Customer Reviews

Into Deepest Space

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Like so many of Fred and Geoffrey Hoyle's novels, it is often difficult to tell if we are reading science fiction or science fact. "Into Deepest Space" is one of these stories where there would seem to be a great deal of overlap between fact and fiction. The Hoyles have written this novel in such a way that any reader could be completely forgiven for thinking that they are reading a technical treatise on how to accomplish not only inter-stellar space travel but inter-galactic travel as well. While reading through "Into Deepest Space", we enter into a process whereby we become incrementally convinced that inter-stellar and inter-galactic space travel are perfectly feasible propositions and that what must be lacking is the will and the financial wherewithal to do it. What appears not to be lacking though, is the actual practicality of deep space journeying even to the furthest reaches of the Universe.
"Into Deepest Space" is a sequel to "Rockets in Ursa Major". We see the same main cast of characters who decide to pursue the evil Yela and eliminate their threat to the galaxy. Dr. Richard Warboys and his three friends, Betelgeuse, Rigel and Alcyone, whose race have for centuries wandered the galaxy after their planet was destroyed by the Yela, have their huge space-ship taken in tow by the Yela. Unable to break free from the grip of the Yela craft, the four heroes are taken on a fifteen year journey to a quasar. Instead of being reduced to atoms when their craft enters the quasar, they survive to find themselves back in the solar system. When they reach Earth however, they discover that, due to the forces of relativity, a hundred million years of time have elapsed and the planet has reverted to a primitive form of barbarism.
When Warboys discovers that the living material on the planet is dextro-rotatory as opposed to levo-rotatory, his suspicions that they have entered an inverse Universe are confirmed. Do we live in a Universe of Black Hole/White Hole symmetry? The final part of the story will provoke much thought on this fundamental philosophical question. The other great philosophical matter brought up in this novel is about whether mankind can survive beyond a certain level of technological achievement. When the Earth's resources can no longer sustain the demands which exponential population growth places upon them, will the inevitable decline and eventual doom ensue? The authors suggested that we would not get beyond the year 2000. Here we are in 2010 ( at the time of writing ) and humanity does not seem to be on the verge of extinction. Yet the Hoyles may only have been out in their timing, not in terms of the fundamental principle of the ultimate demise of the human species. As suggested in their book, humanity is a universal rather than a merely terrestrial phenomenon, and its expiration on one planet would not spell the termination of the species in galactic or inter-galactic dimensions. If however, we wish to save planet Earth's humanity, then perhaps we must transform into a practical and functioning reality, the kind of space travel envisioned by the authors in "Into Deepest Space" and, thus go into deepest space.

This book is an instant classic. I picked it up at the bookstore "classic paperback" Section for 2 bucks, and boy am I a happy camper.

It took a great deal of fortitude to get through this book. It wasn't bad but the text is so small (but then again for me I get intimidated very easily! lol) and the sci-fi boggles my mind. When they start talking about chemical this and plasma that I go haywire...but to hardcore science fans this book is a must as everything they said sounded very scientific and from the little I recognized I realized that these was not B.S. Sci-fi but the kind of story that tries to be as true as possible (called hard sci-fi).

Excellent classic book and a must read...shocking ending!

5/5

John McAdam:
Were Ancient Gods From Other Planets?
Am I Mad or Coherent?