The Jewel and the Comet
By Tim Pratt
- The Jewel and the Comet
-
Author: Tim Pratt
-
Publisher: Angry Robot
- ISBN: 9781836730224
- Published: August 2026
- Pages: 400
- Format reviewed: Paperback
- Review date: 19/08/2026
- Language: English
Parallel universes are like a giant delicious vanilla slice. Each universe is its own layer, some are thin flaky pastry, others are lines of yummy custard, all of them unknown to one another, but working in parallel. However, squash them altogether and you get a custardy, flaky mess. Still tasty, but a mess. Glenn and Vivy are part of an interdimensional peace force tasked with keeping the universes apart and free from danger. This usually comes in the form of some power mad fascist trying to take over the next dimension along, but in the case of Tim Pratt’s The Jewel and the Comet, it is something far more dangerous; a curious entity from a dimension that just does not fit with ours.
We met Glenn and Vivy in The Knife and the Serpent. Things have moved on since then, Glenn is now an official trainee and is able to go on some of Vivy’s missions and he is learning all about different dimensions, including the fact that we can only exist in a chosen few billion/trillion. Beyond a certain point the dimensions cannot sustain life as we know it. When a strange jewel comes from one of these worlds it is not meant to exist alongside the fabric of our existence and is especially not meant to imbed itself in one of the natives and inspire them to take over the Universe.
Jewel is a book about interdimensions, future technology and the politics of far-off lands, but it is also a book about a relationship. Even in this new world in which Romantasy is a popular genre, Jewel, leans into it far more than most. As a reader you get to know all about the genderfluid, kink relationship between the two. There is no problem with relationships in books, of any sort, as long as they do not get in the way of the story, but in this case they truly do.
It feels that Pratt is enamoured with his characters and their relationship, making this book far more about them than anything else. People could be being crushed under piles of jewels next to them, but Glenn and Vivy are probably thinking about one another or talking to another character about each other. This relationship fever infects nearly all the characters, making the book feel like a gossip column, rather than science fiction.
This is a shame as Pratt has a proven track record with books that deal with doors into other dimensions. We get teases of that here as we learn more about dimensions that cannot fit with our own. The jewel and the comet are the two most interesting characters, beings that struggle to exist without one another, but it seems that while the jewel can thrive in another host, the comet will slowly die without the jewel.
There are moments of interesting science fiction and action in the book, just in between pages of dialogue of characters talking about one another or implying they are having it off. If you are into heavy relationship novels, there is a lot to unpack here, but if you are there for the science fiction, this is a book in which Pratt lost the way. By all means enjoy your character and their interplay, but do not forget to tell a compelling story.
Written on 19th August 2026 by Sam Tyler .
Topics and themes
Key Tropes
Tone & Pace
Themes
Setting
Content/Warnings
General
You may also like
-
![Affairs of StateCalvin James]()
Science FictionSimilar:You cannot know who you are going to fall in love with. This is complicated enough when you are falling for a fellow human. When it comes to falling in love with a Meta-human that is even more complex. Throw in an intergalactic war and you have one hell of a complicated relationship, especially when...
-
![Nine Princes In AmberRoger Zelazny]()
FantasySimilar:I read this book in three nights because I could barely put it down. The story line is exellent, as is the world Zelazny creates. He is no doubt one of my favourite authors and I plan to read all 10 of the novels in this series The story starts with the main character waking in a hospital bed and ha...
-
![The Last Adventure of Constance VerityA Lee Martinez]()
Science FictionSimilar:That one time you saved the world with stick with you for a lifetime. You may bask in the glory one day and wake up with cold sweats the next, either way, the event will be forged in your memories forever. What about two times? Three or four? Do you think that James Bond can remember one supervillai...
-
![The Red Scholar's WakeAliette de Bodard]()
Science FictionSimilar:Love is love and that is truer in science fiction than any other genre as you can fall in love with anyone or anything. Someone of the same species, an alien or even a spaceship. With AI advancing who is to say that one day their personality will not appeal, couple that to an avatar they can create...
-
![The Long UtopiaTerry Pratchett]()
Science FictionSimilar:Anyone who has been following the Long Earth series will be eagerly awaiting this fourth and penultimate novel in Stephen Baxter's and Terry Pratchett's series. The Long Mars was the strongest novel in the series so far and so The Long Utopia has a lot to live up to. The Long Utopia is set some time...
-
![Doors of SleepTim Pratt]()
Science FictionSimilar:Making an author come up with a single science fiction concept is tricky enough, but to ask them to come up with an infinite number of multiverses is just plain mean. Tim Pratt only have themselves to blame as they choice to take Zaxony Delatree on an adventure across a multitude of worlds. ...
-
![Prison of SleepTim Pratt]()
Science FictionSimilar:I love sleep and have a deeper appreciation of it since having a family. I find myself able to drop off in a second as I snatch any five minutes I can before being woken up again at 5 am. The number of naps that I have would not be advisable in the world of Zaxony Delatree as I may end up waking up...
-
![The Beautiful LandAlan Averill]()
Science FictionSimilar:The Beautiful Land makes excellent use of the parallel dimensions theory as it relates to time travel. Here you don't directly travel in time but to a different point in a parallel world which could be almost like our own or vastly different depending on the changes that have taken place. Here thoug...
-
![Alphabet SquadronAlexander Freed]()
Science FictionSimilar:Many stories end abruptly with our heroes achieving their goal. The girl marries the Prince, the good guys win the fight. We all know that in real life stories don’t actually end, they carry on regardless whether you got married or now sport a medal. At the end of The Return of the Jedi you would be...
-
![Dead WinterCL Werner]()
FantasySimilar:Dead Winter is the first novel in a new series that's set within the "Time of Legends" collection, itself set within Warhammer Fantasy with the aim to tell the stories of some of the greatest heroes of the Warhammer world. A thousand years have passed since the Age of Sigmar and the Empire he create...
