Element 79

by Fred Hoyle

Shortstory collection

Contents:
9 • Zoomen • (1967)
32 • Pym Makes His Point
41 • The Magnetosphere
49 • A Play's the Thing
58 • Cattle Trucks
65 • Welcome to Slippage City
81 • The Ax
86 • Agent 38
93 • The Martians
120 • Shortsighted
123 • A Jury of Five
142 • Blackmail • (1967)
148 • Element 79
157 • The Judgment of Aphrodite
172 • The Operation

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories

189 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Professor Sir Fred Hoyle was one of the most distinguished, creative, and controversial scientists of the twentieth century. He was a Fellow of St John’s College (1939-1972, Honorary Fellow 1973-2001), was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1957, held the Plumian Chair of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy (1958-1972), established the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy in Cambridge (now part of the Institute of Astronomy), and (in 1972) received a knighthood for his services to astronomy.

Hoyle was a keen mountain climber, an avid player of chess, a science fiction writer, a populariser of science, and the man who coined the phrase 'The Big Bang'.

Reviews

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wide-ranging and entertaining collection of short stories, covering everything from Greek deities to bargains with the Devil to the evils of urban sprawl. The author's hard science background is evident, but he also has a great knack for lively tale-telling. One or two are nothing but "shaggy dog" stories -- a long way to go for a very bad punchline -- while others are hilarious, pointed, or thought-provoking. My favorites were "Slippage City" (a prescient look at what happens to the green and pleasant places of the earth once progress discovers them), "A Jury of Five" (which applies the idea of Schrodinger's cat to a case of moral judgment), and "The Martians" (a rather cynical look at the eagerness with with homo sapiens happily initiates its own destruction). Definitely worth a read.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book with ~15 tales & some are very short stories. The only story I remember is about birdwatcher who accidentally kills the rare birds he was seeking because of his nearsightedness. Hoyle provided a short intro of details about this person's bird-watching followed by the ironic end.

Hoyle doesn't seem to think highly of humanity or other scientists but he does have a droll turn. This is the man who came up with Hoyle's Fallacy because he was arrogant enough to think he understood the foundation theories of biology and to comment on how wrong he thought the biologists were. Now his foolishness is immortalized with his flawed statistical comparison of a junkyard tornado being as likely to build an air plane as descent with genetic modification in populations producing new species. Sadly his argument has become the property of young earth creationists so we will never forget his lapse in loic.

Hoyle also coined the snide term 'Big Bang' to deride the expanding universe theory proposed by Lemaitre that ran counter to Hoyle' preferred Steady State Theory. His stories run true to this personality. In many views he was a crank, holding to his vision of science out side his field of expertise. His convictions were controversial at best and idiotic at worst to the detriment of his real reputation as a cosmologist. His real contributions included mechanisms for the synthesis of elements heavier than lithium, gas accretion, and the internal structures of stars as well as writing science fiction. Hoyle comes across as a pessimistic iconoclast.

[Jim Razinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a little story to go with this book. A charming shop in Pagosa Springs, Colorado - Bookends - had a wonderful hook: A Blind Date with a Book. Wrapped in thick yellow paper with description, on took a chance. And I did and was pleasantly surprised. The three bullets on this one we’re...
- hard science fiction, space opera
- collection of hard science fiction stories
- author is also an English astronomer

I haven’t gravitated much to short stories in the past fifty years so I didn’t know Hoyle wrote any. Some were quite good; some quite odd. I also enjoy seeing different vernacular - in this case both British and period. A nice little adventure.

[Sushan Konar]

My opinion of Sir Fred, as an SF writer, has been soleley based on 'Dark Clouds' and 'A for Andromeda' (book version of the eponymous tele-serial) read more than thirty years ago. The opinion is also strongly biased by his standing as a scientist. Naturally, while looking for a 'realistic' SF story for the upcoming summer program at Ashoka University, I turned to this collection of short stories. An excellent example of a 'realistic' or 'scientific' story that I was looking for is 'Marooned off Vesta' by Asimov. In this story the protagonists are stuck in a life and death situation from which they save themselves by applying certain basic scientific principles. I call such a story 'realistic' or 'scientific' as the young high-school students of the aforementioned summer program can be asked to work out the maths to check whether or not the storyline can really work. Unfortunately, Sir Fred's stories turned out to be a total disappointment. These are mostly (badly written) pure fantasy where unknown alien beings apear without any rhyme or reason. By his own admission Prof. Hoyle picked up the pen to popularise scientific concepts to general public. But there is no way to overlook the ultimate irony - a great scientist writing a science fiction where the main protagonist is the Satan!

[John Beach · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the stories in this book inspired the 4-star rating. A JURY OF FIVE has insights about psychology woven in with 1967 ideas about quantum physics. The despicable character Arthur Hadley is frighteningly relevant to big personalities in the news today, and the explanation is relevant to why people support this type of person.

[Phil · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eclectic mix of short stories, some better, some worse. Made a good bathroom reader. 2.5 stars

[NipNip]

Humorous and imaginative. Aging quality varies.

[Brandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A couple of the short stories were interesting. Most just were not very good.

[Sterling Wesson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eh. It was okay. All the stories except for a couple were very short and felt half assed. This book also had a lot more of Hoyle’s random sexual parts. Sometimes it made sense to me, like in the final story. But other times it felt unnecessary like the one about gods. It’s short though so not terrible. I didn’t like how small the font was but that’s personal and not something about the book.

[Matt Sears · Rating 2 out of 5]

From my blog- pulpaweek.blogspot.com

A Fantastic, frightening plunge into the future; an era of interplanetary espionage; airborne orgies; galactic extravaganzas—when man is the servant of superior creatures from different worlds.' –Front cover

'Earthlings are dominated by the Devil, manipulated by Martians, headed for extinction at the hands of nonhumans... a horror-scope of the future, masterminded by one of the foremost astronomers of our time.' –Back cover

Published 1967. 143 pages. 60c cover price.

I opted for a book of short stories this time out, and a brief one at that, as I had a busy week and a holiday weekend cutting in on my 'shitty book time'. Lame cover, I know, but the promise of 'airborne orgies' sold me on this dog eared, musty, yellowed collection when I came across it in the basement of Myopic Books. Cool store—the basement smells like dust, water damage and the frustration of pulp novelists.

Fred Hoyle seems like he was a great, albeit controversial, astronomer/astrophycisist. He might have been a pretty good writer as well, but if that is the case, then Element 79 is not a good example of his work. There are fifteen stories in all—half of them science fiction, some of them less than a page long, most of them meandering, none of them coming to a satisfying conclusion. The stories within that did have a point were usually about how human beings are stupid, sex-obsessed animals that are going to be conquered by something or someone far superior to us.

I won't bore you with too many details with this book, especially since there isn't as much sci-fi inside as there is misogyny and white people complaining. There is the story about two lesbians, impregnated by the same man, who blackmail him into supporting them and their offspring financially. Really 'sexy' stuff, if you get off on hating women and all that. There is a story about birdwatcher who accidentally runs over two rare birds he was searching for because of his shortsightedness. Two pages of tedious details about bird-watching followed by a light stab at irony. I was promised space orgies and was given a story about people being collected for a galactic zoo, which was vaguely about animal rights and only had implied sex. Next book please!

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fifteen science fiction short stories by astrophysicist Fred Hoyle.

[SciFiOne · Rating 3 out of 5]

1986 grade C-

short stories