Moonfall
Nebula Award: Best Novel nominee (1999).
Out of the blindside of a total solar eclipse comes a fundamental threat to life on our planet. Moonbase, the NASA project establishing at last a permanent human activity on the moon, has been up and running for precisely five days. If it's knocked out, it'll be a hell of a blow to the US President, Henry Kolladner, who came to office riding high on the space ticket.
And it'll be a bit of a blow to his deputy, Vice President Charlie Haskell, who's actually up there, preparing for the inauguration speech. If the comet fully impacts, there'll be no more moon at all. Billions of tons of lunar rock will crash to Earth. There'll be tidal waves, quakes, global destruction.
It's a tough call for the President. Does he declare a state of emergency and start evacuating the entire coastal population of America? Imagine the chaos, the looting, the riots...
Jack McDevitt
Jack McDevitt (born 1935) is an award-winning American science fiction author.
HeĀ is a former English teacher, naval officer, Philadelphia taxi driver, customs officer and motivational trainer. His work has been on the final ballot for the Nebula Awards for 12 of the past 13 years. His first novel, The Hercules Text, was published in the celebrated Ace Specials series and won the Philip K. Dick Special Award. In 1991, McDevitt won the first $10,000 UPC International Prize for his novella, "Ships in the Night." The Engines of God was a finalist for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, and his novella, "Time Travelers Never Die," was nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.