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Mission of Gravity 48

Posted by timothy from the the-gravity-vortex-is-in-utah dept.
Adventurous reader Duncan Lawie, throwing himself in the way of the books being hurled at you by well-meaning bookstores, wrote this review of Mission of Gravity. If your taste in Science Fiction runs to the adventurous and thoughtful, Duncan may just turn you on to a work he says is "elegant and simple."

Mission of Gravity
author Hal Clement
pages 200
publisher UK: Gollancz USA: NESFA Press
rating 9.5
reviewer Duncan Lawie
ISBN 1-886778-08-6
summary Summary: Low tech aliens on a high-pressure trek impossible for humans -- brilliantly simple, simply brilliant.
Hal Clement is a writer of the golden age of science fiction, having been first published in Astounding SF in the early 1940s. As well as painting, he spent many years as a high school science teacher and his love of science is apparent in his writing. His ability to communicate this passion and the display of ideas in his work makes him one of the architects of hard science fiction. Mission of Gravity is the work which defined Clement's reputation, at least in part through the concurrent publication of an article in which he explained the world building behind the novel, which is included in a new NESFA Press publication.

The blueprint for Mission of Gravity is so simple that the tale might almost be expected to tell itself. It is a further grace of the book that it often feels as if this is exactly what is happening. A human exploration mission has lost a valuable probe on the planet Mesklin. This massive planet spins at such a rate that there is a extreme gravity gradient from the poles to the distorted equatorial bulge. The story opens near the equator where native "Mesklinites," exploring north, have made friends with the strange human visitors. Clement is not interested in the potential confusion of first contact so the lead alien -- Barlennan, captain of the trader ship Bree -- has already learned English and has agreed to undertake a further long journey to the polar regions to recover the probe. He and his crew are from a high gravity zone and professional travellers, so such an adventure holds the promise of profit for both human and Mesklinite.

The subsequent adventure is so absorbing because the planetary science is integral and integrated into both the setting and the mental characteristics of the alien protagonists. Barlennan -- alongside at least some of his shipmates -- has a raw intelligence equal to that of his human mentors, but it is informed by their wholly different environment. They are hard-shelled, many-legged crawlers, with eyes low to the ground and an almost irrational fear of anything falling; evolved for and adapted to living in over 700 gravities. The sail-powered ship in which they cross oceans is a series of flat rafts tied together, the concept of a "hollow boat" being wholly unknown to them. In common with many heroes of this era of science fiction, they display a love for knowledge and a wiry resilience. Though they change as they learn, these aliens retain a character and approach which ensures they are not mistaken for humans in disguise. The novel's transit of the planet is aided by radio contact with the human base on the planet's moon, allowing much interchange of information. As this territory is unknown to Barlennan's society, the reader can share the "newness" from the Mesklinite perspective as well as the human. The protagonists show a clear joy in learning about the world around them, both through exploration on their own world and through the new concepts of science they gain from their human confederates.

While Clement is clearly of the view that a rounded grounding in science is essential for the modern citizen, he doesn't grind this into either the reader or the players. Explanations are brief yet sufficient to intrigue those not already familiar with the underlying science, offering a trigger for independent research and a key with which to unlock the potentially dry tomes of pure science. The book is so deeply embedded in a positive scientific worldview that it can communicate the desirability of learning almost without noticing it is doing so. Mission of Gravity is elegant and simple, fun, filled with wonder and a joy to read.

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain
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Mission of Gravity

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  • Re:Golden Age Vs New Wave? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Actually, there is some truly great Science Fiction being published now. Check out S.M. Stirling's Flight Engineer, and Island in the Sea of time series, both are excellent, or any of Eric Flint's stuff. John Ringo's A Hymn Before Battle, and Gust Front are as good as Heinlein or Drake's Best Military stuff. David Weber is doing some truly great space opera with the Honor Harrington stuff, Debra Doyle and James Macdonald's Mageworld stuff is pretty good for a blatant Star Wars ripoff. Ian Douglas' Heritage Trilogy is good if you don't mind the blatant US Supremacism, Dream Pod 9 (www.dp9.com) has several Storyline books for their Heavy Gear Line that are a damn good read in their own right, and if you want more people oriented stuff, Spider Robinson is still doing Callahan's stuff.

