October the first is too late

by Fred Hoyle and Fred Hoyle -

Book Overview

Renowned scientist John Sinclair and his old school friend Richard, a celebrated composer, are enjoying a climbing expedition in the Scottish Highlands when Sinclair disappears without a trace for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B00005WHCG
• Release Date: January 1966
• Publisher: Fawcett Crest
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Continuing...

Erratum: that should be "`steady-state' theory of the universe", not "`solid-state' theory of the universe". It also bears pointing out that Hoyle's lectures about music here are endearing precisely because they are so naive (and I loved how the headstrong, heavy-drinking scientist in "A for Andromeda" listened to Webern to show how "advanced" he was). As far as music is concerned, Hoyle was no "polymath"; he was, rather, a dilettante-as far as literature is concerned as well, but that's another story.

fine for a genre work & Hoyle's best sci-fi

I have to say something about this: "It is a great pity that Sir Fred Hoyle...has yet to be recognized as one of our greatest Sci-Fi writers, comparable in importance to HG Wells, AC Clarke, PK Dick and Wm Gibson."At the time "October the First is Too Late" was published the front tier of science fiction was manned by the trinity of Arthur C. Clarke, Ray Bradbury, and Fred Hoyle. Yes, Fred Hoyle WAS widely recognized as one of the three best living science-fiction writers working in the English language (not a particularly great distinction, however). Isaac Asimov was right behind, and Robert Heinlein's reputation was rising. (Heinlein had published a quantity of B science fiction, but was more or less redeeming himself.) Philip K. Dick, on the other hand, was widely regarded as strictly a B science fiction writer, and rightly so. William Gibson hadn't yet published anything. H. G. Wells was considered a classic writer whose works transcended the genre, much superior to any living science-fiction writers except Stanislaw Lem, who was little known to English-speaking readers.Fred Hoyle, like Isaac Asimov, was an eminent scientist as well as a science-fiction writer. Again like Isaac Asimov, he was also well known as a scientific popularizer. It is interesting that much of his science was very like science-fiction: unsubstantiated conjecture. He was still a staunch proponent of his own "solid state" theory of the universe long after it had been thoroughly discredited. (He coined the pejorative term "big bang" to disparage a competing theory. The term caught on; the disparagement did not.) Later he began promulgating the fantastic notion that life on earth was inaugurated by space spores. Nearly all of Fred Hoyle's science-fiction is entertaining. None of it has literary value. I regard "October the First is Too Late" as very easily his best novel because 1) it happens to be especially entertaining and 2) its social criticism and philosophical speculation is trenchant. It deserves to come back into print.

Another Sci-Fi Gem from Sir Fred Hoyle

I've said it before and I'll say it again: It is a great pity that Sir Fred Hoyle, scientist, mathematician and polymath extraordinaire, has yet to be recognized as one of our greatest Sci-Fi writers, comparable in importance to HG Wells, AC Clarke, PK Dick and Wm Gibson. Wit and intelligence shine through this brillant story about time out of joint and parallel universes, with the 2 main characters providing an interesting contrast between Apollonian (the scientist) and Dionysian (the musician) approaches to life. (For a professional astronomer, Hoyle has a brilliant feel for music, but I hear he was also an accomplished drummer!) The story jumps times and places, from Periclean Greece to the distant, pessimistic future, with another poignant ending. Should be required reading for true Sci-Fi fans.

Hurry up, the gap is closing!

That's right: the very same British astronomer - a retired Plumian Professor of Astronomy at Cambridge University, the founder of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge and currently a Honorary Fellow of both Emmanuel College and St. John's College in Cambridge and an Honorary Professor at Cardiff University of Wales - who occasionally challenges the audience of astronomers with daring theories, also writes fiction.The novel, written in 1966, was set into present time, i.e. 1966. Two colleagues from their common Cambridge times, a composer and a acclaimed particle physicist, meet at Heathrow airport. In a cheerful reunion mood they decide to make one of their student plans come true, and head for a hike in the Scottish Highlands. A pleasant hiking holiday is abruptly interrupted when the physicist learns he has to make an urgent trip to California, since the experiments show an unexpected modulation in the Sun radiation. The composer is invited along, and from there the two characters start an unusual and fantastic journey across the world and - simultaneously - through the time, as the parallel universes suddenly seem to be coexisting side by side, with Britain being in 1966, Western Europe in 1917, North America in mid-eighteenth century, and Greece in the fifth century B.C. But the gap in the time-space is closing... you guessed when.

oddly captivating

Very much of its 1966 British zeitgeist. It concerns the unlikely adventures of two friends, one a composer and pianist, the other a Nobel laureate physicist. The prose is glib and rather awkward at times, but something about this book is compelling in an indefinable way. Well, the social and philosophical speculation is intriguing; the glamor of the musician's life is attractive. I first read "October the First is Too Late" at age twelve or thirteen, and it may have helped decide me to take up music professionally (so to speak). Speaking of music, I also recommend George Heussenstamm's "Norton Manual of Music Notation".