring scientific concepts and telling a riveting story. Like "Earth" (novel by David Brin), some of the scientific ideas are a little farfetched, but not just silly. They are well thought out, and explained in relatively simple terms. There are explorations of biology (the interplay of hostile and symbiotic microscopic life forms - germs), astrophysics (using sublimation to steer a comet), and even the psycology (small groups of people under stress - a la "Lord of the Flies"). I think this is why it took two authors to write this book... there are just too many interesting concepts going on for just one person to have thouroughly researched. Oh, and did I mention that it has lots of action and a great story. Not nearly as dry as you might guess from the title - quite a treat.


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