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Fire Came by: Riddle of the Great Siberian Explosion, 1908
One of the great accidents of nature occurred in Siberia in 1908 when a fireball appeared over the horizon and slammed into a remote forest area of Siberia, creating shock waves which were felt half a world away.
THE FIRE CAME BY goes into great depth and explores not only what Russian scientists have to say about the affair today, but also enlightened opinions from scientists worldwide, as well as on-the-scene reports and interviews. The book makes the fantastic comprehensible and gives the event a threatening immediacy.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
2 people are currently reading
65 people want to read
About the author
John Baxter
229 books123 followersJohn Baxter (born 1939 in Randwick, New South Wales) is an Australian-born writer, journalist, and film-maker.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
Baxter has lived in Britain and the United States as well as in his native Sydney, but has made his home in Paris since 1989, where he is married to the film-maker Marie-Dominique Montel. They have one daughter, Louise.
He began writing science fiction in the early 1960s for New Worlds, Science Fantasy and other British magazines. His first novel, though serialised in New Worlds as THE GOD KILLERS, was published as a book in the US by Ace as The Off-Worlders. He was Visiting Professor at Hollins College in Virginia in 1975-1976. He has written a number of short stories and novels in that genre and a book about SF in the movies, as well as editing collections of Australian science fiction.
Baxter has also written a large number of other works dealing with the movies, including biographies of film personalities, including Federico Fellini, Luis Buñuel, Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, George Lucas and Robert De Niro. He has written a number of documentaries, including a survey of the life and work of the painter Fernando Botero. He also co-produced, wrote and presented three television series for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Filmstruck, First Take and The Cutting Room, and was co-editor of the ABC book programme Books And Writing.
In the 1960s, he was a member of the WEA Film Study Group with such notable people as Ian Klava, Frank Moorhouse, Michael Thornhill, John Flaus and Ken Quinnell. From July 1965 to December 1967 the WEA Film Study Group published the cinema journal FILM DIGEST. This journal was edited by John Baxter.
For a number of years in the sixties, he was active in the Sydney Film Festival, and during the 1980s served in a consulting capacity on a number of film-funding bodies, as well as writing film criticism for The Australian and other periodicals. Some of his books have been translated into various languages, including Japanese and Chinese.
Since moving to Paris, he has written four books of autobiography, A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict, We'll Always Have Paris: Sex and Love in the City of Light, Immoveable feast : a Paris Christmas, and The Most Beautiful Walk in the World : a Pedestrian in Paris.
Since 2007 he has been co-director of the annual Paris Writers Workshop.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 15, 2017
"At 7:17 A.M. on the morning of June 30, 1908, a cylindrical object blazed across the cloudless skies of central Siberia, and the desolate Central Plateau shuddered under the impact of a cataclysmic explosion. The initial thermal blast was followed by primary and secondary shock waves, a hideous firestorm, and a black rain that contaminated hundreds of square miles. The seismic shock was registered in Moscow, Paris, London, even around the world in Washington, D.C." This quote was taken from the book jacket and it inspired me to read more. I learned that later expeditions never found a meteor crater, but what they did find were trees standing upright without any branches that had been directly under the aerial blast and other trees laying flat that had been leveled facing away from the center of the blast. Scientists have yet to explain what had happened.
Scientists of the day were recording events never seen before with their primitive instruments, though they had no idea what they were recording. Decades later American and Soviet scientists would estimate the energy output of the event to be the equivalent of the heaviest hydrogen bomb, and that its air waves traveled twice around the earth.
Due to World War I, revolution in Russia, and the remoteness of the impact site, it was not investigated as a possible meteor impact site until 1927. Because of the evidence presented by Leonid Kulik, an expert in his field, it soon became apparent that this was not the cause of the explosion.
Just what was it that exploded over Siberia? Reasons are given why it was not a meteor or comet, such as eyewitness reports of the slow speed of the object across the sky. According to other witness reports and ballistic wave evidence, the object changed direction before exploding. And why were people and animals dying from what some theorize as radiation poisoning? In fact, the first person to present a theory that the explosion was caused by an alien spacecraft exploding was a leading Soviet scientist!
Since then all sorts of theories have been presented as to just what caused the explosion. Most of them center around an exploding meteor or some kind of Black Hole. Regardless of who is right the book makes for some interesting reading.
Please note: My copy is from 1976 and lists John Baxter & Thomas Atkins as the authors, with an introduction by Isaac Asimov. ISBN: 0-385-11396-x
Scientists of the day were recording events never seen before with their primitive instruments, though they had no idea what they were recording. Decades later American and Soviet scientists would estimate the energy output of the event to be the equivalent of the heaviest hydrogen bomb, and that its air waves traveled twice around the earth.
Due to World War I, revolution in Russia, and the remoteness of the impact site, it was not investigated as a possible meteor impact site until 1927. Because of the evidence presented by Leonid Kulik, an expert in his field, it soon became apparent that this was not the cause of the explosion.
Just what was it that exploded over Siberia? Reasons are given why it was not a meteor or comet, such as eyewitness reports of the slow speed of the object across the sky. According to other witness reports and ballistic wave evidence, the object changed direction before exploding. And why were people and animals dying from what some theorize as radiation poisoning? In fact, the first person to present a theory that the explosion was caused by an alien spacecraft exploding was a leading Soviet scientist!
