An entertaining, warm-hearted, a bit "boyish" adventure in a truly fantastic world. Though perhaps not as imaginative and thoughtful as some later Moomin books. The storytelling is very fluent and the descriptive language and the illustrations enhance the fantastic experience. The characters have only one trait to them, which in my opinion does not flatten the story, but makes it easier and more fun to follow.

I found the approach of the comet as a great, concrete way to constantly intensify the atmosphere. I mean, it's there, in the sky, and grows bigger and bigger. In the end, the best part of the book, there's a great contrast between the calm of the Moomins and the heat of the comet. ( )

This review was also published, in a slightly enhanced & more comfortable format, at my blog between drafts.

Back when I read my first Moomintroll books, I was already ten or eleven years old, and I remember vividly how different they were. Three things stood out for me: the all-pervasive feeling of melancholy; the humorous quirkiness (or quirky humor); and its author’s dedication to keeping strange things strange.

Indeed, Tove Jansson is a master in resisting the dreaded “urge to explain.” What goes unquestioned for this strange world’s inhabitants stays unanswered for the reader, and what the characters find strange but can’t explain remains strange for the reader too. It’s only when the characters actually try and find something out that anything is “explained.”

Everybody talks about this “sense of wonder” everybody should retain, but that’s actually pretty hard to do if you’re continuously force-fed the notion that everything can be explained and will work out toward a happy ending—aggravated by that incessant bombardment with supposedly “real” mysteries certain kinds of people professionally pretend to know about. Now that’s a poor ersatz for genuine enchantment and our natural sense of wonder!

The Moomintroll books have their dark and brooding passages, and the threats the inhabitants of the valley and the world face are no child’s play indeed. In the first and second installment, these were the flood and the comet—written by Jansson in 1945 and 1946, respectively. (The English translation of the first book, The Moomins and the Great Flood, was recently released as a limited hardcover edition available in Finland only, but the authorized translation by David McDuff can be found at McDuff’s Web site.

After all this time, these books are still great, and I can see why they figured—alongside the original Peterchens Mondfahrt by Gerdt von Bassewitz—as my most beloved childhood books.

'Comet in Moominland' is the first book I remember reading entirely on my own. I wonder if I've yet read a better one? If I have, it's probably by Tove Jansson, teaching me the word 'melancholy' at too early an age. ( )

The Moomins are my favorite before bed stories because they have the aura of a traditional fairy tale without the sappy, overly sweet characters. These characters are funny and quirky and often times incredibly self-involved. This novel focuses on the imminent destruction of Moominvally and what Moomintroll, Snufkin, et al do to try and stop it. In the end they move into Snufkin's cave with all of their belongings and wait it out together while everyone else flees in terror. It's a very Moomin thing to do. ( )

trop lent pour moi ( )