Half Life by Hal Clement
This discussion had fourteen participants. Only six had read the book, and the others were present to vote on books at the end of the meeting. This meeting’s topic, Half Life, is the most recent novel by SFWA Grandmaster Hal Clement. It involves an expedition of scientists in the near future to Saturn’s moon Titan, where they hope to find clues about the origins of life.
We liked getting to read a traditional hard SF novel, where people solve “problems in space.” This book is full of interesting facts about chemistry, biology, and physics, and none of us found any technical errors. The level of detail presented as the scientists explore Titan gave us almost the feel of a travelogue. The extreme discipline of the scientists and their rigid set of rules for