Rating: 
Summary: A Powerful Message
Review: Realistic science. Even more realistic pandemonium. A classic example of the growing gap of quality between SciFi books and movies. Most importantly, this book conveys the powerful message that great science fiction reiterates over and over: Technology will never be an obstacle for mankind's conquest of the stars, mankind will be mankind's obstacle to conquering the stars.
Rating:
Summary: A Powerful Message
Review: Realistic science. Even more realistic pandemonium. A classic example of the growing gap of quality between SciFi books and movies. Most importantly, this book conveys the powerful message that great science fiction reiterates over and over: Technology will never be an obstacle for mankind's conquest of the stars, mankind will be mankind's obstacle to conquering the stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Overkill the hallmark of "Shiva Descending"
Review: The rock-hitting-earth genre hit, quite literally, an all-time high in Shiva Descending. It seems that no city on the face of the earth is spared from the numerous smaller impacts that precede Shiva itself. To their credit, though, Benford and Rostler redeem themselves with a realistic account of the death of Cleveland. Though such swarms of small asteroids would be an extremely rare occurence, it does make for entertaining reading, especially as Shiva begins its final assault on the earth.
Rating:
Summary: Overkill the hallmark of "Shiva Descending"
Review: The rock-hitting-earth genre hit, quite literally, an all-time high in Shiva Descending. It seems that no city on the face of the earth is spared from the numerous smaller impacts that precede Shiva itself. To their credit, though, Benford and Rostler redeem themselves with a realistic account of the death of Cleveland. Though such swarms of small asteroids would be an extremely rare occurence, it does make for entertaining reading, especially as Shiva begins its final assault on the earth.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent. Entertaining.
Review: Thoroughly enjoyed this book! The characters are well developed, the science is good and it is well written. A mountain size meteor is approaching Earth, and Earth has one shot, actually two, to try and do something about it. The story goes at length into how different countries and cultures deal with the situation and how US politics and world religions (both old and newly formed as a result of the impending doom) address the crisis. There is the usual love interest, as well as competition amongst the astronauts involved. The science is solid and interestingly presented through various characters. One cannot help but draw comparisions to Deep Impact and Armageddon, this story is far superior to either of those two. The book is only a little dated because it draws upon the US/Russia mistrust, space competition and nuclear weapons... but that does not detract from its enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent. Entertaining.
Review: Thoroughly enjoyed this book! The characters are well developed, the science is good and it is well written. A mountain size meteor is approaching Earth, and Earth has one shot, actually two, to try and do something about it. The story goes at length into how different countries and cultures deal with the situation and how US politics and world religions (both old and newly formed as a result of the impending doom) address the crisis. There is the usual love interest, as well as competition amongst the astronauts involved. The science is solid and interestingly presented through various characters. One cannot help but draw comparisions to Deep Impact and Armageddon, this story is far superior to either of those two. The book is only a little dated because it draws upon the US/Russia mistrust, space competition and nuclear weapons... but that does not detract from its enjoyment.
Rating:
Summary: A must for science fiction fans
Review: Very gritty and realistic. Huge asteroid is about to hit Earth and various nations in the world attempt to stop it. Of course, there are plenty nutcases and religious zealots who are sabotaging NASA. I guarantee, that if something like this actually happens there will be plenty of idiots like this crawling out the woodwork. Overall, I enjoyed the book but Jack McDevitt is still my favorite.
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