Fred Hoyle Books In Order

Publication Order of Andromeda Books

with John Elliot

Publication Order of Professor Gamma Books

with Geoffrey Hoyle

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Anthologies

Fred Hoyle otherwise known as Sir Fred Hoyle was a bestselling science fiction novelist, researcher, and theoretical physicist.

He was born in Gilstead, a small village in the United Kingdom in 1915 to a businessman in the cloth trade named Ben Hoyle and former school teacher and musician Mabel Pickard.
Money was very tight when Fred was growing up but he got all the love he could have ever wanted. His mother began teaching him arithmetic even before he went to school and by the time he was four, he knew his 12 times table by heart.
By the time he was seven, he knew how to read, even if he could not focus. He was strong-minded from when he was very young and hated school starting at six years and skipping much of the following year.

His teacher once hit him hard at school and this was the break he needed as he refused to go back as he ached from the sense of injustice and the hard blow. From then on, his mother began to homeschool him since she had once been a teacher.
At home, he stumbled upon a chemistry textbook and found the contents fascinating. Wishing to prove that he was the real deal he proceeded to make a highly toxic gas in an effort to make gunpowder.

While he was homeschooled for two years, Fred Hoyle’s parents always wanted him to win a scholarship given their financial situation. At some point, he was sent back to grammar school and ultimately enrolled at the Eldwick Village School as a nine-year-old.
He did not do well on his scholarship exam but since he did well in arithmetic, he was called to Bingley Grammar School for an interview. It was there that the headmaster realized that he was passionate about chemistry and sent him to the chemistry teacher.
When he described the experiments he had done at home, the school had no choice but to offer him the scholarship. At 17, he won a university scholarship but due to the Depression, it was withdrawn and he went back to Grammar School.

He finally won a scholarship to Cambridge and enrolled at the age of eighteen to study Chemistry. However, he first had to strengthen his mathematics standards so that he could pursue a career in chemistry.

But this meant he could avoid first-year courses in botany and geology. Surprisingly, he never went back to physics or chemistry, as he found inspiration in James Clark Maxwell and Isaac Newton and studied mathematics, which he applied to theoretical physics.

In 1948, following three-way discussions, Hoyle published a paper while Gold and Bondi published another. While they took different approaches, they both came up with a steady-state theory of the universe.

According to their theory, the universe is the same for all time everywhere. As such, new matter would have to be created as the universe expands to have balance. The theory of a steady state, an eternal universe with no origin in time was disproved in 1965.
This followed the discovery of the cosmic microwave background that indicated that the universe originated from a violent explosion of an intensely hot and extremely dense mass of material that is now referred to as the “Big Bang.”
He published his first novel “The Black Cloud” in 1959 and by the time of his death had more than 20 works to his name.

He was knighted for his services to Astronomy in 1972 and was known as an avid chess player, keen mountain climber, and populariser of science who coined the term “The Big Bang.”

Fred Hoyle’s “A for Andromeda” is a work set in 1970 Britain. Dennis Bridger and John Fleming are two young scientists who have just designed a new radio telescope that has been installed at Bouldrshaw Fell under the guidance of Professor Reinhart.
Shortly before the official launch, the telescope picks a bizarre signal from the Andromeda constellation. It is not a natural phenomenon as it seems to be communication from an intelligence.
It is not long before Fleming realizes that he is communicating with a computer program.

Making use of the London Institute of Electronics’ computer facilities he works with the attractive and young Christine to decode the message, which seems to be instructions to construct a more advanced intelligence.
The message also comes with a program that the new machine they are to build will run, besides the data for it.

The work comes with all manner of characters from various government officials, technicians, Judy a public relations officer, and an American General.
While everyone assumes Judy is just another pretty government bureaucrat, she is actually keeping tabs on the operation for the higher-ups.

Meanwhile, Bridger is working with Intel an international conglomerate, and has basically sold out to them.

“Andromeda Breakthrough” by Fred Hoyle continues to tell the story that was introduced in the Andromeda series.
At the opening of the story, the lead characters believe the alien-designed computer is no more.

However, it does seem that Intel, the evil conglomerate managed to get its hands on the design of the supercomputer that they have sold to Azaran, a fictitious struggling Middle Eastern company.

With the help of Intel, Azaran kidnaps or persuades the leading scientists including Andromeda and Fleming to work on the computer and give it instructions to make Azaran one of the strongest countries in the world.
The work comes with intrigue, murder, and several political coups d’etat. Elliot and Hoyle make Kaufman the Intel operative a lackey and promote Janine Gamboul the French femme fatale into a much more powerful operative.
The novel becomes very science fiction-like in the second half as Fleming and fellow scientists make a huge mistake on the Madeline Dawnay project.

Fred Hoyle’s novel “The Black Cloud” is set in the late 50s and tells the future as imagined during that time but oddly enough, the dated feel only adds to the charm.
At the opening of the novel, scientists just found a huge cloud of gas that has been heading directly for the solar system.

Once it hits the Earth, the experts believe that it will block out the sun for months, thus creating the worst catastrophe since the dinosaurs died under a meteorite impact.

The scientists including the eccentric Professor Kingsley, and the smoking Dr. Marlow get down to work trying to calculate the position of the cloud by writing a program based on its gravitational pull on the orbits of the other planets.
As the cloud comes ever closer, all manner of unexpected and interesting things happen, making for a classy disaster story that is scientifically plausible, even as it is very imaginative.