scrape_r_rational/data/cache2/6nqs3z.md

[RT] [HSF] The Nitrogen Fix, by Hal Clement

• Author: u/Linear_Cycle *

• URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/6nqs3z/rt_hsf_the_nitrogen_fix_by_hal_clement/

• Score: 6

• Created: 2017-07-17T04:03:50

Post:

I would like to recommend this, since it doesn't seem to've already been. At the least, it's a book I really enjoy.

Brief synopsis: On a world where oxygen is much more rare in the atmosphere, how must humans change and adapt?

Reasons that it is [RT]:

• three factions with distinct goals, none of whom are 'evil', but who sometimes come into conflict with each other due to their goals;
• characters who consider their actions;
• consistent-seeming science (which I think is backed up by real chemistry), although in some cases it does feel like a parameter is being 'squeezed' into a narrow range to make the plot work;
• viewpoint characters whose minds work quite differently from the reader's. Some of the characters do non-useful things because of psychological limitations (example: 'cannot lie'); I don't feel this means it's not [RT].

I'm only halfway through, but it's good enough so far that I wanted to share.

Comments:

u/Subrosian_Smithy [+1] Nudist Beach (6 hours later)

Hal Clement-?

That's a name I haven't heard in a long time. I think the first story of his that I ever read was Needle, a sci-fi mystery about one symbiotic life-form hunting down another.

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