Status
Available
Call number
Series
Publication
Doubleday (Garden City, N.Y., 1954). Book club edition. 224 pages.
Description
Mesklin is a vast, inhospitable, disc-shaped planet, so cold that its oceans are liquid methane and its snows are frozen ammonia. It is a world spinning dizzyingly, a world where gravity can be a crushing 700 times greater than Earth's, a world too hostile for human explorers. But the planet holds secrets of inestimable value, and an unmanned probe that has crashed close to one of its poles must be recovered. Only the Mesklinites, the small creatures so bizarrely adapted to their harsh environment, can help. And so Barlennan, the resourceful and courageous captain of the Mesklinite ship Bree, sets out on an heroic and appalling journey into the terrible unknown. For him and his people, the prize to be gained is as great as that for mankind... Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity is universally regarded as one of the most important and best loved novels in the genre. The remarkable and sympathetic depiction of an alien species and the plausible and scientifically based realization of the strange world they inhabit make it a major landmark in the history of hard sf.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member bunwat
This was a feast and a treat for my inner science nerd. Scientists from earth have sent an enormously expensive probe to gather unique data from near the pole of a tremendously high gravity planet. They have high hopes that this data will help them solve a number of thorny scientific problems and
Fortunately, the higher latitudes are inhabited. By intelligent foot and a half long lobster/caterpiller creatures who are adapted to the high gravity and perfectly capable of retrieving the probe. If they can be persuaded to travel the thousands of miles over unknown territory through hurricanes and floods and encounter previously undiscovered beasts and civilizations. Luckily the Earthers manage to find a flotilla of traders with a strong sense of adventure who are willing to take on the mad task.
The rest of the book is the joint exploration and trade mission of the lobster creatures, with much advice and kibbitzing from the scientist liason assigned to work with them via radio. A lot of very geeky fun can be had reading the attempts of the two species to understand one another and strategize as the creatures travel along the route to the probe. I found the creatures to be charming, and the ways both parties had to work through mutual incomprehension due to the very different physical laws of their two worlds was often very funny in a geeky sort of a way. I also loved the goodwill with which these very different creatures tried to work together and understand each other.
This is a very specific kind of book however. If you are not a person who likes trying to understand how a radio works, or why light bends or how having methane seas would affect buoyancy, this may not be for you. For me, it was great fun.
Show More
provide the next great leap forward in technological advancement. Unfortunately, the probe has malfunctioned, and although they know it completed the data gather, and can see that its there, and intact, its not coming back. No one can go repair it or collect the data from it because humans can only survive at the equator of this planet. When they travel into the higher latitudes the gravity is too much for them and anyone who tried to travel to the pole would implode before he got there. Fortunately, the higher latitudes are inhabited. By intelligent foot and a half long lobster/caterpiller creatures who are adapted to the high gravity and perfectly capable of retrieving the probe. If they can be persuaded to travel the thousands of miles over unknown territory through hurricanes and floods and encounter previously undiscovered beasts and civilizations. Luckily the Earthers manage to find a flotilla of traders with a strong sense of adventure who are willing to take on the mad task.
The rest of the book is the joint exploration and trade mission of the lobster creatures, with much advice and kibbitzing from the scientist liason assigned to work with them via radio. A lot of very geeky fun can be had reading the attempts of the two species to understand one another and strategize as the creatures travel along the route to the probe. I found the creatures to be charming, and the ways both parties had to work through mutual incomprehension due to the very different physical laws of their two worlds was often very funny in a geeky sort of a way. I also loved the goodwill with which these very different creatures tried to work together and understand each other.
This is a very specific kind of book however. If you are not a person who likes trying to understand how a radio works, or why light bends or how having methane seas would affect buoyancy, this may not be for you. For me, it was great fun.
