It’s a treat to read a realistic portrayal of what might happen in this situation – one that actually does let the comet hit the earth. Although the book is slow to get started and seems a little dated to those of us who grew up in the Space Shuttle age, it provides an unflinching look at what post-apocalyptic society may be like. Stripped of our technological comforts, humankind reverts to a primitive pecking order, powered by monarchies or secret, tribal-like rituals, a society where women are little more than property and your worth as a human being is determined by how much pre-comet survivalist know-how you attained. But in the end, the story offers hope, as humankind strives again for civilization and the moral ethics that you can afford once you know that you’re going to have enough food to last the winter, represented by a struggle against primitive superstitions to once again harness electricity, or “control the lightning.” This is a thoughtful, engaging portrayal of such a society, and as you read it, you learn a lot about the fragility of our home planet and the civilization that we’ve built on it.

When the only compelling character is the asteroid, you know something’s wrong.

I was rooting for the asteroid to just hit the Earth already and kill all of these characters. Alas, some survived and we had to endure another 200 plus pages of bad character developing and poor writing.

Not worth the paper it’s printed on….

I would say that it is scifi because of the authors, the setting, and the content. The heart of the book is something more like classic, dark literature that always ends up being portrayed best in speculative scifi. The tagline on the back of the book reads “The lucky ones went first.” After reading the book, I agree. This “end of the world” novel is nothing like the more fun “The Stand,” and bears almost no resemblance to “Deep Impact” or “Armaggedon,” blockbusters about a similar event.

It’s a book that’s totally and completely worth reading, but also one where I almost wish I hadn’t read it because it will haunt my thoughts for a long while to come.

This is one of my all-time favorite books. The basic plot of the story is that a comet is discovered, and as time progresses it looks like it’s going to pass increasingly close-by to the Earth. The book has been increasingly enjoyable each time I read it, as I get more familiar with the L.A. area and I can actually visualize these things happening.

I’d almost categorize this book as sci-fi based on the authors, but there’s nothing about this book that assumes advanced technology. It was actually written in the seventies, so it’s supposed to have taken place around 1980 or so. There is some discussion in the novel about the U.S. and Russian space programs, which give some insight into the perception of the space program’s future. It’s interesting to compare that with the way things actually turned out.