Product Description

An odyssey of discovery, from a shattered society through the solar system with a handful of men and women who ride a cold, hurtling ball of ice to the shaky promise of a distant, unknowable future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #471917 in Books
• Published on: 1997-05-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 496 pages

Customer Reviews

The best Brin book by far
David Brin, although one of the best proponents of 'hard SF', does have a tendency to make his books a little slow. The Uplift sequence ranges between very good indeed (startide rising) and very overlong (all the jijo books). Heart of the comet is a lot better than all of these. It seems that Benford has found a way to moderate Brin's style such that it is gripping the whole way through. This is a brilliant example of the closed environment SF book, and you really engage with both the main and subsidiary characters. Also, an interesting reversal of the normal SF genetic engineering vision, here they are an underclass rather than a priveleged elite.
Definitely worth reading for all fans of Brin or hard SF in general.

Up there with the best SF books I've read
If you like David Brin or Gregory Benford's work then you will love this, even if you don't then you will still find this to be an epic book. I don't really have a criteria for what I find to be a good book, but some of the best book's I've read have always left me thinking for a long time after I've finished them. I personally think this is up there with Arhur C. Clarkes The City and the Stars, Dan Simmons Hyperion cantos, Iain M. Banks Culture novels and Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence.

Rip roaring, but intelligent sciencej-fiction adventure
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.