London, Joseph, 1955
New York, Avon, 1959 (as Planet in Peril)
|
|
Book Details:Hardback edition published by Michael Joseph, London, 1955. First Edition. Sleeve notes:John Christopher is a writer who is not afraid to feel passionately about contemporary life and its problems, and his tomorrow-world reflects our today as closely as Lilliput and Brobdignag reflected the world of Dean Swift. Yet his stories remain independent imaginings, forecasts of what may happen, not of what must. The Year of the Comet foresees a world split up, not into states and kingdoms but into business groups. The most powerful of these are the two ‘managerials,’ Atomics and Telecoms, great business combines whose employees regard their protecting governments. The hero is a scientist with a secret which will give supreme authority to any group in control of it. Inevitably he finds himself the centre of murderous intrigues. He, however, is interested, not in world power, but in the whereabouts of the girl with whom he has fallen in love. He believes that she has been kidnapped by a political group, and he sets out to find and rescue her. From these simple foundations the writer builds up a plot complicated and exciting enough to satisfy any reader in search of entertainment. But, to those who chose to read between the lines, he gives more, for this book is a sincere attempt to classify the problems of our own time, to illuminate the cold war of ideas and ideals and, in the unexpected climate, to suggest a solution. Book Source:Peter Stevenson |
|
|
Book Details:Paperback edition published by Sphere Books Ltd, London, 1978 Sleeve notes:There were no more nations. But conflict continued - as deadly as ever ... It was a world where the old states were long dead. Now men owed allegiance to gargantuan world-dominating business groups rather than to countries. But the power struggles were just as vicious - maybe more so - than in the old days of war between nations. Scientist Charles Grayner had knowledge of a secret which would give supreme authority to any group in control of it. But in this Year of the Comet, in a world riven by murderous intrigues, such secrets could be as dangerous to those who knew them as a nuclear reaction running out of control... Book Source:Terry Jenkins |
|
|
Book Details:Paperback edition published by Avon Book Division, New York, 1959 Sleeve notes:Moment of decision. When Charles Grayner, a dedicated young scientist of the 21st century, was ordered to take over the top secret project of one of the great ruling powers, he never dreamed that within a few short months he would become the most dangerous man on earth. He did not know that he had already become a living time-bomb and that his mind alone held the key to the mastery of the world. It was terrifying to discover that he was the one man left alive who could forestall civilization's deadly plunge toward total extinction - Book Source:Terry Jenkins |