Show Less
LibraryThing member stubbyfingers
In this book the author took the premise that there is a planet somewhere that is large and dense so that it has a huge amount of gravity compared to Earth, spins really quickly to partially offset that gravity with centrifugal force and therefore has a very flattened shape, and has a very
Show More
elliptical orbit in which it is much closer to the sun at one end of the orbit than the other. He then imagined in great detail and with as great scientific precision as he could what conditions would be like on that planet and what sort of life forms would evolve there. With all that done, he set out to write a story taking place there. What an incredible case of world building! The story is mostly told from the point of view of one of the life forms on the planet, a Mesklinite, who is shaped similarly to a foot-long centipede with pincers. He is the captain of an oceangoing vessel from a home port that has days about 18 minutes long and a gravity about 700 times that of Earth's, where jumping, throwing and especially flying are unheard of. As an explorer, he sails his ship close to the equator where gravity is only 3 times that of Earth's and he meets a human being. The human is encased in armor to protect him from the gravity and atmosphere and asks the Mesklinite to voyage to the pole to retrieve a crashed research vessel from conditions which no human could possibly survive. And the adventure begins! This was definitely a fun think-if-you-want-to read. I really enjoyed the author's scientific explanation of the planet in the afterword. I was amazed by how much thought and research he put into this! True, published in 1953 some of the science is a bit out of date, but this was still really cool. Show Less
LibraryThing member clong
Clement imagines an impossible world, and then sets out to figure out what might make it not so impossible, what kinds of creatures might be able to survive on it, and what kind of a situation might bring these creatures into contact with humanity.
This is solid, entertaining reading that makes you
Definitely worth your time, despite what I found to be a bit of a sappy ending.
This is solid, entertaining reading that makes you
Show More
want to learn more about science. The characteriation is reasonably convincing (even if the natives felt awfully anthropomorphic)Definitely worth your time, despite what I found to be a bit of a sappy ending.
Show Less
LibraryThing member TadAD
This is quintessential 1950s geek science fiction: it's a story—but, really, the story exists to provide a vehicle for the science. Evidently, Clement liked challenges along the lines of "such-and-such couldn't exist." In this particular case, he tackled the premise that there was plenty of
Enter Mesklin, a world that is several times more massive than Earth but spins so quickly that its day is only 18 minutes long and its shape is a severely flattened ball. The result is hundreds of gravities at the poles and only three gravities at the equator. Its inhabitants can survive in the polar regions and feel like there is almost no gravity as they move toward Rim: high and low gravity in the same planet. Humans have lost an exploration probe on the planet and, since they cannot survive on most of it, they form an alliance with the natives to perform a salvage operation.
It's fun to watch Clement both explain and explore the physics, which he does in easily digested terminology. It's even more fun to watch him explore the psychological aspects of the inhabitants. Severe acrophobia and a pathological dread of having anything solid above them are just two of the characteristics that make total sense given the world but are difficult for humans to remember.
However, typical of this particular era, the book will seem a little flat by today's standards. There's little excitement or drama, and the movement toward social science fiction is still a decade away.
It's fun. It's certainly interesting from the perspective of seeing the development of science fiction. I think it's worth reading if you're a fan of the genre. However, I doubt it would make a Top Ten Entertaining SF Books of All Time list.
Show More
science fiction about low gravity planets and even more science fiction about high gravity planets…but everyone agreed you couldn't have a planet that was both, right? Enter Mesklin, a world that is several times more massive than Earth but spins so quickly that its day is only 18 minutes long and its shape is a severely flattened ball. The result is hundreds of gravities at the poles and only three gravities at the equator. Its inhabitants can survive in the polar regions and feel like there is almost no gravity as they move toward Rim: high and low gravity in the same planet. Humans have lost an exploration probe on the planet and, since they cannot survive on most of it, they form an alliance with the natives to perform a salvage operation.
It's fun to watch Clement both explain and explore the physics, which he does in easily digested terminology. It's even more fun to watch him explore the psychological aspects of the inhabitants. Severe acrophobia and a pathological dread of having anything solid above them are just two of the characteristics that make total sense given the world but are difficult for humans to remember.
