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    Moonfall
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    Moonfall
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    Moonfall
    Ebook631 pages10 hours

    Moonfall

    By Jack McDevitt

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    It's the 21st century, and all is right with the world. Or so it seems.

    Vice President Charlie Haskell, who will travel anywhere for a photo op, is about to cut the ribbon for the just-completed American Moonbase. The first Mars voyage is about to leave high orbit, with a woman at the helm. Below, the world is marveling at a rare solar eclipse.

    But all that is right is about to go disastrously wrong when an amateur astronomer discovers a new comet. Named for its discover, Tomikois a "sun-grazer,"an interstellar wanderer with a hundred times the mass and ten times the speed of other comets. And it is headed straight for our moon.

    In less than five days, if scientists' predictions are right, Tomiko will crash into the moon, shattering it into a cloud of superheated gas, dust, and huge chunks of rock that will rain down on the earth, causing chaos and killer storms, possibly tidal waves inundating entire cities...or worse: a single apocalyptic worldwide "extinction event."

    In the meantime, the population of Moonbase must be evacuated by a hastily assembled fleet of shuttle rockets. There isn't room, or time enough, for everyone. And the vice president, who rashly promised to be last off ("I will lock the door and turn off the lights"), is trying to figure out how to get away without eating his words.

    In Moonfall,McDevitt has created a disaster thriller of truly epic proportions, featuring a cast of unforgettable characters: the reluctant Russian rocket jockey entrusted with the lives of squabbling refugees; the woman chosen to be first on the moon; the scientist who must deflect the "possum" (POSSible IMpactors) knocked from orbit or witness the end science itself. And at the center of it all is Charlie Haskell, the career politician who discovers his own unexpected reserves of only himself and his country, but for all humankind.

    Moonfall,is a spellbinding tale of heroism and hope, cowardice and passion played against the awesome spectacle of human history's darkest night.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJul 7, 2009
    ISBN9780061946288
    Unavailable
    Moonfall
    Author

    Jack McDevitt

    Jack McDevitt is the Nebula Award–winning author of The Academy series, including The Long Sunset. He attended La Salle University, then joined the Navy, drove a cab, became an English teacher, took a customs inspector’s job on the northern border, and didn’t write another word for a quarter-century. He received a master’s degree in literature from Wesleyan University in 1971. He returned to writing when his wife, Maureen, encouraged him to try his hand at it in 1980. Along with winning the Nebula Award in 2006, he has also been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and the Philip K. Dick Award. In 2015, he was awarded the Robert A. Heinlein Award for Lifetime Achievement. He and his wife live near Brunswick, Georgia.

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    Reviews for Moonfall

    4/5

    161 ratings6 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This surprised me. As far as I can see, it's unconnected to McDevitt's far future space opera series. It's set in (a now alternate timeline) 2024 with an active moonbase and space station. It's belongs alongside Leiber's The Wanderer, Pournelle and Niven's Lucifer's Hammer, and other cataclysmic epics. It follows the common pattern of such works, with multiple independent characters and plotlines, many scenes of unfortunate death, Inferno-style jabs at the author's pet peeves, and so on. It differs from the others that I can recall in not being completely Earthbound. The Moon, not the Earth, is the hapless victim of large fast-moving comet. A substantial portion of the action takes place in space and on the Moon, adding a greater SFnal aspect. The surprising part was that, despite working off his turn in a somewhat cliched genre, this is probably my favorite McDevitt novel. The characterizations are stronger and more varied than is typical for him, and the action is more compelling. My one complaint is that there's one countdown to doom too many, but even that manages to tie up an earlier thread.Recommended.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Jack McDevitt’s Moonfall, first published in 1998, takes place in the mid-2020s, when Earthlings have an active space program and have just finished construction of a large Moonbase that is being officially opened with the participation of dignitaries from many countries. Charles L. Haskell, the Vice President of the U.S. is representing President Henry Kolladner at the ceremony on the Moon. In addition to Moonbase, an interplanetary ship is scheduled to depart for Mars with a multinational crew aboard within days after the Moonbase opening. However, as the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Moonbase is taking place, an amateur astronomer calls the attention of the world’s astronomical community to a strange object in space behind the moon. The object is quickly determined to be an “intersteller object”, i.e., a “cometary body” that originated in another star system. Unfortunately, it is a monster, which is moving at an extremely high velocity and will collide with the Moon in a few days. Scientists issue a warning to the World that the enormous size and extreme velocity of the object is likely to shatter the Moon, which could cause catastrophic damage to Earth. In fact, this may possibly cause an extinction event on Earth. McDevitt weaves a very complex story that unfolds through the struggles of many ordinary people on Earth, through the heroic actions of the pilots and crew of the space planes and other ships that try to evacuate people from the Moonbase, and the selfless and courageous actions of people (especially the Vice President) who barely evacuate the Moon before impact and remain in Earth orbit desperately trying to prevent the devastation of Earth. The story jumps between the perspectives of characters and news media reports of the unfolding crisis to engage the reader in the terror and hardship that ensues. Tension is also created through the unwise decisions of politicians during the crisis and the criminal behavior of those pursuing their own agendas. I thought Moonfall was an excellent science fiction book. The science in this book is well developed and presented in an understandable and satisfying manner. The suspense begins early in the book and continues to increase along with the reader’s anxiety. Likewise, there is plenty of action that continues to grow in intensity and forces the characters, including the Vice President, to endure life-threatening and painful experiences while they attempt to complete complicated unfamiliar operations in the unforgiving environment of space in an effort to save lives on Earth. In addition, the story is populated by a large number of very interesting characters. I believe Moonfall is a first-rate science fiction story and I recommend it to anyone who likes science fiction as well as others who enjoy apocalyptic tales or just exciting stories.
    • 4/5
      A solid, exciting story set in the near future (late 21st century if I remember right) of a comet that slams into the moon and that event's affect on America and the rest of the world. A central part of the story is the vice president's presence on the Moon. He's visiting the moonbase when word of the incoming comet arrives and he must weigh political and moral considerations in his decision about when he personally should leave the moon. Should he be among the first ones out, or the last? This idea, who sacrifices what, and for whom, is carried throughout the book. It's not a literary novel, thank goodness, so the theme is not analyzed to death. It's just a nice addition to a great story. There's a reasonable amount of action and suspense, but these don't dominate the book. The science of the book seems reasonable. There are some technical details, but not too many. The emphasis is on the story, not the technology.
    • 3/5
      Like that terrible movie (that would be Armageddon) a few years ago, but better. An engaging blend of disaster porn, engineering porn, space porn, politics, and compelling character interaction. Jack McDevitt does his usual thing, and the result is the usual great book.
    • 3/5
      Disaster! Explosion! Concussion! Danger and Excitement! The Earth imperilled! All die (potentially).
    • 4/5
      Moonfall certainly is a page turner, that builds suspense effectively, although at times it becomes a bit predictable. In most of the McDevitt books I have read, politicians are bumbling or evil, so I was surprised that in this book the protagonist is the US vice-president, who just happens to be on the moon to open the new moon base when disaster looms. In this, as in other books, McDevitt is an author who brings together a group of truly diverse characters, who have to work together to accomplish a common goal. I think the obvious comparison is to Larry Niven's Lucifer's Hammer, although there are notable difference, not the least of which is that McDevitt's entire story takes place over the course of just a week or so. I'd have to say that I liked both books about the same; Niven's book is in some ways the more ambitious of the two, but certainly has its weaknesses. In any case, either is far superior to the story they used in the movies Armageddon or Deep Impact.