Half Life
In the future, neurological disorders are running rampant and medical science is unable to keep up. Humanity is on the verge of extinction unless something can be done. Fifty scientists with terminal diseases head out on a mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, to study the pre-life chemistry taking place in the hope of finding a clue to stave off the end of man. Naturally, not all of them survive the trip, but that is only just the beginning of the story.
Everybody is terminal. Everybody is isolated. There is no direct interaction with anybody else on the mission or with the moon they are studying. This book is essentially a novel length transcript.
This is one of the first hard science fiction books I’ve read. No aliens. No ray guns or faster than light travel. To be honest, it was a little difficult to get into at first (I usually tend to go for more action/adventure type novels), but before long I was completely sucked in by this story and managed to gobble down the rest of it in just a couple more nights.
I can now see why Hal Clement was recognized as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). I never thought I would have enjoyed what is basically a book long account of scientific research, but I really did. I look forward to reading more of his work.
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