Reviews

October the First is Too Late by Fred Hoyle

bopa's review against another edition

challenging informative mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

5.0

hunterandrew's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Not sure I would call it a “masterpiece” as advertised, but a solid science fiction book nonetheless. A lot of the technical bits went right over my head, but it was an interesting narrative through time convoluted nonetheless. My favorite part was that the book smelled like Dad’s box of old comics. 

infinispace's review against another edition

1.0

I vaguely remember reading this as a kid in 1976/77 and remember that I loved it. So I picked it up at a used book store for nostalgia's sake. Yeahhhhhhhhhhh...didn't hold up well to a re-read 20 years later.

mefrost's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

dina_s's review against another edition

Honestly no clue what I was reading. It felt like it moves simultaneously too fast and too slow to follow 

gnug315's review against another edition

2.0

A now ancient science fiction novel, it’s worth reading more out of curiosity than anything else.

Hoyle the Astronomer enjoys hiding his predictions in his novels, and couldn’t help himself prefacing the book with A Medsage to the Reader asking us to take chapter 14 quite seriously. Indeed, the final chapter had a momentary visionary prediction that lifted the book considerably. If only the rest of it was half as fun.

I enjoyed The Black Cloud a lot more; check it out.

thehoodofswords's review against another edition

3.0

Have a feeling that maybe Hoyle isn’t for me, still have a couple more of his books that I for sure want to read but 2 books now into his and neither have grabbed me the same way Ballard did. This was alright, but at times the language got so dense I couldn’t really understand what was happening. Character felt pretty flat.

katmarhan's review against another edition

2.0

5/10
Somewhat dated (written in 1966) but that is not the main problem I have with this book. It's short, as many SF books were at that time, but it's short at the expense of understanding. I can see that the driving force of the story is to lead us to the decisions that Richard (the narrator) and John Sinclair ultimately have to make, but in the drive to get us there, so much is left unexplained and unexplored. I feel like this was but a chapter in a much larger story.

As a sidelight, I liked the music-math connection that was so prominent in the story, and the power of music that springs form and therefore touches our emotions.

malencia's review against another edition

mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

c3j's review against another edition

mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0