    Mykroft Holmes IV
    (mykroft@mykroft.com)
    TANSTAAFL

  • "was"? (Score:1)

    by bsa3 ( 200 )
    Hal Clement was a great writer of this genre

    You've used the wrong tense -- Hal Clement still is a great writer of the genre; he hasn't stopped writing yet, and I hope he doesn't stop anytime soon.

    BTW, don't forget to pick up your copy of the new George R.R. Martin book, Quartet: Four Stories from the Crossroads, also published by NESFA Press. (Disclaimer: I proofread it.)

    -Brad Ackerman
    absolutely not speaking for Boskone

  • Hal Clement is the name that Harry Stubbs uses when he writes Science Fiction. When he does astronomical artwork, he uses the name of George Richards. He is a member of First Fandom, meaning he predates almost all of us as a Science Fiction Fan, and was a Pilot during World War II. I have had the priveledge to have Hal/Harry/George as a guest at the Science Fiction convention that I helped to create and run, CANCON [achilles.net].

    If you ever get a chance to meet him, please make the effort to do so, because he is a wonderful person to chat with, in addition to be a great writer, famous fan and talented artist.
    ttyl

    Farrell

  • for a smart-sounding fella, you sure are a dumb fuck:
    yhbt
    yhl
    hand
  • from the the-gravity-vortex-is-in-utah dept.

    Anyone have any ideas?
    -Derek
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I thought the sequel was Mission of Levity.
  • I think a little more editorial work is in order.

    C'mon, in a sentence relating to /., you can't use "editorial" and "work" in the same sentence!

  • Or, I could be trolling ;). Unsuccessfully, since no one else is joining the thread. Darn it. Guess I should stick to serious comments.

    Hey, I'm enjoying it. You're doing a fine job! ;) I completely agree, the original message and the anonymous followups look like a classic troll and subsequent feeding. If it walks like a troll...

    No sane person could possibly buy the AC's line that it was an honest opinion. Even if it is, it's couched like a troll and extreme to a fault, without the slightest acknowledgement of such. It's a troll, no matter which way you slice it.

  • I don't get your meaning. What is "this" if not "Mission of Gravity"?
    --
  • I may hve to re-read "Mission of Gravity". I never expected to see a review pop up of a novel written decades ago.

  • There is a substantial body of what even the most jaded pseudointellectual would admit is literary sci-fi in America.

    Kurt Vonnegut. Harlan Ellison. Walter M. Miller, Jr. William Gibson. James Tiptree Jr. Octavia Butler. Phillip K. Dick.
    I might quibble about Gibson myself (compared to the others on literary merit) but in my opinion you missed the best American writer of his era, although not always classed as Sci-Fi he always makes me want to read more and sorry to finish a story: Ray Bradbury. No forget that, IMNSHO the best US writer so far.
    I don't care if you agree or not, but I couldn't let his name be overlooked if you're talking literary merit.

    Oh, and as I've posted previously I rate Misson Of Gravity very highly, I'd give it a 10 and I'm glad that it's not out of print as I thought.
    ----

  • I'm sorry, but what's the point in biking across Canada while reading Sci-Fi? Aren't you supposed to be taking in the scenery? :)
  • ...except, of course, for quintessence [princeton.edu]. Current research seems to indicate that this is actually the strongest force at the largest scales.

  • although not always classed as Sci-Fi he always makes me want to read more and sorry to finish a story: Ray Bradbury. No forget that, IMNSHO the best US writer so far. I don't care if you agree or not, but I couldn't let his name be overlooked if you're talking literary merit.

    I agree totally; I was going to put Bradbury down, but I thought I'd stick with the more modern, overtly artsy kind of authors because of the nature of the troll I was replying to. But Bradbury is easily one of the best authors of any genre that America ever produced.
    --
  • I just ordered a copy of a Eric Frank Russell short story compilation from them, but I was amazed at all the different books listed that they've printed. Well worth a look if you like older science fiction.
  • "Still River" is mentioned in the post just above, so I guess "Still River" is "this"
  • A couple of decades after "Mission of Gravity" Robert Forward wrote "Dragon's Egg", an excellent piece of hard-science extrapolation set on the surface of a neutron star.

    The characters are engaging in about the same way that Vernor Vinge's are. The environment, of course, is the real hero - it's a novel of millieu.

    Definately worth a look and still in print.
  • all your moderators are belong to us (Micro$oft (c) 2001)
  • Sorry, this is really a matter of individual preference. I have been reading SF since the late 40's, and I tried reading some of the "New Wave" crap when it first started - Yuuuuchhh! "Mess with your head" pseudo-psychological junk thinly disguised as SF by using futuristic settings.

