The Black Cloud

Over the last couple of days, I read science fiction after a very long gap. The book was Fred Hoyle's 1957 novel "The Black Cloud". It is good science and good fiction.

- The portrayal of the scientific and political establishment of the late 1950s - early 1960s is excellent. Particularly, in the aftermath of the atomic bomb, and the ongoing arms race, the societal responsibility of scientists is a central issue in the book.

- Another interesting aspect is the prescient description of the various uses a digital computer may be put to. Some of those such as speech recognition, voice synthesis, complex mathematical calculations, and so on have already become real.

- Its a quick read - the plot moves pretty fast, there are few important characters, which are reasonably well developed. The story does have a couple of twists, but does not indulge in any kind of sensational surprises.

- Its the first science fiction book I've read that actually contains derivatives and other mathematical notation to explain some calculations made by the characters. In fact, many scientific principles are discussed in way more detail than in most science fiction books.

- The portrayal of Britain's decaying power, and of the helplessness of non-industrialized nations is spot-on.

On the whole, a fun book to read.