Monday, February 25, 2013

Fred Hoyle & John Elliot's "Andromeda Breakthrough" (novel): A shadowy European trading syndicate dreams of creating another East India Company

Cover of Andromeda Breakthrough, a novel by Fred Hoyle and John Elliot.
This is a sequel to the authors' excellent novel "A for Andromeda". While this too is a fast moving adventure, it's much less interesting than original:
  1. It appears to be penned mostly by Elliot. None of Hoyle's characteristic humor, leg pulling of politicians, or a central cool idea here.
  2. It appears to be an unplanned for sequel. Characters that died or were otherwise removed at the end of the first book are resurrected, in rather questionable ways, so they can be part of this adventure.
A shadowy European multinational trading outfit ("Intel") working towards world control, an imaginary non-functional middle eastern country ("Azaran"), synthetic fast-breeding sea-based bacteria that suck up nitrogen from atmosphere leading to disastrous weather, are all part of the canvas. Plus some characters from first book, including the hero.

Intel now controls, or thinks it does, the "alien in the computer" & intends world domination via stuff the alien will invent. Hero, will, of course, save the world from them.

Fact sheet.

First published: 1965.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of Fred Hoyle, John Elliot.

2 comments:

LarryS said...

Ha, Intel inside ;)
Hoyle, now theres a name. A great astronomer. I must find his A for Andromeda!

Tinkoo said...

I wondered if this story came before Intel, Inc was founded?