    We are talking about Science Fiction here. Hal Clement was a great writer of this genre, and Mission of Gravity was a really great example. If you haven't read this, by all means do so. There is very little REAL Science Fiction being written nowadays, things to equal the greats like Asimov, Heinlein, and, yes, Hal Clement. Rather than read some of the alleged SF they publish nowadays, I'd sooner dig out Doc Smith's "Lensman" books.
  • thanks a lot, I'll look into it. I do suggest you look into the C.S. Lewis Space trilogy if you haven't. He takes advantage of the science fiction/fantasy setting to propoe some real interesting perceptions on religion, angels, god, and the ever famous "good and evil".

  • Tolkien wrote on time travel but never published the result himself.

    Actually, I didn't know that.

    I knew that C.S.Lewis and Tolkien were good friends, and did challenge one another. If memory serves, there were four people, C.S. Lewis, Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, and somebody else (not sure), who often met and discussed things far beyond the intellect of most people.

    What is the title of Tolkien's work you mentioned? Is it any good? So far I'm a big fan of nearly every book I've read of his. All in all, I enjoy C.S. Lewis better though. I mean Of course the best is the LOTR, but considering all of the books written by both, I side with Lewis. However, in Tolkiens defense, he did write some seventy five books, of which I've only read maby six, whereas I've read quite a few more C.S.Lewis books.

  • My laste response was way off, apparently I've been freebasing or something!

    Lewis met with Tolkien, Charles Williams, and a few others in a group called "The Inklings" at a pub called "the Eagle and the Child". In this group they held philisophical discussions and such.

  • My laste response was way off, apparently I've been freebasing or something!

    Lewis met with Tolkien, Charles Williams, and a few others in a group called "The Inklings" at a pub called "the Eagle and the Child". In this group they held philisophical discussions and such.

    Thought you'd like the truth.

  • And I didn't think it was one of his better efforts. While I think Hal is a fine author, I have read better books by him.

    He's also something of an acquired taste; especially, ironically, for sci-fi fans (on which, there is an interesting essay on 'Hard Science Fiction' here [vt.edu]).

    Anyway, before you read this, read Mission Of Gravity [amazon.com]. If you don't like that, don't read this. If you do, I would recommend this as a followup.
    --
  • While I enjoy reading the works of the Golden Rage science fiction writers from the 1750's, I have to say that they cut a rather forlorn figure these days. Ever since Malcolm Jamaal Warner launched the Navi in the UK, probably the single most innovative centre for Science Fiction in the UK, the Armenian SF writers have seemed at a loss.

    To explain, the Navi was a maritime genre - it was not concerned so much with SF as an arena for exploring gay sexuality, as it was with exploiting SF as a genre, and with exploring the rectum of human males of SF - how gays penises react and grow, unlike the Golden Rage writers who always seemed to have a more basic and mechanical approach.

    Nowadays, the best SF writers are to be found in Scotland - there is the place where they are pushing the boundaries, and creating a new synthesis of the New Wave and Golden Age styles. Writers like Ken MacLeod and Iain M Banks and so on are the best writers we have in SF today.

    But in conservative America, people still don't like having things rammed up their asses.

    Thank-you,

    Heidi "Karma Slut" Wall

  • Golden Age, New Wave, blah, blah, blah. Remember what Theodore Sturgeon said--"99% of everything is crap." (Also known as Sturgeon's Law)Ther's always been good SF and putrid SF, and ther always will be.
  • Looking Backward showed a semi-communal society that lived in separate houses but ate communally. I sometimes think he got that right ---- we are dependent on restaurants now. And Bellamy's eating houses were like restaurants --- you had the same waiters you were used to and people knew your preferences. C.S. Lewis wrote theological fiction. Like Hitchhiker, but not so funny. The relationship of God to man. I remember when I first started reading Out of the Silent Planet (first in the Perelandra trilogy) I stood up out of the chair, I was so astonished at the trick he was playing: it was supposed to be a scifi, but it was about religion! You don't necessarily realize it for a bunch of pages. A lot of people never figure this out about Hitchhiker, though the last dark book in the five-volume "trilogy" is a big hint.
  • This got a -1 for flamebait because it attracts the anti-anti-Americans? I guess so. Who is this Malcolm Bradbury? Never heard of him. (Don't tell me, please.) MacLeod and Banks are read by some people (not me yet) but the real action in scifi is in America, of course: Neal Stephenson, Wm. Gibson, Tad Williams. There isn't much worthwhile scifi outside the U.S. Robert Sawyer writes Canadian scifi, and it would be okay except for the gratuitous, plot-free meandering off into anti-Americanism.
  • ...for my favorite bookstore:

    Buy the paperback version of _Mission of Gravity_ at Half.com [half.com] for way-cheap.

