Name: Noise
ISBN: 9780765310323

Hal Clement

Mike Hoani journeys to Kainui, a planet originally settled by Polynesians, to study the language, culture, and evolution of the colony since its original settlement, and finds an ocean world without a breathable atmosphere, with harsh and constant stormy weather, and without solid ground, whose population is scattered on cities built on artificial floating islands. Reprint. 10,000 first printing.

Noise

Sarah Sammis

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.