However, typical of this particular era, the book will seem a little flat by today's standards. There's little excitement or drama, and the movement toward social science fiction is still a decade away.
It's fun. It's certainly interesting from the perspective of seeing the development of science fiction. I think it's worth reading if you're a fan of the genre. However, I doubt it would make a Top Ten Entertaining SF Books of All Time list.
Show Less
LibraryThing member baswood
Hal Clement - [Iceworld] (1953)
- [Mission of Gravity] (1954)
Two science fiction novels from the 1950's by Hal Clement who has come to be known as one of the early leaders of the hard science fiction sub genre, which has been defined as concern for science accuracy and logic. The term Hard Science
Iceworld (1953)
The surprise factor here is not so much the hard science, but that it soon becomes obvious that the science is somehow askew, the science seems to make sense but the ground rules have changed. Non science readers will pick this up from other references like the main protagonist seems to have a tentacle. Clement pitches his story from the point of view of an alien life form. The weakness and confusion of this approach is that the aliens seem to think and act very similarly to human beings and so we learn that Salman Ken has been recruited as a spy to expose a gang of probable drug smugglers. He is in a science laboratory come space ship which has been trading with a world with an extremely hostile environment. It is so cold that their torpedo like probes can easily malfunction and the crew members dare not attempt a landing on the planet. They have been trading successfully with the planets inhabitants by sending down valuable metals and receiving in exchange a drug that is highly addictive. Salman Ken is curious to find out more about the planet and convinces the smuggling gang that better knowledge would improve the drug supply.
Mission of Gravity (1954)
There is a similar approach in this next novel by Clements, but this time it is the alien planet that has an extremely hostile environment even for the aliens that live on it. Barlennan is the captain of the sailing ship Bree and is at the very limit of his saucer shaped world when he makes landfall. He has rendezvoused with a human space mission which has built a tower at the worlds edge. The saucer shaped world of Mesklin has over 200 times more gravity at the centre than at the poles and Barlennan himself proves to be a centipede like creature just 50 centimetres long who being used to a heavy gravitational pull has an extreme fear of heights. He is also fearful of going over the edge of his world, but after making contact with the humans and their advance scientific knowledge he sees trading opportunities. Barlennan and his crew come into contact with hostile tribes built like themselves, but who have the power of flight and they seek help from the human beings, who are represented by the stoic Charles Lackland their scientific officer. Clement's scientific knowledge helps him to make the hostile environment of Mesklin convincing, the edge of the world is sparsely inhabited because of the violent storms that make travel impossible for certain periods of the Mesklin year and the efforts of Barlennan to cope with the environment and the efforts of Lackland to cope with the gravity create an atmosphere of continual struggle.
It is the situation and world building that give these short novels such a unique approach, they are thoughtful and adequately written. The struggles to cope with extreme environments takes precedence over characterisation and plot mechanics, but these work well enough to make for interesting reading. Both are worth a look for science fiction fans and I would rate Iceworld at 3.5 stars and Mission of Gravity at 4 stars.
- [Mission of Gravity] (1954)
Two science fiction novels from the 1950's by Hal Clement who has come to be known as one of the early leaders of the hard science fiction sub genre, which has been defined as concern for science accuracy and logic. The term Hard Science
Show More
fiction usually frightens me a little as I am not a science graduate, but as in most things there are degrees of hardness. Jules Verne was one of the first to write in this way, taking delight in explaining (sometimes at great length) how the science in his novels worked. Hal Clement wrote in a similar vein assuming that his readers had at least a basic knowledge of physics, chemistry and astronomy. No doubt if you have more than a basic knowledge you might enjoy the novels a bit more.Iceworld (1953)
The surprise factor here is not so much the hard science, but that it soon becomes obvious that the science is somehow askew, the science seems to make sense but the ground rules have changed. Non science readers will pick this up from other references like the main protagonist seems to have a tentacle. Clement pitches his story from the point of view of an alien life form. The weakness and confusion of this approach is that the aliens seem to think and act very similarly to human beings and so we learn that Salman Ken has been recruited as a spy to expose a gang of probable drug smugglers. He is in a science laboratory come space ship which has been trading with a world with an extremely hostile environment. It is so cold that their torpedo like probes can easily malfunction and the crew members dare not attempt a landing on the planet. They have been trading successfully with the planets inhabitants by sending down valuable metals and receiving in exchange a drug that is highly addictive. Salman Ken is curious to find out more about the planet and convinces the smuggling gang that better knowledge would improve the drug supply.
