Noise

By Hal Clement

Book Overview

Hal Clement, the dean of hard science fiction, has written a new planetary adventure in the tradition of his classic Mission of Gravity. It is the kind of story that made his reputation as a meticulous designer of otherworldly settings that are utterly convincing because they are constructed from the ground up using established principles of orbital mechanics, geology, chemistry, biology, and other sciences. Kainui is one of a pair of double planets circling a pair of binary stars. Mike Hoani has come there to study the language of the colonists, to analyze its evolution in the years since settlement. But Kainui is an ocean planet. Although settled by Polynesians, it is anything but a tropical paradise. The ocean is 1,700 miles deep, with no solid ground anywhere. The population is scattered in cities on floating artificial islands with no fixed locations. The atmosphere isn't breathable, and lightning, waterspouts, and tsunamis are constant. Out on the great planetary ocean, self-sufficiency is crucial, and far from any floating city, on a small working-family ship, anything can happen. There are, for instance, pirates. Mike's academic research turns into an exotic nautical adventure unlike anything he could have imagined.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765308576
• ISBN13: 9780765308573
• Release Date: September 2003
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Hal Clement's final bow

I believe this was science fiction writer Hal Clement's final book, and it was a good one. True to his unique approach to sci-fi, Clement has given us one final world where the rules of physics and chemistry which we take so for granted on earth are subtly different due to differences of gravity, heat, and other fascinating variables. He always had fun working out how human beings -- and others --always rational and well-intentioned creatures, would solve the physical problems such worlds set them. In "Noise," humans deal with a water world to interesting and instructive effect. As usual with Clement, expect no sex, violence or destruction, but anticipate an interesting journey all the same.

exciting otherworld anthropologic study tale

The twin planets Kainui and Kaihapa are covered by water and orbit a binary star system. Polynesians settled on Kainui, a planet with deep oceans and a poisoned atmosphere. The horrendous climatic conditions include a horrific noise way over acceptable decibel levels requiring special equipments to survive the racket and the pollution. The inhabitants of this watery orb live on floating cities developed by biotechnology.Maori Earthling Mike Hoani arrives on Kainui to study the changes in language since colonization. Trader Captain Wanaka accompanied by her husband and a ten-year-old apprentice takes the off-worlder on her boat. Their boat becomes damaged and soon they drift towards the South Pole. There on the edge of the frozen realm they encounter inhabitants of an ice city. Neither race knew of the existence of the other, but confrontation is the reaction.Upfront the story line seems a bit weak as the novel feels more like an exciting anthropologic study tale than an action adventure science fiction thriller. The Kainui environs are superbly drawn so that the audience has a feel for the floating culture and to a lesser degree the civilization of the ice men. Fans who appreciate a strange different realm will enjoy this water world tale.Harriet Klausner