Three Classic Novels: Ossian's Ride, October the First Is Too Late, Fifth Planet (Fred Hoyle's World of Science Fiction)

The three stories are great as I knew they would be.The book are full of scanning errors, though. Fight instead of light, gould instead of could. It is sometimes distracting.

Fred Hoyle is a straight no nonsense science fiction writer with sound and grand story lines and I love all his books. No holds barred. Just started Ossian's ride and I can't get enough. A young Englishman journeys to Ireland on a secret mission to find out HOW nuclear reactors were perfectly built without any preliminary testing in a walled off area of Ireland. Intrigue, adventure, action and mystery. Good stuff.

These were written 60 years ago, and to some extent show both their age (it was a very different time in the 1960s) and the fact that Hoyle could well have used some creative writing classes. As long as you accept that, be prepared to have your brain pulled about a bit, 'cos he was an astrophysicist extraordinaire. If you've not read, with the shillings, and if, like me, you read aeons ago, worth the trip down memory lane. Just a shame A for Andromeda tapes were chucked by BBC.

The first two were OK (just) but horribly dated. Fifth Planet was cringingly awful. It was as if it had been written by a young teenager trying to appear adult. I didn't get past the half-way point before giving up.

I enjoyed all three stories and they were all quite distinct from one another. The first and third stories weren't exactly unique but the second one was very clever. Be aware that Fred is very hot on narrative and there isn't much dialogue but that said, he's a great story teller. There are quite a lot of mistakes in the transcription from book to ebook but it doesn't detract from a good read.

Interesting stories put together well. Occasional rant against estblisjment bureaucracy quite entertaining but not overdone in these short stories. An entertaining read.