Mission of Gravity (1954)
There is a similar approach in this next novel by Clements, but this time it is the alien planet that has an extremely hostile environment even for the aliens that live on it. Barlennan is the captain of the sailing ship Bree and is at the very limit of his saucer shaped world when he makes landfall. He has rendezvoused with a human space mission which has built a tower at the worlds edge. The saucer shaped world of Mesklin has over 200 times more gravity at the centre than at the poles and Barlennan himself proves to be a centipede like creature just 50 centimetres long who being used to a heavy gravitational pull has an extreme fear of heights. He is also fearful of going over the edge of his world, but after making contact with the humans and their advance scientific knowledge he sees trading opportunities. Barlennan and his crew come into contact with hostile tribes built like themselves, but who have the power of flight and they seek help from the human beings, who are represented by the stoic Charles Lackland their scientific officer. Clement's scientific knowledge helps him to make the hostile environment of Mesklin convincing, the edge of the world is sparsely inhabited because of the violent storms that make travel impossible for certain periods of the Mesklin year and the efforts of Barlennan to cope with the environment and the efforts of Lackland to cope with the gravity create an atmosphere of continual struggle.
It is the situation and world building that give these short novels such a unique approach, they are thoughtful and adequately written. The struggles to cope with extreme environments takes precedence over characterisation and plot mechanics, but these work well enough to make for interesting reading. Both are worth a look for science fiction fans and I would rate Iceworld at 3.5 stars and Mission of Gravity at 4 stars.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kencf0618
A classic hard science science fiction novel of the old school; archaic, but great fun and quite rigorous. Clement's Mesklin were the first science fiction set on a planet "set outside the solar system on a planet believed (then) to actually exist," acccording to the Wiki entry on Mesklin. And
Show More
apparently anyone can set scenes there, which would make it the first shared universe as well. The pages are yellow, the characters are cardboard, and it has as many female characters as Norman Spinrad's "The Iron Dream," if that, so if anyone wants to try their hand at crafting a retro blast, go to it! Show Less
LibraryThing member Esmeraldus
A couple of years ago, I asked David Hartwell for some remedial SF reading, and he loaded me up with an armful of paperbacks.
Since then I have been dutifully sliding one here and there into gaps in my schedule in a serious effort to educate myself in classic science fiction.
Over the past few days,
Good stuff.
Since then I have been dutifully sliding one here and there into gaps in my schedule in a serious effort to educate myself in classic science fiction.
Over the past few days,
Show More
I read Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity, and enjoyed it very much. The science was very like Heinlein's more advanced juveniles, and the story was a good adventure yarn. I liked that a lot of it was from the POV of the non-human race.Good stuff.
Show Less
LibraryThing member FicusFan
This is a book that my RL SFF book group picked. It is OOP except in some collections that are in expensive trades. I ended up with an ebook for little over $3.00. This is old (1954) Hard SF. It has all the drawback associated with the form.
It is set on a strangely shaped planet with incredibly
Yes there is intelligent life on the planet, and even civilizations, though at a low technical level. The life form are insects, something worm like with lots of legs - caterpillar maybe. The group that they make contact with is a group of traders who travel the sea in the ship Bree. Their captain, Barlennan, agrees to travel to the remote location of the probe, for the chance to trade with others on his world. It is a location they have never been before. He is open to new ideas and possibilities, and would sell his grandmother for a good trade. He also has an ulterior motive that comes out at the end.
