Heart of the Comet

By: Gregory Benford, David Brin

Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan, Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir

Gregory Benford and David Brin come together in this bold collaboration about our near human future in space.

Prescient and scientifically accurate, Heart of the Comet is known as one of the great hard SF novels of the 1980s. First published in 1986, it tells the story of an ambitious manned mission to visit Halley's Comet, alter its orbit, and mine it for resources. But all too soon, native cells - that might once have brought life to Earth - begin colonizing the colonists. As factions battle over the comet's future - and that of Earth - only love, courage, and ingenuity can avert disaster and spark a new human destiny.

©1993, 2012 David Brin and Abbenford Associates. Introduction © 2012 by David Brin (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc. and Skyboat Media, Inc.

What a fantastic work of Science Fiction

I read this in paperback back when it was first published in 1993 and had fond memories of it. But THIS audio performance was absolutely enthralling and I’m so glad I went into this work again via the fine, fine talents of Ochlan, Rudnicki, and de Cuir. As one might expect from a collaboration by PhDs Brin and Bedford the science was solid and has held up pretty well. Very much worth the read... and especially the listen!

Challenging hard sci-fi with some characterization

I personally enjoyed listening to this, as a repeat of a very long ago reading.

This book falls into the sometimes uncomfortable genre of "hard sci-fi", meaning that it attempts to seriously engage engineering and science while also telling its story. As such, the listener needs to expect a certain amount of explanation meshed in with the story as the author justifies why the characters expect their solutions to work. This work manages to weave that genre-necessary explanation in reasonably well, but if you're not interested in science it's recommended you find a different genre. I can't take a star off for having explanations given the genre, and I felt it was handled at about an average level.

It is typical for hard sci-fi to have somewhat wooden characters, and unfortunately I had to take a star off for that problem. The characters do just well enough to make their development engaging, and there's an ongoing element of real danger which helps in that. As such, it's above what I'd consider the standard for the genre, but that is unfortunately not a high standard.

Finally, the story itself was helped along a bit too conveniently not only by the reasonable use of technology to overcome problems (and that's not just a trope; it's what engineers are supposed to do), but also by an all-too-convenient accident which happened at least twice -- and which, of course, was part of the scientific lesson the authors intend to teach. It nonetheless served to get me thinking about the symbiosis theory of the origin of complex life, so it served its purpose.

For followup reading, for those interested in the facts of the matter, I'd highly recommend "The Vital Question" by Nick Lane.

OK story, bad narration

I had to struggle through this book. simply because the narration was not good. there are three narrators, and each one is bad in their own right. the story is OK....even if it reads like a young adult novel early on. too much angst in the characters.

Sci Fi at its best!

An epic story about mankind, artificial intelligence, and our future evolution. Great writing, and very well performed!

Cosmic cometary escapades

Heart of the Comet by the writing team of David Brin and Gregory Benford follows the exploration of Halley’s comet as a manned mission sent to investigate the comet as a possible source of valuable materials. Set in a relativistic universe, the mission spans decades. The team finds lifeforms in the comet while at the same time, there is crew tension between ‘orthos’ or baseline humans and other members of the crew who have been genetically altered to eliminate specific diseases. The project becomes a miniature version of an emergent society with divisions regarding final disposition of the comet to protect Earth from contamination.

Brin and Benford offer an intriguing mix of hard sci-fi and speculative conjecture on the origins of life on Earth. At the same time, there is an intriguing mix of social and cultural dissonance as the decade long mission becomes effectively separate from Earth amply demonstrating science impacting humanity in unexpected ways.

The narration is excellent with multiple narrators allowing for ease of shifting among the various perspectives along with superb character distinction. Pacing is smooth.