Customer Reviews

Noise

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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.

Settled generations before by Polynesian islanders tired of the oil-processing, pseudo-life stations taking over the Pacific, the inhospitable planet Kainui has all the ocean anyone could want, being entirely covered in super salty, acidic water. It's colonists have grown artificial, enclosed cities which float, drifting with winds and currents.

And Kainui has plenty of wind and current too. Along with unbreathable air, dangerous thunder levels, underwater earthquakes, tsunamis, waterspouts, escaped and mutated pseudo-life, and pirates. Earth anthropologist Mike Hoani, there to study how the colonists' language has evolved, gets his sea legs in a hurry.

Hoani joins a metal harvesting (from floating islands of pseudo-life) boat. Battered routinely by storms and quake-generated waves, the boat is damaged and nearly sunk in an accident. Crippled and storm-driven, the boat drifts southward toward the frozen pole, and bumps up against a strange floating island, which yields an unidentifiable metal. Prize or poison?

Clement, 1998 Grand Master, delivers lots of science. His alien watery world in its binary star system is fully realized, right down to the physics and chemical reactions. While the story line takes a while to get going, fans of sea adventure and hard sf won't mind. There's never a dull moment on Kainui and the planet - and its culture - is thoroughly detailed. This one is for those who like their alien worlds imaginatively, meticulously and scientifically constructed.

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