The Black Cloud

Astronomers in Fred Hoyle's novel become aware, in 1964, of a cloud of gas and dust heading for the Solar System. If it comes between the Sun and the Earth, it could wipe out most life on the planet by blocking the Sun's radiation. A group of astronomers and other scientists is brought together at Nortonstowe, in England, to examine it and advise the British government on the consequences. Hoyle was a Cambridge astronomer and cosmologist, and he built plenty of real science into the story, which is classed as hard science fiction. It was published in 1957.

Andrej Karpathy called it highly inventive and said he enjoyed it a great deal.