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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hurry up, the gap is closing!,
This review is from: October the First Is Too Late (Hardcover)
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.
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Sci-Fi Gem from Sir Fred Hoyle,
This review is from: October the First Is Too Late (Hardcover)
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.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
oddly captivating,
By A Customer
This review is from: October the First Is Too Late (Hardcover)
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".
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