Since then all sorts of theories have been presented as to just what caused the explosion. Most of them center around an exploding meteor or some kind of Black Hole. Regardless of who is right the book makes for some interesting reading.
Please note: My copy is from 1976 and lists John Baxter & Thomas Atkins as the authors, with an introduction by Isaac Asimov. ISBN: 0-385-11396-x
February 13, 2017
I'd like to see this book updated, what with the new scientific techniques that have been developed since it was written.
July 1, 2011
This book almost got four stars, until the last 30 pages. I liked the book, and it seemed credible and gave a ton of information regarding the explosion...but then at the end,the only conclusion they could come up with was an alien spacecraft? Really? I would love to see an updated version of the book with updates as to what they've found since the late 70's and what new theories are in the works.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 22, 2020
In June of 1908, there was a massive explosion in Russia. It was devastating enough to leave the kinds of eerie atomic residue we associate with nightmarish scenarios like the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Astronomy wasn't as advanced in 1908 as it is now, but still there should have been a lot of meteorological data and perhaps even some photographs to capture at least some of the impact.
Except this event just had to happen in the remotest portion of the Siberian countryside, in a country about to be rocked by political turmoil that would last for nigh a century.
"The Fire Came By" offers speculations, both reasonable and rank, as to what may have caused the explosion. Theories range from an asteroid making landfall to a Martian spaceship on an interplanetary hunt for water whose fusion cell batteries just happened to malfunction as it approached the ice it had intended to harvest. Your own feelings about what may or may not have happened probably depend on whether you find yourself more in alignment with Asimov or Däniken.
The book itself is a little underwhelming, written in turgid prose that does not do the subject or the cast of characters involved justice. Primary sources are included in the appendix. With photos and illustrations.
Except this event just had to happen in the remotest portion of the Siberian countryside, in a country about to be rocked by political turmoil that would last for nigh a century.
"The Fire Came By" offers speculations, both reasonable and rank, as to what may have caused the explosion. Theories range from an asteroid making landfall to a Martian spaceship on an interplanetary hunt for water whose fusion cell batteries just happened to malfunction as it approached the ice it had intended to harvest. Your own feelings about what may or may not have happened probably depend on whether you find yourself more in alignment with Asimov or Däniken.
The book itself is a little underwhelming, written in turgid prose that does not do the subject or the cast of characters involved justice. Primary sources are included in the appendix. With photos and illustrations.
August 19, 2015
A fascinating inquiry into the 1908 Tunguska "event", informative, readable and entertaining. The Tungus region, even today, is remote, harsh and difficult to reach. The authors devote a chapter each to different aspects of the event, providing historical, cultural and geological background, offering eye-witness accounts, presenting the evidence and evaluating the theories propounded over the ensuing decades, sometimes taking fascinating detours into other areas. The chapter entitled "The Fire Came By" is probably the best example of this.
We also meet some of the scientists and writers who played an important part in gathering evidence and advancing theories. I especially enjoyed reading about Leonid Kulik (the leader of the first expeditions to the region, starting some 20 years after the event) and Soviet Science Fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev, who presented his theories in fictional form. Brief but beautifully chosen excerpts from books by other authors, including Carl Sagan and Loren Eiseley, enliven the discussions and help fire the imagination, although the authors are more than capable in this department.
Perhaps the most intriguing quality of the book is that none of the "standard" theories fits all the evidence or eye-witness testimony, which must have been maddeningly frustrating to the various parties involved. Whether you agree with the authors' conclusions or not, this is a fine example of popular science writing... one that I finished much too quickly.
The book also has an Introduction by Isaac Asimov, as well as 2 Appendices by Russian scientists (one by Leonid Kulik himself), so you can't go wrong there. Finally, a Bibliography of both English and Russian publications is provided.
I can't end this review without mentioning the center section of photos and illustrations as well as the maps accompanying some of the chapters. They are carefully chosen and beautifully enhance the text. The captions are an education in themselves, so I recommend reading them as you make your way through the book.
We also meet some of the scientists and writers who played an important part in gathering evidence and advancing theories. I especially enjoyed reading about Leonid Kulik (the leader of the first expeditions to the region, starting some 20 years after the event) and Soviet Science Fiction writer Alexander Kazantsev, who presented his theories in fictional form. Brief but beautifully chosen excerpts from books by other authors, including Carl Sagan and Loren Eiseley, enliven the discussions and help fire the imagination, although the authors are more than capable in this department.
Perhaps the most intriguing quality of the book is that none of the "standard" theories fits all the evidence or eye-witness testimony, which must have been maddeningly frustrating to the various parties involved. Whether you agree with the authors' conclusions or not, this is a fine example of popular science writing... one that I finished much too quickly.
The book also has an Introduction by Isaac Asimov, as well as 2 Appendices by Russian scientists (one by Leonid Kulik himself), so you can't go wrong there. Finally, a Bibliography of both English and Russian publications is provided.
I can't end this review without mentioning the center section of photos and illustrations as well as the maps accompanying some of the chapters. They are carefully chosen and beautifully enhance the text. The captions are an education in themselves, so I recommend reading them as you make your way through the book.
January 10, 2022
Introduction by Isaac Asimov
December 24, 2018
The 1908 Tunguska event... Fireball OVER Siberia... OMG!!!
February 27, 2011
Well part when the explain how mammoths meat is good for feeding dogs, is plain amazing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews