Meteor

by Edmund H. North

The Comet - millions of miles long from its flaming nucleus to the end of its fiery tail, blazes across the vastness of outer space - and slams into the asteroid belt. The Meteor - a massive chunk of rock, five miles in diameter, ripped from the asteroid Orpheus...travelling at 30,000 miles an hour...aimed as precisely as a marksman's bullet at one small planet...Earth - where a handful of people have only six days in which to divert a missile with the striking force equal to two and a half million megatons of TNT.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction

236 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1979

Reviews

[Brendon Lowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Lots of political back and forth over an impending meteor about to hit earth. Some cold war elements with Russia and a little action at the end. Too much talking and too little action to make it more enjoyable.

[Gabriel Benitez · Rating 2 out of 5]

La verdad, el libro no es muy bueno. Ni siquiera lo terminé. Todo se convierte en un supuesto estira y afloja entre las superpotencias para no descubrir sus secretos militares, pero si no lo hacen, un meteoro impactará con la tierra. Hasta la película es aburrida. Me quedé a la mitad del libro.

[Mark Speed · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very much a book of its time. It's also badly named, for reasons I'll talk about later. It was a movie tie-in.

An asteroid (in the Asteroid Belt) is hit by a comet. A big give-mile chunk comes off and starts hurtling towards Earth. If memory serves, some politician's son - who's off out exploring space, dontcha know - is killed by a fragment.

This was at the height of the Cold War, which is why I said it's very much a book of its time. Time for the US and USSR to reveal their cards - both have illegally installed missile systems in space. Guess what? If they trust each other, they can fire them off and destroy this thing. But it needs that trust, and for everyone to do it. The US has to go first. Oh, and the control centre in the US is hit by a big fragment. Oops! I'm sure you can guess how it ends. Why bother reading or watching this kind of mush? Hence I didn't put a spoiler-alert in.

If you know my reviews, you know I'm a pedant. You may not know that I have a minor qualification in Astronomy. A meteor becomes a meteorite if it hits the Earth. We had some fragments falling, and thus being meteorites. The main body did not, and was a meteor. So they either gave the outcome away in the title, or they should have renamed it Asteroid.

[Noel · Rating 3 out of 5]

read many times good quick read entertaining enough

[Justin Green · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was only the premise of this book that enabled me to finish it.

A Japanese observatory has spotted a rogue object in the sky that may potentially pose a threat. An American space crew are informed and diverted to a region in space where the object can be analysed and observed. But the comet crashes into the asteroid belt and a piece of debris collides with the rocket killing all within. On top of that another massive asteroid and it’s splintered friends has been knocked into a collision course with Earth and now the race is on to save the planet.

I was fairly impressed to begin with. There’s no messing around here. From literally page 1 you’re thrown onto this clunky roller coaster. And within 30 pages or so an entire crew of astronauts are dead.
It wasn’t subtle but it had my attention for sure.
A previous reviewer used a perfect phrase - it’s a book of it’s time.
Written in 1979 it’s a fair reflection of the culture at that time. Brash and garish, and so imbued with chauvinism that it’s truly a difficult read. That’s not actually a criticism as to criticise would be unfair. That’s what it was like in 1979, it’s just that reading it in 2024 reminds you that the ‘good old days’ really really weren’t in some regards.
Much of the book is centred around powerful men travelling, having meetings and bickering, and not actually doing much other than cracking jokes and telling women how pretty they are.
It was so cringe I very nearly bailed but at the end of the day there’s a 5 mile wide asteroid heading for the earth and I couldn’t not know what happened.
But that turned out to be as predictable as I hoped it wouldn’t be. The Americans and the Russians do eventually unite despite all the political standoffs, save the day with their rockets, and chief American engineer gets in pretty Russian woman’s pants.
There are good points. The impacts from the splinters are pretty captivating reading. Each impacting splinter is only dedicated a few pages but the author does a very decent job of conveying what it might be like to be in that bewilderingly frightening situation.
Summary? Great premise, terribly executed

[Xian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

[Margaret Windsor · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting tale. would have been better if book was written first, it's a bit one-dimensional due to it being written from the movie screenplay.

[LisaSpecious · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're a fan of movies like 'Armageddon' or 'Deep Impact,' you'll probably enjoy this story. If you're looking for a science lesson or an intricate political thriller, you'll not likely enjoy it. Plot moves quickly (maybe too quickly at times), interesting characters -- just a fun, quick read from 1979.

[Davide · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dal Giappone all'Australia, dall'America alla Russia, è subito il panico: un meteorite largo più di 10 km. si dirige verso la Terra, inesorabile, alla velocità di 45000 km./h e con la potenza di 1000 bombe H.

[bluetyson]

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