Children of the Comet
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
From the visionary author of The Genesis Quest, a “wildly imaginative” (Greg Bear) science fiction novel about a young man’s struggle for survival on a comet made of ice.
In Donald Moffitt’s brilliant cosmic adventure, Torris, son of the Facemaker, knows only his small community at the base of the great Tree on a comet with almost no gravity or atmosphere. Torris’s daily struggle for survival includes harvesting frozen air to keep breathing, dodging flutterbeasts, and hunting meatbeasts for food.
When the time comes to make his vision quest to the top of the Tree, Torris is completely unprepared for what he finds: a thieving and hostile fellow quester; Ning, a female hunter in search of food to save her family on a neighboring comet; and humans from a massive starship that has spent billions of years crossing the galaxy from Earth’s solar system.
Perfect for fans of Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven, and Peter F. Hamilton, Children of the Comet is an enthralling space odyssey about a young man grappling with unexpected cultural differences and learning to adapt in the face of an uncertain and rapidly changing fantastical future.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The final novel by Moffitt (1931 2014), set six billion years in the future, envisions humans being forced out of the Milky Way by an alien race known as the First Ones. Fortunately, this eviction takes place only after development of the Higgs drive, which makes travelling near light speed possible. Humans can travel unimaginable distances in the course of a single lifetime, while millennia pass outside the ship. Unsurprisingly, scientific advancement is no indicator of social progress, and the crew of the starship Time's Beginning is riven by factions that variously want to return to Earth's solar system, find a hospitable new planet, or search for the beginning of time. Meanwhile, another group of humans has been forced to take up residence in a collection of giant space trees rooted in comets, where they devolve into a primitive culture and manage to survive in the harsh vacuum of space until catching the attention of the Time's Beginning crew, which lavishes upon them the blessings of recivilization. The premises underlying this book are inventive, and the science is sound but long-winded. Alas, Moffitt (The Jupiter Theft) is not as talented with narrative and characterization as he clearly is with astrophysics, and the result is a fascinating scientific essay still in search of a worthy literary framework.
Customer Reviews
An Engrossing Story with Compelling Characters
Children of the Comet is an engrossing story, with compelling characters, of a time in the distant future after the Earth has been swallowed by the sun. Narrative of a primitive society based on a comet in the Ort Cloud proceeds in parallel with the story of a space ship captain and his mutinous crew. Both stories are interesting and proceed on a vividly-described stage until the two societies come into contact. The clash of the two cultures and the differences in how each has evolved provide great reading and keep the reader hooked right up to the end. The scientific basis for all that transpires makes sense from a basis of today's knowledge, which makes the story more realistic and enjoyable. It is a good, non-demanding read.