Heart of the Comet

Rating:
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.

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: hope for the comet
Review: I just finished this book and anyone who enjoys hard s/f would probably enjoy this book. My main reason for a review is to request that the authors consider a sequel as I have noticed several people hoped for the same thing in other reviews.
I thought the start of this journey is fantastic and it needs to be continued!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book!
Review: I like this book so much that I've run a 5-player RPG based on this book's scenario very successfully, for 25 weeks (one 6 hr session every week.) If you're interested in this adaptation, I'm happy to share. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: ok story, but too long and contains questionable science
Review: I would have enjoyed this a lot more if it had been half the length. The characters are all defined by their nationalities and scientific specializations and not much else. I have a hard time buying one of the main ideas, that humans could become symbiotic with extraterrestrial life forms over a period of only a hundred years. Evolution just doesn't happen that fast.

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: I'm from the Heinlein, Colin Wilson, Lovecraft wing of SF, but I really enjoyed this book. It would make a great movie.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Impossible to put down. Thought provoking and touching at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: Impossible to put down. Thought provoking and touching at the same time.

Rating:
Summary: A great example of "hard" sci-fi
Review: My dad, who got me started on sci-fi as a kid, recently complained that too much of today's sci-fi is more fantasy than science. I'm going to send him this book for Christmas, because it tackles so many areas -- space travel, biology, even sociology. I thought it was one of the best hard sci-fi books I've read, ever.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT SCIENCE FICTION BY AUTHORS WHO KNOW SCIENCE
Review: One of the best action-adventure-plus-thought novels ever written. There must be a sequel...someday?