Customer Reviews

The Cloud

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Ray Hammond puts his skills of future prognostication to work in his latest science-fiction novel The Cloud. The story is set in 2031 when SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) finally succeeds in detecting intelligent radio signals from space. The rest of the story takes place several decades later after earth broadcasts a response to the alien signal. At its most basic level, The Cloud is a moral lesson of what happens to the curious cat and poses the question: If there is intelligent life in the universe, is it such a good idea to announce our presence?

My criterion for judging a book is quite simple: Was I entertained? The short answer for this book is: YES. Mr. Hammond displays solid chops in styling and pacing. The storyline is underscored by a sense of urgency as a huge destructive space cloud closes in on earth. The urgency in the story becomes in essence, a central character in the story as it takes on the form of New York Times Articles chronicling the approach of the space cloud.

There is the derivative factor that is difficult to overlook. It's hard to find a work of science fiction that is not colored by the past works of other writers and the Cloud is no exception. From the first chapter to the last, I could not help but be reminded of either movies or books that I've read in the past. Deadly space cloud approaching earth: Star Trek the movie. Super intelligent computer personality that rebels against its creator: 2001 Space Odyssey. Even the ending brings to mind Douglas Adams. But where such implication might have rendered other books unreadable, Ray Hammond utilizes not-so-unique plot elements to string together a compelling and thought-provoking narrative.

At times I felt that the story was rushed, important events glossed over in a few sentences, and pivotal questions regarding the nature of the space cloud were answered far to late in the story. There are other points to the story which I would have liked seen elaborated on, but its impossible to discuss them without giving away details of the book. Overall, I really enjoyed The Cloud and recommend it to Amazon readers.

This is the worst science in science fiction that I've read in a long, long time. This hack couldn't even be bothered to do a quick google search on Atmosphere formation. If he had, never would've written that it would possibly form back in a couple thousand years but it needs plants, so maybe not. That's absurd. The Earth's atmosphere grew from outgassing of trapped volatiles during the rapid volcanic activity of early Earth coupled with a lot of meteor strikes. This is impossible now because the rate of tectonics is much slower. As well, it likely took hundreds of millions of years, although we don't currently have a decent estimate. On top of that PLANTS did even exist for billions (note the billions, not millions, not thousands) of years after atmospheric formation had already happened.

Worst of all is the fact that NONE of this guy's velocities & distances add up. He's got it coming too slow into the solar system which would take years to get here, not months. Then it's has "sped up" to 200,000 thousand kph to hit Mars. If it had been going 200,000 kph from Pluto it would've taken 4yrs to reach Mars, not a few months. Then it "slows down" to 2,000,000 kph to go around the sun. Last I checked you CAN'T slow down from 2 thousand to 2 million. This, then, takes weeks, but to actually traverse the distance at that speed, it would take less than 10days.

What? You can't do simple math???? distance/speed = time !!!!

Meanwhile, inert gasses can't be magenta and green. If there was nuclear reactions in the cloud, it would give off heat & light that we could detect (which it didn't seem to). And I'd love to see the model where a cloud between us and the sun makes the planet hotter - because it doesn't! Blowing up a gas cloud with nukes? It doesn't get any more absurd than that.

This guy should give up "science" fiction and write... well, no... he shouldn't... because all his characters were flat. Oh no, the evil, stupid government wants to blow everything up with knee jerk reactions while the idealistic, anti-establishment hippy protester figures it all out while the guru scifi writer preaches a message of peace. It is cliche' cardboard cutout writing and his editor and publisher should be ashamed.

This book is another one of those random novels which I stumbled upon in a 2nd book shop and figured I'd give it a shot even before I researched it on Amazon. Being 389 pages or so, you'd think the book would read longer than it actually is. However, the print isn't so small, so the book reads more like 250 page book (that's my impression). I managed to finish this book in a mere 3 sitting mainly because the flow of the plot was quick: it was steady and engrossing! That doesn't happen very often in novels because of one main drawback: a fast plot leaves the cast struggling to gain private characterization in between all the action. And that is exactly where The Cloud fails- a quick plot envelopes the main characters and leaves them unrefined and fairly flat amidst all else that happens. BUT, when it comes to technology and speculation, The Cloud will not disappoint!

** spoilers **

Whilst the notion of a space cloud threatening life as we know it is far from an original one (as with the previous reviewer, I too was reminded of several Star Trek plots), Hammond builds the sense of anticipation skillfully enough to maintain the reader's interest. The change in humankind's perception of what was initially seen as a benign message from another civilisation into a threat of unparalelled magnitude was cleverly handled and reflects the complexity of the whole SETI business; whether we are alone in the universe or not, either way the concept is mind-boggling (and terrifying!).

So far so good!

Perhaps I'm being over picky here but my enjoyment of this yarn was somewhat compromised by a series of silly mistakes in the text. Claims made about the velocity of the cloud on its approach to Earth and of the plans to launch a nuclear assault upon it whilst it is still well beyond the solar system, simply don't add up! Furthermore, Hammond seems to be very inconsistent about the Earth's population; on page 288 he claims that 10% of the world's population equates to ten million people (!), whereas some 60 pages later 95% of the Earth's population has become the more realistic "billions".

You may also find that the politics grate a bit - cyberluddites triumphing over the big bad military wolf, whilst you play spot the similarity to other sci-fi novels (a clue: 2001 figures largely!).

The Cloud is worth finishing though. I've certainly read worse than this.