Book Review: Half Life
Dec. 30th, 2006 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennythereaderHalf Life
by Hal Clement
Copyright 1999
ISBN: 0-312-86920-7
This is one of the few books I can remember giving up on before I even got to the half-way point.
The basic concept is fascinating. When diseases begin to prolifirate at a pace that medical science can't keep up with, the authorities send a group of researchers to Titan (one of Saturn's moons.) They hope that by studying the building blocks of life first hand they can gain clues to what is going wrong on Earth.
Unfortunately, I found Clement's style to be extremely off-putting. He uses a "little did they know that they had made the wrong decision...DUM DUM DUM" cliff hanger at the end of each of the first three chapters (where I stopped reading) that seems heavy-handed and awkward.
Overall, the writing feels... stiff. As if he's out of practice. Which makes sense, since according to the jacket, "Half Life is his first book this decade," and it was published in 1999.
Rating: 3 out of 10.
I've heard wonderful things about Clement, so I'm going to add some of his other works to my To Read List in spite of my opinion of this one.
by Hal Clement
Copyright 1999
ISBN: 0-312-86920-7
This is one of the few books I can remember giving up on before I even got to the half-way point.
The basic concept is fascinating. When diseases begin to prolifirate at a pace that medical science can't keep up with, the authorities send a group of researchers to Titan (one of Saturn's moons.) They hope that by studying the building blocks of life first hand they can gain clues to what is going wrong on Earth.
Unfortunately, I found Clement's style to be extremely off-putting. He uses a "little did they know that they had made the wrong decision...DUM DUM DUM" cliff hanger at the end of each of the first three chapters (where I stopped reading) that seems heavy-handed and awkward.
Overall, the writing feels... stiff. As if he's out of practice. Which makes sense, since according to the jacket, "Half Life is his first book this decade," and it was published in 1999.
Rating: 3 out of 10.
I've heard wonderful things about Clement, so I'm going to add some of his other works to my To Read List in spite of my opinion of this one.
