The Comet’s Curse
By Dom Testa
Tor, $16.95, 240 pages
In a self-publishing Cinderella story, author Dom Testa received a publishing contract with Tor after the first three books in his series reached critical acclaim. Originally self-published and sold in Testa’s hometown market of Denver (where he is a radio show host), The Comet’s Curse and its two sequels had favorable reviews locally (a reason for local book reviews) and awards (including Writer’s Digest Grand Prize Award). With three more books to go in the series, Tor picked it up for national publication, and we all benefit. While appearing a YA book, Curse is written to entertain all age groups.
A virus from a passing comet’s tail is killed everyone over the age of 18, and nothing seems to be able to stop it. To save the future of the human race, a space ark is created to take 251 under 18-year-olds to another planet, hoping to form a viable colony. Along the way, the crew and passengers of the Galahad not only need to deal with the stresses of leaving Earth forever, running the ship, and the many common teenage problems, relationships and angst. And, then, they begin to suspect that someone may be trying to sabotage the mission.
A very well-written story, even though it follows well trod ground. Testa created characters you care about, and has them react much like teenagers probably would in unusual situations.
