The ethical component is central in the Hunter’s thoughts and it’s a choice by Hal Clement that at the time was definitely out of the ordinary. This allows the author to show the ability and reasoning of a member of that species who’s not a criminal. However, in the initial part of “Needle” there’s above all the Hunter’s effort to survive the shipwreck, find a new host without harming him and understand how to communicate with him. This science fiction idea is used by Hal Clement to create a novel that in many ways is a detective story as the Hunter has to find out where the fugitive is hiding after both of them fell to Earth losing their hosts. Hurting their host is a very serious crime and that’s the crime committed by the fugitive pursued by the Hunter in “Needle”.
Members of that species can help maintain their host’s health and help to heal their wounds. In the science fiction of the 1940s, sentient species were humanoid, an idea also discussed in the science field, but Hal Clement wanted to write a story in which a truly alien sentient species appeared and ended up creating an amoeboid vaguely looking like a jellyfish whose life isn’t autonomous but in symbiosis with another species of its planet. Slowly he learns enough about his host to establish a form of contact with him, which is essential to begin the search for the fugitive, who could have entered the body of any large Earth’s organism.
On reaching the beach, the Hunter finds Bob Kinnaird, a boy of fifteen, and takes advantage of the fact that he is asleep to enter his body.įor the Hunter, taking care of his host and not hurting him is one of the most important laws, but humans are an unknown species for him and must proceed with caution. Both belong to a symbiotic species living inside hosts that belong to other species. The Hunter is chasing the fugitive in space to bring him to justice on their planet but their spaceships fell to Earth, in the Pacific Ocean.
The novel “Needle” by Hal Clement was published for the first time in 1949 in the magazine “Astounding” and in 1950 as a book.
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