Product Description
WHAT ARE THESE GRACEFUL VISITORS TO OUR SKIES? WE NOW KNOW THAT THEY BRING BOTH LIFE AND DEATH AND TEACH US ABOUT OUR ORIGINS.Comet begins with a breathtaking journey through space astride a comet. Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer Carl Sagan, author of Cosmos and Contact, and writer Ann Druyan explore the origin, nature, and future of comets, and the exotic myths and portents attached to them. The authors show how comets have spurred some of the great discoveries in the history of science and raise intriguing questions about these brilliant visitors from the interstellar dark.Were the fates of the dinosaurs and the origins of humans tied to the wanderings of a comet? Are comets the building blocks from which worlds are formed?Lavishly illustrated with photographs and specially commissioned full-color paintings, Comet is an enthralling adventure, indispensable for anyone who has ever gazed up at the heavens and wondered why."SIMPLY THE BEST." *The Times of London"FASCINATING, EVOCATIVE, INSPIRING." *The Washington Post"COMET HUMANIZES SCIENCE. A BEAUTIFUL, INTERESTING BOOK." *United Press International"MASTERFUL . . . SCIENCE, POETRY, AND IMAGINATION." *The Atlanta Journal & Constitution

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 12 reviews)

Non Fiction by Blue Tyson

3 Stars
September 03, 2007
Sagan, along with co-writer Ann Druyan takes a look at what comets are, where they come from, and how they affect things around them. They also speculate on the possible and actual effects that comets have had throughout history physically, as well as culturally.

ISBN confusion by Skylark in Tucson (USA)

4 Stars
September 01, 2007
Beware when you order this. Amazon advertises this as a hardback, but the ISBN is [also] for the paperback version.

How everything that has ever existed relates to comets by Grant

3 Stars
January 03, 2005
For an author to write an entire novel dedicated to comets and be able to keep the reader from slipping into a coma must be a very difficult task. However, Carl Sagan managed to hold my eyes to the 350+ pages without too much of a struggle. He provided vivid descriptions of the cool blue islands peacefully drifting through the endless reaches of space and how they suddenly awaken as they near a star. Sagan also presented interesting information about the lives of many prominent astronomers and how comets played important roles in almost every major civilization throughout history. Admittedly, there were times where it seemed as though my history book met up with my science book and gave birth to a hideous creation comprised of the worst of each. This book provided knowledge about a broad range of topics and how they all connected to comets. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is easily distracted or quickly discouraged. Some of chapters of this novel take a little effort to get through, but in the end it provides the reader with many interesting facts.

Comet, not interesting to the common reader by Andrew

2 Stars
January 02, 2005
To whom it may concern, When I began to read this book Comet, I was not all excited. Granted I don't pretend to be a fanatic reader or astronomer but if a book has the ability to catch its readers and keep them interested than one can conclude that it is a well-written book. And though I was not particularly interested in the subject matter and though I did not entirely enjoy this book, I did learn a couple of things and that might just be what Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan desired. The first chapter is the most interesting of them all. What better way to catch your audience then with a grand introduction? Sagan and Druyan set the scene where the reader is the main character. This is obviously done in order to interest the reader and even make the subject matter more personal than it might have been before. The audience is placed on the surface of a comet as it moves in its orbit, specifically before, during, and then passing perihelion, which is when it is closest to the sun. The author also describes different activities that the reader would be doing on the comet's surface. He mentions how playing sports would be a hard task, seeing as the gravitational pull of the comet is so slight that it seems like an object could easily fly off the comet's surface and drift into space and eternity. "A game of baseball would take years to complete" he says because of this lack of gravitational pull. The next few chapters, the author tries to set the history not only to the astronomical science but the study of comets specifically, focusing a whole chapter on Edmond Halley, a brilliant scientist who is remember mostly for his discovery that comets moved in elliptical orbits. Halley's Comet is the comet that Edmond "discovered" was similar (actually the exact same) to previously recorded comets. He finally after doing much scientific studies of record and having help from Isaac Newton, discovered that this comet, and all other comets, were actually in an orbit and Halley's Comet would come back in about 74 years. Other scientists later perfected Halley's Time Tables for the orbits of comets but Edmond Halley is mostly credited. There are many other facts and pictures that Sagan and Druyan describe to their audience, but the further into the book the reader gets, the more it seems uninteresting. I applause the author's ability to grab his readers at the beginning of this novel and the pictures are great representations of the facts of comets that he is trying to explain but that interest is lost as the reader progresses through the book. The author needs to summarize more and leave the biographies of every scientist that ever saw a comet to another writer and another book. The twenty long chapters, in this generation of readers, is not going to keep their attention for long if all its doing is telling them facts. It would be much better if it was summarized to ten to twelve chapters. Overall, I would recommend this book to those who like facts, like comets, or just like to read their day away. But for the common person, I recommend to only read a few chapters: 1,3,4,7,9,12, and maybe 19 if you're feeling bold. An everyday reader, Andrew Metcalfe

