HAB

This is a great read for any fan of the Montreal Canadiens. Whether you are a long-time follower and want to relive some moments of glory, or a recent admirer and want to learn about the incredible legacy of this team, you will like this book. Even to those newer to the sport can easily get caught up in the vivid accounts of times past. At times the descriptive stories about some of the greatest moments in the history of the game brought a rush of emotion and pride as I pictured myself in the Forum of old, cheering on the Richards, Toe Blake, Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur, and so many others. If you like hockey, this book should be considered a must-read.

Being a fan of the Montreal Canadiens, this book was an obvious choice for me. I found it was a great book to read. It covers the Habs in great detail and is hard to put down. If you're a Montreal Canadiens fan, this book is for you.

I've read this book from cover to cover. Several times I've gone back and read portions I was especially interested in. In every case, the feeling that I get is "when is this going to happen - it's way overdue now".

Periodically, news events turn up which once more turn my attention to the premise of this book, and again I wonder - is now the time.

This is just an exciting, riveting book, and I'm deleted to see it in reprint as I'm afraid my copy won't last much longer.

I read this book the first time many many years ago and was bowled over by both the theory and Allen Eckert's plot. Since that time I haven't found anything else that quite combined the plausibility of the scientific theory with a decent plot. I think Lucifer's Hammer, while a favorite, comes a distant second. Amazingly I found a copy of the paperback just a week ago in a local used bookstore after searching for it on and off for at least 20 years. I was never quite sure I had the title right so didn't bother to check online. Silly me! At the time I first read it I was not that interested in hard SF but despite its scientific basis it reads like a suspense novel right off of today's bestseller lists. I recommend it to anyone who loves Ludlum or Asimov, Grisham or Cherryh.

I first read The HAB Theory in 1977 at the age of 12. After about nine years of searching in vain, I finally found an out-of-print copy for sale on the Internet late in 2000 (this was prior to the novel's reprinting). My mission was to decide whether my favorite book could captivate me as an adult in the same way it did as a child. I was definitely not disappointed!

Not only are the characters depicted in fascinatingly vivid detail, the scientific theories presented still seem plausible to me a full 23 years after my first reading. Eckert slowly weaves the reader into a web of intriguing premises that are all eventually tied into a neat little apocalyptic bow. As key characters begin to accept the possibility of a cataclysmic earth event, so too does the reader. Most of the questions the skeptic in me privately asked throughout the novel were answered in great detail later on.

Some of the material is dated - cell phones or the Internet had not yet been invented at the time of the HAB Theory's writing - but what science fiction novel that takes place in the near future (15-20 years) can foresee every innovation? More to the point, the author's primary concern is with the past, not futuristic devices not central to the storyline.

While it is likely a scientist could refute most of Herbert Allen Boardman's postulates, one cannot help but wonder if there is perhaps a grain of truth to his overall theory. How would our current president handle a similar situation? I, for one, do not wish to find out.