Comets in fiction

Comets have been regarded as harbingers of doom since antiquity, which has influenced their depiction in fiction.[2][3][4] Besides their traditional role as omens in works of fantasy such as E. R. Eddison's 1922 novel The Worm Ouroboros and the 1998 novel A Clash of Kings in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, they also wreak havoc directly in many works of science fiction.[5] An early science fiction example is Edgar Allan Poe's 1839 short story "The Conversation of Eiros and Charmion", wherein the Earth's atmosphere is lost to a comet, with catastrophic results.[2][3][1]

Throughout the 1800s, the threat of impact events appeared in works ranging from Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.'s c. 1833 poem "The Comet" to Chauncey Thomas's 1891 utopian novel The Crystal Button; Or Adventures of Paul Prognosis in the Forty-Ninth Century.[1][2][3] In Robert Duncan Milne's 1882 short story duology "Into the Sun" and "Plucked from the Burning", society collapses when Earth undergoes a global heat wave as a result of a comet striking the Sun.[1][2][3][6] In Camille Flammarion's 1894 novel Omega: The Last Days of the World, scientists speculate on the various ways a comet impact could lead to humanity's extinction, though the event itself turns out to be survivable.[2][3][7] In George Griffith's 1897 short story "The Great Crellin Comet" (later expanded into the 1907 novel The World Peril of 1910), humanity constructs cannons to fire at a comet heading for Earth in order to avert disaster.[3][8]

Destruction is also caused by impact events in works such as the 1977 novel Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle,[2][3][1] and the impact of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 on Jupiter in 1994 was satirized by Terry Pratchett in his 1998 Discworld novel The Last Continent.[2] Looming threats posed by comets are depicted in many works including Dennis Wheatley's 1939 novel Sixty Days to Live and the 1998 film Deep Impact.[2][3][1] Conversely, H. G. Wells's 1906 novel In the Days of the Comet provides a rare example of positive effects arising from Earth encountering a comet: the gases in the comet's tail alter the atmosphere in a way that transforms human character for the better.[2][3][1]

Besides comets coming to Earth, they are also visited by humans in some stories such as the 1986 novel Heart of the Comet by Gregory Benford and David Brin which depicts an expedition to Halley's Comet;[2][1][4] these concepts are combined in Jules Verne's 1877 novel Hector Servadac (English title: Off on a Comet) where a cometary encounter with Earth results in a number of humans traversing the Solar System with the comet.[2][1]

Several stories depict the extraction of resources, mainly water, from comets; one such story is the 1992 novel Mining the Oort by Frederik Pohl.[2][1][4]

A few works such as Arthur C. Clarke's 1975 novel Imperial Earth and Robert S. Richardson's 1946 short story "The Blindness" feature anthropomorphized thinking comets, and Diana Wynne Jones' 2007 novel The Game depicts an outright personified one.[2][1][4]

Clicking on a planet leads to the article about its depiction in fiction.

• Asteroids in fiction
• Comets (anthology)

• Hampton, Steven (Summer 2000). Lee, Tony (ed.). "Momentos of Creation: Asteroids & Comets in SF". The Zone. No. 9. pp. 6–8. ISSN 1351-5217.