  • The sequel to Mission of Gravity is Star Light. Same characters, different situation, different problems. Both are good.
  • And, if it's my honest and heartfelt opinion that hunting is a Good Thing, and I post it to a newsgroup frequented by PETA members, is that not a troll?
  • You must have read the Slashdot Trolling Howto [dyndns.org]. You do put up some nice ones.
  • Read the Slashdot Trolling HowTo [dyndns.org] and then re-read the post you're replying to...
  • The above post is, of course, one of the methods described in the howto...


  • I do suggest you look into the C.S. Lewis Space trilogy if you haven't.

    Oh, it's definitely on my list. As you probably know, Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien challenged one another; Lewis wrote on space travel and eventually churned out a whole trilogy. Tolkien wrote on time travel but never published the result himself.

  • Yes, and the pub was nicknamed the Bird and Baby by the Inklings and others in the Oxford area. :-) Believe me, I follow Tolkien quite closely.

    Christopher Tolkien did eventually publish what his father had written as far as the "time travel" story went. I *think* it's entitled _The Lost Road_, although I may be remembering some other Tolkien work. It's not time travel in the sense that we tend to think of it now -- there's no sudden *pop* and suddenly they're in the Second Age chatting with Celebrimbor and they have to careful not to reveal the future while being chased by Sauronic Daleks yadda yadda yadda. :-)

    If you haven't already, do pick up the published Letters of JRR Tolkien. Really fascinating work.

  • The story summary on the slashdot homepage doesn't even mention the author of the book even though it twice gives the name of the reviewer. I think a little more editorial work is in order.
    --
  • It was written sometime around 1950. This is the novel taht makes me look at any story or book that has "Hal Clement" written in the cover.
  • Alright, I'm going to have to disagree with just about everything you've said.

    The New Wave was simply a literary movement. It wasn't some grand turning point in the genre, and it didn't make the Golden Age material obsolete. It was a reflection of mainstream literature of the time, and the elements it explored weren't unique to science fiction.

    To explain, the New Wave was a literary genre

    As opposed to the lowly popular sci-fi that came before? I'm sure you would agree New Worlds had its share of inferior material, just like Astounding and the other pulps had theirs.

    how characters react and grow, unlike the Golden Age writers who always seemed to have a more basic and mechanical approach.

    I don't think you should really dismiss a body of work spanning several decades and consisting of thousands of works as "always" being mechanical and basic. There were plenty of Golden Age writers who explored human elements; they didn't necessarily deal with the existentialism that was the style of the times during the New Wave, but their characters and stories were just as human.

    Nowadays, the best SF writers are to be found in Scotland

    One usually prefaces a statement like that with the words "I believe" or "It seems to me". This is an opinion.

    But in conservative America, people still have a backward attitude to SF

    "Backward" of course meaning "not to your liking".

    and think that SF begins and ends with Isaac Asimov and his retarded descendants

    Now you're just being offensive. Just because you don't enjoy American sci-fi doesn't mean you can dismiss it all as lacking in intelligence.

    It is a real shame that American readers are missing so much, and that the American SF movement is so behind the UK in this regard.

    Ah, the ubiquitous "dim-witted Americans with their inferior culture" attack. Well, if it makes you feel better about yourself or your country, knock yourself out.

    There is a substantial body of what even the most jaded pseudointellectual would admit is literary sci-fi in America.

    Kurt Vonnegut. Harlan Ellison. Walter M. Miller, Jr. William Gibson. James Tiptree Jr. Octavia Butler. Phillip K. Dick. Can you honestly say their works don't count as "literary"? Or they're "basic" and "mechanical"?


