At first, the comet was just a tiny speck in the sky -- people scarcely noticed it among the countless other specks. But swiftly, without a sound, the comet grew inevitably brighter ... brighter than the brightest star. As people continued their lives on Earth, the comet came closer, grew bigger, filled the sky. Until finally, one day, a curtain of green mist closed down upon the world, and the Earth ceased to be ... for a time! Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English author best known for his science fiction, ...
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At first, the comet was just a tiny speck in the sky -- people scarcely noticed it among the countless other specks. But swiftly, without a sound, the comet grew inevitably brighter ... brighter than the brightest star. As people continued their lives on Earth, the comet came closer, grew bigger, filled the sky. Until finally, one day, a curtain of green mist closed down upon the world, and the Earth ceased to be ... for a time! Herbert George Wells (1866-1946) was an English author best known for his science fiction, including War of the Worlds, The Time Machine, and The Invisible Man.
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When I first picked up this book I thought it was going to be an apocalyptic novel. I assumed a comet hitting the earth would wreak devastation. It turned out to be a utopian novel. The comet is not a solid mass, as we know comets to be, but rather a ball of gas. This gas changes the nature of earth's atmosphere and thereby the nature of humanity. Most of the book concerns the lead character's search for revenge against the girl who jilted him. After the comet strike all such negative emotions as anger, fear, jealousy and hatred are eliminated from the human psyche. The remainder of the book is about how the narrator finds peace and happiness. There is an odd prologue in which Wells seems to be having a vision of an old man writing the story. Then there is an epilogue in which Wells is a bit taken aback at just how different the utopia is from our reality.
