The Black Cloud – Fred Hoyle (1957)

Written by an actual astrophysicist, this novel imagines a massive sentient gas cloud entering our solar system — and communicating with Earth. There are no heroes or villains, just scientists realizing they might be ants yelling at a thunderstorm.
Hoyle’s science is meticulous, but the emotion sneaks up on you: awe, fear, and that quiet dread that maybe intelligence in the universe doesn’t look anything like us.

Rating: 4 / 5