"The Black Cloud"
Sep. 20th, 2010 01:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxCurrently reading Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, about ... well ... a black cloud.
Origin: unknown.
Composition: unknown.
Destination: Sol.
Size: Remember Star Trek: TMP, when it turned out that Vejur was "My God ... over 82 AUs in diameter!" Even 1 or 2 AUs is spectacularly big, because 1 AU is the radius of the Earth's orbital path from the Sun. 1AU is how far we are from Sol. The Cloud seems to be on that scale.
Just got as far as Chapter Eight. So far, Hoyle's novel has been spot on, both in terms of the scale of the cosmic disaster, and also in terms of how he gets the behaviour of the politicians dead on.
Reminds me of Quatermass a bit, actually. I can well imagine Nigel Kneale having written this, if Hoyle hadn't beaten him to it.
Origin: unknown.
Composition: unknown.
Destination: Sol.
Size: Remember Star Trek: TMP, when it turned out that Vejur was "My God ... over 82 AUs in diameter!" Even 1 or 2 AUs is spectacularly big, because 1 AU is the radius of the Earth's orbital path from the Sun. 1AU is how far we are from Sol. The Cloud seems to be on that scale.
Just got as far as Chapter Eight. So far, Hoyle's novel has been spot on, both in terms of the scale of the cosmic disaster, and also in terms of how he gets the behaviour of the politicians dead on.
Reminds me of Quatermass a bit, actually. I can well imagine Nigel Kneale having written this, if Hoyle hadn't beaten him to it.
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Date: 2010-09-20 02:02 pm (UTC)Top book, I remember thoroughly enjoying it.