Linguist Mike Hoani has journeyed to the water world Kainui, which was settled by colonists of Polynesian descent. But the world is far from a tropical paradise. The air and water are poison to humans, undersea earthquakes can cause shockwaves powerful enough to crush a man, and land is nonexistent.

Still, some things never change, and the human race excels at adapting. Mike Hoani soon finds that his simple mission of tracking the linguistic evolution of his people has turned into the adventure of a lifetime.

This book is a great introduction to Hal Clement's works. It's a fast-paced adventure and not quite as heavy, pardon the pun, as some of his earlier books. I enjoyed it a great deal, and I hope its new friends do too!

RELEASE NOTES:

Flying off to all those on the Noise Bookring! Hope you enjoy it!

Received safe and sound. I'm really looking forward to reading a new (to me) author.

It took me a while to get into it, but I enjoyed it. I will keep an eye out for other books by this author.

Sent out Thursday, Sept. 29, via surface mail.

Book has arrived.

Since no list is provided in a previous journal entry, in the book itself or on MagisterInky's bookshelf, here is the list from the forum post after some digging...

sqdancer (Canada)
caligula03 (CA)
ds3233 (AZ)
alanfoxboro (TN)
MagisterInky (TX)

Hal Clement is at his best when he's writing about alien worlds from alien perspectives. In Noise he choses to populate his densely salty ocean world with Maoris and it just doesn't work. Clement spends so much of the book explaining how the science of the planet works and how the ships are built (or grown) that he fails to adequaetly explain how these people live on this planet or why (beyond Maoris liking the ocean) they would want to live under such harsh conditions. How do they eat? Do they trade with other planets? How did they get to this planet? Do they ever leave?

Two much better Clement novels I recommend are: Mission of Gravity and Ice Planet.

ds3233 asked to be skipped. Now trying alanfoxboro.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to alanfoxboro.

This book arrived today in the mail. Thanks to MagisterInky for the bookring and to caligula03 for sending it on to me. I will read this one and post a review ASAP.

I don't know quite what to think of this book. It seemed like it was going somewhere exciting but never quite made it. The descriptions of the ocean planet were cool, but I found myself skimming some of the more technical sections.

Thanks to MagisterInky for the bookring. Sorry to have kept the book for so long. On the way back to you in Texas.