No Highway
Nevil Shute
281 pages
published in 1948

I first encountered Nevil Shute when I read On the Beach for my high school English reading list. At the time I wasn't very impressed by his writing; the story was far too bleak for my taste and I wrote him off as one of those fuddy duddy mainstream writers who just doesn't get science fiction. It was only later, when people who knew better kept mentioning Nevil Shute as a good writer, that I started re-evaluating my opinion of him. When I read A Town Called Alice I knew that they hadn't steered me wrong. Since then I've made a point in seeking out Shute's novels in secondhand bookshops.

The ironic thing about my wrongful dismissal of Shute is that his writing style and subjects actually fit pretty well within the John Campbell/Analog brand of science fiction. While obviously his stories are more down to earth the stories still revolve around science and technology, with the same sort of calm rationality and belief that ultimately any problem can be solved as long as you're willing to work on it that characterises a lot of Golden Age science fiction. He reminds me a lot of Arthur C. Clarke, not in the least because they both seem to have faith in the inherent decency of most people. Shute also shares the same lean writing style that Clarke and others had. He wastes few words, does not go into flights of fancy, isn't one for poetic descriptions, yet when needed he can sketch a vivid picture in a few short sentences. Shute also displays a quiet knowledge about the British aeroplane industry, which is easily explained because he used to lead an aeroplane company.

In No highway, the story revolves around Theodore Honey, an experimental scientist working at the Royal Aircraft Establishment in Farnborough, who is doing research towards a theoretical basis of metal fatigue. In the course of his study, he becomes aware of the possibility that the tail of the new transatlantic Reindeer aircraft is particularly vulnerable to metal fatigue and has a good chance of dropping off after a certain number of flight hours. He has however, no real evidence yet. Despite this his boss (and narrator) becomes convinced there's something in his theory and sents him to Canada to investigate the crash of a Reindeer airplane there. Ironically enough, Honey is sent out on a another Reindeer airliner, which turns out to have already flown enough to have reached the critical point at which metal fatigue is likely. Though they arrive safely in Canada, Honey decides he cannot let the airplane fly any further and makes sure it won't, which of course lands him in a lot of trouble.

The above is just the bare skeleton of the story and the main focus of the novel is not on the plot line as such, but more on the character of the people involved in it, especially with Honey. Theodore Honey is a widower who lost his wife in the war and has a daughter he loves dearly, but being a man and a scientist, he cannot take as good care of her as he should. Not because he's unwilling, but because he misses the feminine touch. (Not surprisingly for a book published in 1948, the role of the sexes is a very oldfashioned one.) Intermixed with the investigations into the possibility of metal fatigue in the Reindeer is the story of how he is brought out of his insular life by the kindness of his boss, as well as several people he meets during his trip to Canada. It's a remarkably humane story, with nicely drawn, believable characters.

Which is what I like about this novel: it starts out as a thriller, but transforms itself into something more universal. It becomes a story about people, rather than a story about what happens to them, if you see what I mean. In all, No highway is a very satisfying novel, more than worth the trouble seeking it out.