Ameteur and Armchair Astronomers will love this book by Randy (Sacramento, CA)

5 Stars
July 09, 2004
I would classify myself as the Armchair type - I don't own a telescope, and shamefully I do not know my constellations, but I have enjoyed many popular books on the subject. Having just finished reading this book I am sorely tempted to get a telescope or at least go out and find a local star party (where ameteur astronomers set up their equipment and gladly share viewing opportunities with strangers). This book was truely one of my favorite reads on the subject in recent years. To be sure, the primary focus of the book is about comets and I thought that there could not be enough here to justify an entire book - wrong!!! Sagan takes the reader on a very interesting and inspiring tour of the solar system while also teaching some interesting astronomy history. The chapter on Haley alone teaches about the early history of astronomy and tells a fascinating story of a brilliant scientist about whom most of us have heard little beyond the discovery of the comet which carries his name. Also discussed in this book is the likely connection between comets and the end of the Dinosaurs 65,000,000 years ago (before which the largest mammals were mouse size, according to the book) and the current interest astronmers have in comets and asteroids as a potential threat in our current age. Another great feature of this book is that the many chapters may be easily read in any desired order; Sagan kindly refers us to other chapters with supporting material - so when he talks about the "sand bank" theory of comets - he tells you which chapter covered that idea. I couldn't put the book down (for long).

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan (Author), Ann Druyan (Author) "Dazzling...A feast. Absorbing and elegantly written, it tells of theorigins of life on earth, describes its variety and charaacter, and culminates in a discussion of human nature and teh complex traces ofhumankind's evolutionary past...It is an amazing story masterfully told." FINANCIAL TIMES (LONDON) World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a ROOTS for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows...
	Cosmos by Carl Sagan (Author) The best-selling science book ever published in the English language, COSMOS is a magnificent overview of the past, present, and future of science. Brilliant and provocative, it traces today's knowledge and scientific methods to their historical roots, blending science and philosophy in a wholly energetic and irresistible way.
	Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science by Carl Sagan (Author) Carl Sagan, writer and scientist, returns from the frontier to tell us about how the world works. In his delightfully down-to-earth style, he explores and explains a mind-boggling future of intelligent robots, extraterrestrial life and its consquences, and other provocative, fascinating quandries of the future that we want to see today.
	Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan (Author) "FASCINATING . . . MEMORABLE . . . REVEALING . . . PERHAPS THE BEST OF CARL SAGAN'S BOOKS." --The Washington Post Book World (front page review) In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time. Future generations will look back on our epoch as the time when the human...
	Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium by Carl Sagan (Author) In the final book of his astonishing career, Carl Sagan brilliantly examines the burning questions of our lives, our world, and the universe around us. These luminous, entertaining essays travel both the vastness of the cosmos and the intimacy of the human mind, posing such fascinating questions as how did the universe originate and how will it end, and how can we meld science and compassion to meet the challenges of the coming century? Here, too, is a rare, private glimpse of Sagan's thoughts...