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topdragon's review against another edition
3.0
My brother was cleaning out his bookshelves in anticipation of his upcoming move, and so I "inherited" about 100 of his books. A nice haul all the way around and among them, were about 30-35 science fiction books, many from the so-called classical era. I haven't really read all that much of the older science fiction for many years now but have wanted to get back into it and thought this the perfect opportunity.
So this book was my first to read out of that whole collection from my brother. I had read one other Hal Clement book, [b:Mission Of Gravity|525285|Mission Of Gravity|Hal Clement|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328628795s/525285.jpg|894625] but that was at least 25 years ago. This one, I believe, was Mr, Clement's first published work, written in 1949. Unfortunately it shows. The book opened delightfully, with the nice hard science that the author is known for. A protoplasmic alien creature has crash landed on earth while chasing another of the same species who has committed some sort of crime. The "hunter" alien absorbs into a 15 year old boy and uses him to function and chase after the criminal alien. Yeah I know it sounds a bit hokey but the first 1/3rd of the book was quite riveting to see how the biology of the alien species worked. This was just the sort of hard science I was looking for. Unfortunately, the actual "story" took off from there and turned into a detective story that seemed aimed at younger readers, reminiscent of Heinlein's juveniles only not nearly as good.
The book spawned a sequel several years later, which I may read, but I may have to get through those other 99 books from my brother first.
So this book was my first to read out of that whole collection from my brother. I had read one other Hal Clement book, [b:Mission Of Gravity|525285|Mission Of Gravity|Hal Clement|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1328628795s/525285.jpg|894625] but that was at least 25 years ago. This one, I believe, was Mr, Clement's first published work, written in 1949. Unfortunately it shows. The book opened delightfully, with the nice hard science that the author is known for. A protoplasmic alien creature has crash landed on earth while chasing another of the same species who has committed some sort of crime. The "hunter" alien absorbs into a 15 year old boy and uses him to function and chase after the criminal alien. Yeah I know it sounds a bit hokey but the first 1/3rd of the book was quite riveting to see how the biology of the alien species worked. This was just the sort of hard science I was looking for. Unfortunately, the actual "story" took off from there and turned into a detective story that seemed aimed at younger readers, reminiscent of Heinlein's juveniles only not nearly as good.
The book spawned a sequel several years later, which I may read, but I may have to get through those other 99 books from my brother first.
dreaming_ace's review against another edition
3.0
Over all this was a fun 50's YA novel. I did enjoy the fact that Hal Clement writes hard science fiction so in his novels the science is reasonable. It is fun to get a bit of science in while reading.
jonathanpalfrey's review against another edition
3.0
The concept of this story seems original even now, and must have been weirdly imaginative in 1950, when it was published as Clement's first novel (he was about 28 at the time). The early chapters are interesting and quite exciting.
However, while Clement could dramatize intelligent aliens well enough, his humans seem old-fashioned (did people really talk like that in 1950?) and rather wooden. When the story starts to involve multiple humans interacting with each other, it bogs down, and I skim through it rapidly to find out what happens. The details along the way are rather tedious.
I suppose I can give it three stars because I have reread it occasionally, but consider them awarded for the concept and the early chapters. The later chapters are barely worth two stars as fiction, although the scientific topics mentioned may be of some interest if you like that kind of thing.
His second novel was [b:Iceworld|1875499|Iceworld|Hal Clement|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1189607333l/1875499._SY75_.jpg|1528695] and it's better than this; his third was [b:Mission of Gravity|525285|Mission of Gravity|Hal Clement|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328628795l/525285._SY75_.jpg|894625] and it's better still.
However, while Clement could dramatize intelligent aliens well enough, his humans seem old-fashioned (did people really talk like that in 1950?) and rather wooden. When the story starts to involve multiple humans interacting with each other, it bogs down, and I skim through it rapidly to find out what happens. The details along the way are rather tedious.
I suppose I can give it three stars because I have reread it occasionally, but consider them awarded for the concept and the early chapters. The later chapters are barely worth two stars as fiction, although the scientific topics mentioned may be of some interest if you like that kind of thing.
His second novel was [b:Iceworld|1875499|Iceworld|Hal Clement|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1189607333l/1875499._SY75_.jpg|1528695] and it's better than this; his third was [b:Mission of Gravity|525285|Mission of Gravity|Hal Clement|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1328628795l/525285._SY75_.jpg|894625] and it's better still.
wcullen65's review against another edition
This novel is incredibly influential to TV and film SciFi. I've seen its legacy in virtually EVERY SciFi franchise and throughout so, so many films. Reading the novel simply intensifies classic TV SciFi re-watches :-)
pinknantucket's review against another edition
2.0
A classic-era sci-fi, for SciFi Bookclub. I really liked the first bit, when it was just about the cool alien, who is kind of jelly-fish like and needs a host in order to be able to survive. He crash-lands on earth, when chasing a baddie jellyfish, and needs to find a new host. Unfortunately this new host turns out to be a teenage boy. This is not necessarily a bad thing of course only depictions of children and adolescents from the 1950s and 60s don't tend to hold up that well. He was OK though. I liked the bit where the jellyfish was trying to initiate communication with his new host. A very interesting concept but never terribly suspenseful. Also, was the bad jellyfish really that bad? He didn't even seem vaguely bent on world domination!
My copy: bought as an ebook.
My copy: bought as an ebook.
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