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Loading... Rockets in Ursa Majorby Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey Hoyle (Author)
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"The British spaceship DSP 15 returns from the stars of the Ursa Major stream, thirty years late, crewless and carrying its captain's last message: ""If this ship returns to Earth, then mankind is in deadly peril, "" specifically an alien invasion, as Dr. Warboys discovers with his new radar transmitter. Earth is caught in a galactic guerrilla war between the Yelas' and the friendly fleet of Belegeuse, whose species is also humanoid. It's too late to explain the mixup to the Yelas so humanoids ally in a sun-burst bomb retaliation. This is accelerated propulsion again, as in the Hoyles' first collaboration Fifth Planet (1967), fueled with more scientific theory, not a little satire and first rate fantasy."--Kirkus Review. No library descriptions found. |
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Unfortunately, that was pretty much the most exciting part of the book. We learn all of this in the first 30-45 pages or so, then it sets into a typical 1960's alien invasion story.
In the denouement, the good guys win with the help of friendly aliens, but (of course) there is a promise of a bad alien return.
There wasn't much to the story, and little character development either. Fred Hoyle was not a world builder. He was, however, one of the most outspoken midcentury astrophysicists, so there is little wonder why our protagonist is a young professor/researcher/scientist at Cambridge. In a similar parallel to Hoyle's own life, the "key invention" which enables detection of in invading alien fleet was related to radar, which Hoyle worked on for the Admiralty during World War II. Scientific jargon is embedded throughout -- perhaps too much for a work of fast fiction -- but I didn't find it detracting from the story. (However, I'm probably biased because I'm an astrodynamicist by trade, and anything about orbits, trajectories, and space combat is like candy to me....)
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If you like simple alien invasion stories and don't mind scientific dialogue, then you will find this book worth a read.