Moonfall - Softcover

McDevitt, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0061051128 ISBN 13: 9780061051128

Publisher: HarperPaperbacks, 1998

Synopsis

In five days, comet "Tomiko" will shatter the Moon. Huge chunks will rain down on Earth, causing continent-wide fires, killer storms, and tidal waved as tall as mountain ranges.

Five days to save a world.

Five nightmare days for the reluctant Russian rocket jockey entrusted with Earth's future; for the woman astronaut who may be the last human on the Moon; for the scientist who must deflect the "possums" (POSSible IMpactors) or witness the end of science itself. And for Vice President Charlie Haskell, the career politician who discovers unexpected reserves of courage and principle as he makes choices not only for himself and his country, but for all humankind.

"Moonfall" is McDevitt's masterpiece--a heart-stopping drama of heroism and hope played out against the awesome spectacle of the darkest night in human history.

About this title

Review:

Over the last few years, Jack McDevitt has quietly been producing an outstanding collection of science fiction novels. Earlier works such as The Engines of God and Ancient Shores had a thoughtful, archaeological-exploration bent, but with Moonfall he takes off the gloves to create a splashy, near-future science fiction thriller with a big cast of characters and a do-or-die attitude. At the centre of the story is Charlie Haskell, the U.S. vice president, who in 2024--an election year--has arrived at the American Moonbase to cut the ribbon and declare it operational. But there's a problem, and it's a big one: a "sun-grazer" comet, with immense mass and speed, is on a collision course with the moon. Haskell, with an eye to his public image, puts himself at the bottom of the evacuation list. But time grows critically short, and soon more than his political future is in jeopardy--broken chunks of moon will begin exploding outwards. If they reached Earth, some of the chunks would be big enough to cause an extinction event. McDevitt pays attention to his science while revving the action, and the stakes couldn't be higher: Haskell's choices will decide who lives and who dies--if anyone survives at all. --Blaise Selby

Review:

"A full-speed-ahead tale of a comet's collision with the moon...the "Titanic" in space."-- "Booklist

"Big, bursting, medium-future, global disaster yarn...another solidly engrossing entry from the dependable McDevitt."-- "Kirkus Reviews"

Breathlesss...a fine-tuned disaster to remember."-- "Publishers Weekly

"The Heir to Asimov"-- Michael Swanwick

About this edition

• Publisher: HarperPaperbacks
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0061051128
• ISBN 13: 9780061051128
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 560