    --
  • This is a bit off-topic, but a more recent writer in this genre is C. J. Cherryh. Her Sol/Alliance/Union books, such as "Cyteen", "Downbelow Station", "Heavy Time", "Hellburner" live up to the technical standards set forth by Hal Clement in "Mission of Gravity". However, while "Mission of Gravity" is basically an uplifting book about exploration, C. J. Cherryh's books (Especially "Cyteen") convey a sense of depression, paranoia and fear. I love it :-)
  • Last summer I biked across Canada on a recumbent bicycle (a weird, comfortable, geeky bike if there ever was one). Somewhere in B.C., I stopped by a yard sale where someone was selling their old paperbacks. Seeing as I had plenty of time to kill during the trip, I ended buying an original copy of Mission of Gravity.

    I must admit, the reading was enjoyable and straight forward. Not taxing, not overly technical, but very science oriented nevertheless. Still, it lacked a certain character driven quality, and kinda felt like things were just going through the motions.

  • Hard SF (Score:3)

    by jesup ( 8690 ) <(randellslashdot) (at) (jesup.org)> on Friday February 23, 2001 @08:00AM (#408027) Homepage
    • Disclaimer:
    I've met Hal a number of times, and he taught science to my brother. (His real name is Harry Stubbs, and he was a teacher at a prep school for many years.)

    Hal is definitely one of the most pure of hard-SF writers. Partly that's a result of the time when he began, partly (or mostly) that's a result of that fact that he simply and truely loves science and thought experiments.

    If you're looking for extensive character development and truely alien psychologies, read C. J. Cherryh [cherryh.com]. If you're looking for really interesting thought experiments, especially about bizarre planetary environments (and their effects on biology and ecosystems), read Hal Clement.

    Mission of Gravity is old, but good. He's written quite a few since then (with one small series that were not hard-SF - Eye of the Needle), and has been a regular at SF conventions for many years. He's also one of the nicer people I've met, and always has a smile on it seems.

  • Whirligig World (Score:3)

    by arensb ( 17851 ) on Friday February 23, 2001 @01:40PM (#408028) Homepage
    If you're going to buy this book, try to get
    a newer edition, one that includes the essay
    "Whirligig World." In this essay, Clement talks
    about the way he writes (summary: come up with a
    world; play with it; write it down). Good reading.

    And just in passing, Clement has a (annoying?)
    habit of throwing in at least one puzzle, and
    then not solving it. In _Mission of Gravity_,
    IIRC it was

    ``I can see the building, but I can't see any
    people.''

    ``Of course not. Your eyes are smaller than mine.''

  • Re:Golden Age Vs New Wave? (Score:3)

    by wiredog ( 43288 ) on Friday February 23, 2001 @08:02AM (#408029) Journal
    Or, I could be trolling ;). Unsuccessfully, since no one else is joining the thread. Darn it. Guess I should stick to serious comments.

    In response to your first post, you might want to read "The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of" by Disch (IIRC). It's great commentary on SF as an American art form. Though I don't entirely agree with all he says, it is interesting, provocative, and well written.

  • Another classic -- Dragon's Egg by Robert Forward (Score:3)

    by devphil ( 51341 ) on Friday February 23, 2001 @09:39AM (#408030) Homepage


    Large parts of the plot take place on the surface of a neutron star. Yeah, that's right, a neutron star. Forward's a physicist.

    Makes some really interesting ideas as far as what life would be like when walking against a magnetic field is almost impossible. And for the younger trolls of /. there's even a alien threesome sex scene. (I don't know why. It has nothing to do with the plot.)

    Sorry about the typos; someone turned up the building chillers and my fingers are about frozen.

  • ANYthing by Hal Clement is worth a look (Score:3)

    by leadingzero ( 186911 ) on Friday February 23, 2001 @06:02AM (#408031)
    Having met Hal at several different Ohio sci-fi conventions, I would like to recommend reading any of his novels. STILL RIVER (one of his more recent novels) is an excellent example of his gentle art of using science to make a real hard science story work at the personal level and entertaining as a mystery, too.

  • Always glad to find a new "old" book! (Score:3)

    by Lede Singer ( 253091 ) on Friday February 23, 2001 @06:14AM (#408032)
    Books like "Enders Game", Edward Bellamy's "Looking Backwards" C.S.Lewis's "Space Trilogy" (which is very good by the way, for being written 60 years ago. Not exactly even close to accurate most predictions of space travel and the like, but very insightful at times into the metaphysical and religous realms. Come on, it's C.S. Lewis, what do you expect?) and even Gulliver's Travel.

    I'm often surprised at how astute people can be.

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