Hal Clement
Paperback | Pages: 174 pages Rating: 3.92 | 6631 Users | 191 Reviews
Itemize Books To Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1)
| Original Title: | Mission of Gravity |
| ISBN: | 0515034797 (ISBN13: 9780515034790) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Series: | Mesklin #1 |
| Characters: | Barlennnan, Charles Lackland |
| Setting: | Mesklin |
| Literary Awards: | International Fantasy Award Nominee for Fiction (1955), Premio Ignotus for Mejor novela extranjera (1994), Retro Hugo Award Nominee for Best Novel (2004) |
Rendition Toward Books Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1)
Cover Artist: Ed EmshwillerMission of Gravity is an sf novel by Hal Clement. The title is a play on words, one meaning "the force which pulls" & the other being "extremely serious or important". It was serialized in Astounding Science Fiction, 4–7/53. Its 1st cloth publication was in '54. It was 1st published in paper in '58. Along with the novel itself, many editions (& most recent editions) of the book also include Whirligig World, an essay on creating the planet Mesklin that was published in the 6/53 Astounding. He published two sequels, a '70 novel called Star Light & a '73 short story called Lecture Demonstration. Mission of Gravity was nominated for a Retro Hugo Award for '54.
For a profit & adventure Barlennan would sail thousands of miles across uncharted waters, into regions where gravity played strange tricks. He'd dare the perils of strange tribes & stranger creatures--even dicker with those aliens from beyond the skies, though the concept of another world was unknown to the inhabitants of the planet of Mesklin. But in spite of the incredible technology of the strangers & without regard for their enormous size, Barlennan had the notion of turning the deal to an unsuspected advantage for himself--a considerable enterprise for a being very much resembling a 15" caterpillar!
List Appertaining To Books Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1)
| Title | : | Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1) |
| Author | : | Hal Clement |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 174 pages |
| Published | : | October 1974 by Pyramid Books (first published 1954) |
| Categories | : | Science Fiction. Fiction |
Rating Appertaining To Books Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1)
Ratings: 3.92 From 6631 Users | 191 ReviewsCritique Appertaining To Books Mission of Gravity (Mesklin #1)
This is another one of those SF books that is written by a scientist, for scientists. Like Fred Hoyle's The Black Cloud, it is the scientists and engineers who are the calling the shots and saving the day. Unlike "The Black Cloud" however, there is very little to interest the reader who isn't a scientist, doesn't enjoy following through scientific reasoning and working through technical problems.As the Mesklinites have to traverse their way halfway across their planet, from the equatorial regionThis is one of those novels that I must firmly place in the "Interesting idea" category without having it really grace the realm of "great story".Indeed, I loved the way that Hal Clement literally built a world from scratch, not merely creating 15 inch long aliens, but making a damn interesting planet that had different pulls of gravity depending on how close you were to the poles versus the equator, because the whole planet was flattened, was roughly 5k times the mass of earth, and the surface
This is a wonderful adventure story written in the middle of the 1950ies - which in places becomes obvious, but even if he got some facts wrong (because of the knowledge of yesterday, rather than the knowledge of today) it is a very readable and likeable book. It is even fun to spot the "errors" - when I'm able to.
Mission of Gravity is, I believe, the granddaddy of hard science fiction. It is often mentioned when discussions of hard sf come up. For some reason the label hard sf usually lead me to expect serious moody novels. For no good reason I tend to equate serious science with serious stories, imagine my surprise when Mission of Gravity turns out to be something of a romp, a good one too. Another point worth mentioning is that while the book was first published in 1953 it still holds up well today
This book surely must be the record-holder for having the most endearing arthropodic character in fiction and possibly for weirdest planet in fiction! Of course the two are connected; if a planet has a surface gravitational pull never less than three times that of Earth and varying up to 700x that of Earth, intelligent life isn't going to look just like a human with maybe a weird looking forehead or nose.Clement has very carefully worked out what the consequences of his rapidly spinning,
I'd give it 2.5 stars if I could, but I can't round up to 3. It's better than just "ok" but to say "I liked it" might be a bit much.Clement's world building is the highlight of this sci-fi classic from 1954. Mesklin is a large, disc-shaped world that spins so fast that days are only 18 minutes long. Gravity runs from 3 G at the equator to 700 G at the poles. It is a world of liquid methane seas and ammonia snow. The humans have special environmental suits to protect them from the hostile
Well, this is a dandy classic of hard SF. A rocket has crashed on Mesklin, a very odd planet with widely variable gravity, from about three times Earth-normal at the equator to over six hundred at the poles. Humans need special enhanced suits even to stand up at the equator and cannot possibly get to their crashed rocket. So, they recruit the aid of Barlennan, canny merchant sailor--and a centipede-like creature less than two feet long--to mount an expedition to get crucial information back from
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