Children of the Comet

Donald Moffitt

Oct 2015 · Open Road Media

About this ebook

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.

Ratings and reviews

This book starts off in a very interesting way, dealing with primitive peoples living on comets which grow trees. The perspective of time brought on by traveling at relativistic speeds is also interesting, however, there is no discernable over arcing conflict and each problem that the characters encounter is so readily handled that you don't feel much of a connection to them. Any emotion they exhibit seems a little overly dramatic when compared to the solutions that seem so easily obtained.

About the author

Donald Moffitt (1931–2014) was born in Boston. A former public relations executive, industrial filmmaker, and ghostwriter, he wrote fiction on and off for more than twenty years, often under one of many pen names. In 1977 he published his first full-length science fiction novel, The Jupiter Theft, under his own name.

Moffitt was a visionary novelist, praised for his scientific accuracy and his high-speed, high-tech stories. He lived in rural Maine with his wife, Ann, until his death in December 2014.