''Heart of the Comet'' is a novel by David Brin and

Gregory Benford Gregory Benford (born January 30, 1941) is an American science fiction author and astrophysicist who is professor emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. He is a contributing editor of ''Reason ...

about human space travel to Halley's Comet published in 1986. Its publication coincided with the comet's 1986 approach to the Earth. Written in the

third person Third person, or third-person, may refer to: * Third person (grammar), a point of view (in English, ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', and ''they'') ** Illeism, the act of referring to oneself in the third person * Third-person narrative, a perspective in p ...

, the perspective alternates between the three main characters, the "spacer" Carl Osborn, the computer programmer Virginia Herbert and the doctor and geneticist Saul Lintz.

Overview

The novel tells the story of an expedition beginning in the year 2061 to capture Halley's Comet into a short period orbit so that its resources can be mined. The discovery of life on the comet and the subsequent survival struggle against the indigenous lifeforms and the illnesses and infections they cause leads to a breakdown of the expedition crew and the creation of factions based around political beliefs, nationality and genetic differences between the "percells"—genetically enhanced humans—and the "orthos"—unmodified humans. As well as the fighting between these factions, Earth rejects the mission due to fear of contamination from the halleyform life and attempts to destroy the comet and those living upon it. Eventually the mission crew on Halley are forced to accept that they can never return to Earth and create a new biosphere within the comet's core and in some cases evolve into

symbiotic Symbiosis (from Greek , , "living together", from , , "together", and , bíōsis, "living") is any type of a close and long-term biological interaction between two different biological organisms, be it mutualistic, commensalistic, or parasit ...

organisms with the halleyform life. Subplots within the novel include the love triangle between the three major characters, Saul's quest for immortality through the creation of clones of himself and Virginia's development and nurture of the bio-organic

stochastic Stochastic (, ) refers to the property of being well described by a random probability distribution. Although stochasticity and randomness are distinct in that the former refers to a modeling approach and the latter refers to phenomena themselv ...

computer JonVon, into whom Saul eventually transfers her consciousness before her brain dies as a result of an accident. The description of many of the interactions with JonVon and this final transference of consciousness is similar to the descriptions of the matrix in the

William Gibson William Ford Gibson (born March 17, 1948) is an American-Canadian speculative fiction writer and essayist widely credited with pioneering the science fiction subgenre known as ''cyberpunk''. Beginning his writing career in the late 1970s, his ...

novel '' Neuromancer''.

Characters

Main

*Carl Osborn - spacer, percell *Virginia Kaninamanu Herbert - computer programmer, percell *Saul Lintz - doctor and geneticist, ortho

Minor characters

*Miguel Cruz-Mendoza - Captain of the ''Edmund Halley'', ortho *Otis Sergeov - Spacer Second Class, percell *Joao Quiverian - astronomer, ortho *Lt. Col. Suleiman Ould-Harrad - spacer, ortho *Lani Nguyen - spacer, ortho *Jeffers - spacer, percell *Akio Matsudo - doctor *Bethany Oakes - doctor *Nickolas Malenkov - doctor *Marguerite van/von Zoon - doctor *Jim Vidor - spacer *Ingersoll - percell *Linbarger - doctor, ortho *Keoki Anuenue - med-tech, ortho

Background characters

*Simon Percell - geneticist *JonVon - quasi-sentient computer personality

Themes

As an example of the hard science fiction subgenre, the story is meant to be scientifically plausible. Social and political issues such as

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one race over another. It may also mean prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism ...

and

diaspora A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

are also present, as well as social arguments surrounding issues such as

genetic engineering Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...

and cloning and exploration of more philosophical subjects such as

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

and

transhumanism Transhumanism is a philosophical and intellectual movement which advocates the enhancement of the human condition by developing and making widely available sophisticated technologies that can greatly enhance longevity and cognition. Transhuma ...

External links

* 1986 American novels 1986 science fiction novels Collaborative novels Novels by Gregory Benford Novels by David Brin Fiction about Halley's Comet Fiction set in the 2060s 2061 {{1980s-sf-novel-stub