Mission Of Gravity: Mesklinite Book 1 (S.F. Masterworks)

Paperback

Published Dec. 11, 2014 by GOLLANCZ.

ISBN:
978-1-4732-0638-0
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OCLC Number:
892869852

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3 stars (2 reviews)

1 edition

Gravity puzzles explored through a loose plot

No rating

I read Needle and its sequel way back when I was a teenager, but haven’t read any other Hal Clement since. Mission of Gravity has an interesting premise. Since I don’t have much “physics” background, I wasn’t sure how much I’d be able to appreciate the science.

Although the book is short, it took me a couple of weeks to read, on and off, which is very unlike me for books that I don’t abandon. I think it was because the plot (exploration/journey to find a sort-of-McGuffin) was so non-compelling and meandering: really, just a background to explore the science. I wasn’t especially curious about the outcome, nor worried about any of the characters. Both humans and Mesklinites were there to discover explain things to each other. Perils were technical rather than due to clashes of personality or culture.

This novel is essentially a string of thought experiments working through …

Review of 'Mission Of Gravity: Mesklinite Book 1 (S.F. Masterworks)' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

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, exceedingly cold planet are and built a jolly adventure story round them, with a somewhat piratical, canny, mischievous explorer-trader as the protagonist asked to rescue the science probe visiting humans have lost and are unable to rescue themselves.

Long considered a genre classic and deservingly so.