I picked up a copy of Rockets in Ursa Major at my favorite antiquarian book store pretty much on a lark. The cover was cool (see inset) and the back-cover blurb was interesting:

It is the early twenty-first century. Man is seeking signs of life elsewhere in the universe, but all exploratory ships have been lost without a trace--except for DSP 15. Thirty years after leaving Earth, and given up for lost, DSP 15 suddenly appears on radar screens at the space station at Mildenhall, England.

Her crew has been frozen to prevent aging, and as the ship settles into a landing, Dr. Richard Warboys eagerly waits with other scientists for word of what DSP 15 has found. But there is no crew, only a message scratched into a metal surface, signed by the captain:

"If this ship returns to Earth, then mankind is in deadly peril--God help you--."

Unfortunately, that was pretty much the most exciting part of the book. We learn all of this in the first 30-45 pages or so, then it sets into a typical 1960's alien invasion story.

In the denouement, the good guys win with the help of friendly aliens, but (of course) there is a promise of a bad alien return.

There wasn't much to the story, and little character development either. Fred Hoyle was not a world builder. He was, however, one of the most outspoken midcentury astrophysicists, so there is little wonder why our protagonist is a young professor/researcher/scientist at Cambridge. In a similar parallel to Hoyle's own life, the "key invention" which enables detection of in invading alien fleet was related to radar, which Hoyle worked on for the Admiralty during World War II. Scientific jargon is embedded throughout -- perhaps too much for a work of fast fiction -- but I didn't find it detracting from the story. (However, I'm probably biased because I'm an astrodynamicist by trade, and anything about orbits, trajectories, and space combat is like candy to me....)

Interesting facts:

• This was Fred Hoyle's eighth work of fiction. His best known is 1959's The Black Cloud, which is worth checking out if you can find a copy.
  
• He co-wrote this book with his son Geoffrey. This was the second of 12 works the father-son team wrote together.
  
• The book was adapted from a play which was first performed at the Mermaid Theatre on Easter, 1962.
  
• Fred Hoyle coined the term "Big Bang Theory" in an interview on BBC Radio.
  

If you like simple alien invasion stories and don't mind scientific dialogue, then you will find this book worth a read.

This book is extremely straightforward and has no surprises or thrills. There are no twists or surprise challenges for the protagonist. Overall it's a pretty boring read. ( )