The Science Fiction Novel - Sir Fred Hoyle

Unlike most of the rest of Canada, the heavy snowfall we had late last week has changed to 7 degree Celsius temperatures and a fair bit of rainfall has pretty well disappeared. We once again have sidewalks and other than some piles of snow that the plows left, the rest has mostly disappeared. I can see grass again out my study window. Best wishes to the rest of Canada who are either having frigid temperatures or extreme snowfalls. The Army has been called out to help St. John's Nfld. dig out of their storm damage.

I'll probably watch some of the Impeachment trial that will take place in the US Senate next week, but I fear that it will all be a white wash. Lots of gutless Republicans who care more about their own jobs than about the country they are supposed to represent. But, enough of that, now on to more interesting things, I hope anyways. Here is my latest entry in my look at the Sci-Fi novel.

The Science Fiction Novel - Sir Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle

Sir Fred Hoyle was born in Yorkshire, England in 1915 and died in Bournemouth in 2001. He was an English astronomer and who wrote many non-fiction works. He also was a writer of Sci-Fi novels, short stories and radio plays. He also co-wrote 12 books with his son, Geoffrey Hoyle.

As an astronomer he formulated the theory of stellar nuclearsynthesis (Ed note. Don't ask me, I have no idea. I'm just letting you know. If you want to know more about it, well, check here.) He coined the term, Big Bang Theory, but he rejected the concept, one of a few scientific controversies for which he was noted. Of particular interest was his idea of panspermia (once again, check out the link if you want specific details.. or maybe just add Sheldon or Leonard.. ;0)) I think, simply, is that life throughout the universe is distributed by space dust and other objects. He felt that some diseases, such as the 1918 flu epidemic, were the result of cometary dust.

Suffice it to say, Fred Hoyle was an interesting person. Besides numerous non-fiction novels, he wrote approximately 20 Sci-Fi novels. I've read 3 of his Sci-Fi novels and still have one more on my book shelf that I plan to read this year. My reviews and / or synopses are below -

a. The Black Cloud (1957). Hoyle's first Sci-Fi novel. I have not read yet... well, it's possible I read as a youngster but I need to refresh my memory if that's the case.









"A 1957 classic 'hard' science-fiction novel by renowned Cambridge astronomer and cosmologist Fred Hoyle. Tracks the progress of a giant black cloud that comes towards Earth and sits in front of the sun, causing widespread panic and death. A select group of scientists and astronomers - including the dignified Astronomer Royal, the pipe smoking Dr. Marlowe and the maverick, eccentric Professor Kingsly - engage in a mad race to understand and communicate with the cloud, battling against trigger happy politicians.

In the pacy, engaging style of John Wyndham and John Christopher, with plenty of hard science thrown in to add to the chillingly credible premise (he manages to foretell Artificial Intelligence, Optical Character Recognition and Text-to-Speech converters), Hoyle carries you breathlessly through to its thrilling end."

b. A for Andromeda (1962), co-authored with John Eliot. Hoyle's 3rd novel.

"A new radio telescope picks up from the constellation of Andromeda a complex series of signals which prove to be a programme for a giant computer. After the computer is built it begins to relay information from Andromeda. Scientists find themselves possessing knowledge previously unknown to mankind, knowledge that could threaten the security of human life itself." (3 stars)

c. Fifth Planet (1963), co-authored with his son, Geoffrey Hoyle. Hoyle's 4th novel.

"London...2087

Something strange and terrible was happening to Earth...

The city seemed to explode right before Conway's eyes. First the flash of blinding light, then the thundering crash. Everywhere around him was destruction and death. It was the same in all the other major cities of the world. Conway knew that it was somehow connected with that last fateful expedition...and the creature they had unknowingly brought back - which was now occupying the body of his wife!" (4 stars)

d. Andromeda Breakthrough (1965), co-authored with John Eliot. Hoyle's 5th novel.












"The Andromeda Breakthrough was a 1962 sequel to the popular BBC TV science fiction serial A for Andromeda again written by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.

Kidnapped by Intel, John Fleming (Peter Halliday) the hero of the first serial, and Andromeda the artificially constructed human (this time played by Susan Hampshire as Julie Christie was unavailable--main reason for the film's failure) are brought to Azaran, a small Middle Eastern country, where a duplicate of the machine he designed has been built by Intel. After many dangers he finds both the reason for the original message having been sent and the means to bring the machine under human control.

The complete TV serial survives in the BBC archives and was released, alongside the surviving material from A for Andromeda and various extra features, as part of The Andromeda Anthology DVD set in 2006." (3 stars)

The complete list of Fred Hoyle's Sci-Fi novels is at this link.

Have a great week!