Rating: 
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:
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:
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:
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: 
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: 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: Captivating
Review: to be fair, i have about 100 pages left at the time i an writing this. i bought this book because of the high recommendations here on amazon. i've been pretty disappointed from the start. the beginning og the book spent too much time trying to introduce the characters in what seemed to be outside the context of any interesting plot. the story is told from the 1st person of about 4 different people. at this point in the book, i haven't identified with any of the people nor are they realistic portails, even for hard sci-fi. one character has been making incredible bio advances and another can apparently hack into any computer system or through any sort of encryption --- with what seems like little or no effort and little or no resources. the tech + bio advancements made by the cometeers failed to grab my interest. on top of this, the book is quite long. it's not long because of a whole lot of content IMO, but rather because the story moves quite slowly. another aspect ... the book focuses a lot on the political strife between several human factions that were chosen for crew. it is very unbelievable that such intolerant inviduals would be packed together on a hundred year space mission. even to what seems to be the bitter end, the different factions are stabbing each other in the back in ways that are obviously undermining everyone's survival. it would have been much more realistic to me folks would have banded together in the face of adversity in order to survive.
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