Half Life

This book took me almost a month to read and I really don't know why. It's not long and it's not terribly complex but at the same time . . . I don't know. Hard SF is always a tough sell because a lot of writers of that kind of story get all involved in the science part of it and get so wrapped up in their ideas that they forget to write any kind of story to go with the neat ideas (Stephen Baxter is good for this, as well as Larry Niven on occassion, although Gregory Benford never seems to suffer from this problem but maybe I just haven't read enough of his work) and thus for those of us without advanced degrees in physics (or pick the scientific realm of your choice) the story becomes a bit of a slog. Now, Hal Clement is a name that anyone who knows their SF history should recognize instantly, the man has been writing longer than most of us have been alive and his name is on several classics of the genre (Mission of Gravity being the most famous probably) and so when this came out we figured it would probably be at the very least interesting. And it is interesting but it doesn't go much beyond that. The basic premise is that in the future a good portion of the population is afflicted with cripping diseases, our story concerns a handful of them who go off to Saturn to study the place. Because of their diseases they're all kept isolated from each other and thus most of the story is told through dialogue. Actually, most of the time you wouldn't even know they weren't in the same room, thanks to the magic of telecommunications. When I first heard of this book I thought it would be more like a SF version of William Gaddis' JR, where all you get is layer upon layer of dialogue from people who will never meet and thus all you have are their words, which would have been different at least. Alas this isn't the case and most of the time it's hard to tell that the people are far apart. This is coupled with the fact that beyond their illnesses, none of them are real fascinating people and so you have this flat dialogue interspersed with planetary descriptions and the like . . . the threat or something that they have to face isn't real well defined and by the end of the book I still wasn't sure what the great discovery was, if there was any at all. I just knew that people lived and people died and yet nothing seemed that different at the end of the book as compared to the beginning of it. There are some great ideas in here, the premise alone someone could have a field day with, but the execution is . . . eh. In the end there's nothing to really catch you, the action never grabs you, the danger never seems real or imminent and the character don't latch onto you the way they should. It's all very readable but at the same time it left me a bit cold. Fortunately it's not too long and does read quickly (my slow reading was due more to my bizarre work schedule than anything else) but it's hard to recommend to anyone that isn't a scientist or a Hal Cl

I owe Hal Clement: I've been reading him since I was just able to read. He always gives you more than just a plot. In this book the plot isn't his best, but his rules for a research team may be up there with Asimov's laws of Robotics. This is the man who invented hard science sci fi and he still has it!

This book is not for everyone. Dealing with a future where countless plagues have ravaged humanity, it details an expedition to Titan. By medical necessity, the crew rarely physically interacts with each other and, in that sense, the relationships are somewhat stilted, somewhat like "Caves of Steel".This novel harkens back to the days when science fiction was about ideas and the characterization was of secondary import. And boy, do the ideas fly in "Half-Life"! It's a bit of an intellectual tussle, but then, that's why you're reading science fiction, isn't it?Get this book and read it. Then read everything else by Clement. You owe it to yourself.

The hardest of hard sci-fi, Half-Life is one of the best books in the genre I've read. A gripping story line, with plot- and characterizations- that are in line with the described world.If you're looking for a challenging, intellectually rigorous read, this is the book for you.

This book really shows why Hal Clement is A SFWA Grand Master. The edgy investigation into Titan's chemistry and composition is deftly handled, as are the characterizations and speculations put forth. It really puts the 'science' back in science fiction. Highly Recommended.