The Black Cloud

When a black cloud threatens to blanket the sun as it passes by Earth, an international team of experts gather to establish just how much of a threat it will be to the planet and its inhabitants while governments across the globe try and decide how they will handle their citizens in the wake of this potential disaster.

While reading The Black Cloud I couldn't help but picture everything in black and white. Think pipe smoking, suit wearing, suave intellectuals debating their own genius and you get a sense of the period and style this book is set in.

Though not action packed by any means, the book is none the less very enjoyable. The pace can suffer at times when certain characters (only included to bridge the main characters with the reader) ask on our behalf "can you explain that in English?" every time a scientists says something to a colleague which we don't understand. However this is all intentional as Hoyle tries to explain the scientific method to his readers.

Absolutely an important addition to the Science Fiction genre (emphasis on science), The Black Cloud asks us to contemplate how we would react to something greater than ourselves coming along to make us question everything our ignorance allows us to believe.