The story is an insect adventure story, with the insects and the humans (by radio) working together to think through and overcome problems. It also becomes an engineering DIY with lots of page time spent on what they are building (and how to do it) to overcome the latest problem.
I found the book tedious to read. It just didn't capture me. The writing and the characters were stiff. Some parts would be interesting, but then it would become boring or predictable. Though I did develop this fancy that the insect traders were really ancient Greeks - though not as interesting.
It is set on a strangely shaped planet with incredibly
Show More
heavy gravity, extreme temperatures, and a methane-hydrogen atmosphere. There are humans in the story. They are on a base on a nearby moon that has less gravity. From the moon they send down a probe packed with scientific instruments. The probe has completed its mission but refused to lift and return to the moon. The humans can't get the information remotely and need to physically go and retrieve the instruments. The plan they come up with is to send an ambassador, Charles Lackland, to the natives and ask for their help.Yes there is intelligent life on the planet, and even civilizations, though at a low technical level. The life form are insects, something worm like with lots of legs - caterpillar maybe. The group that they make contact with is a group of traders who travel the sea in the ship Bree. Their captain, Barlennan, agrees to travel to the remote location of the probe, for the chance to trade with others on his world. It is a location they have never been before. He is open to new ideas and possibilities, and would sell his grandmother for a good trade. He also has an ulterior motive that comes out at the end.
The story is an insect adventure story, with the insects and the humans (by radio) working together to think through and overcome problems. It also becomes an engineering DIY with lots of page time spent on what they are building (and how to do it) to overcome the latest problem.
I found the book tedious to read. It just didn't capture me. The writing and the characters were stiff. Some parts would be interesting, but then it would become boring or predictable. Though I did develop this fancy that the insect traders were really ancient Greeks - though not as interesting.
Show Less
LibraryThing member cliffhays
This is an excellent hard sci-fi novel. His descriptions of the high-gravity world and its inhabitants are detailed, fascinating, and believable. The interactions between the human protagonist and his alien contact on the extraterrestrial planet will keep you constantly puzzling about their true
Show More
intentions. Show Less
LibraryThing member RBeffa
I've had an itch to read some classic science fiction. Reading old SF novels can be a little hit or miss. Sometimes I choose a random oldie, but I chose this one expecting it to be a hit (it has an excellent reputation) and got a hit. This novel is as old as me, and seems to have held up better.
This is hard science fiction in the sense of the subject, but I found the story very readable. It gets a little engineering heavy in spots, but never too much, and the world building of life on an unusual methane planet with hugely different gravities across the surface, and the interaction between humans and the little intelligent centipede-like critters who live on this heavy planet just had me very interested. I was never the least bit bored reading this. Earthmen have limitations on the planet and they need to recover an expensive probe from an area they cannot go. Thus they recruit some locals for the adventure. We are repeatedly made aware that the very helpful locals have something else on the agenda. I really came to like the native sea trading captain who was enlisted by humans for the adventure.
The writing is a little clunky here and there and a bit of that I might attribute to style 60 years ago. Still, this gets a high rating by me for classics in the genre.
Show More
Hal Clement was an author who I didn't read when I was younger. No particular reason, but I was certainly aware of him. I really enjoyed his novel Cycle of Fire that I read a few years ago. On the strength of this one I'll be reading more.This is hard science fiction in the sense of the subject, but I found the story very readable. It gets a little engineering heavy in spots, but never too much, and the world building of life on an unusual methane planet with hugely different gravities across the surface, and the interaction between humans and the little intelligent centipede-like critters who live on this heavy planet just had me very interested. I was never the least bit bored reading this. Earthmen have limitations on the planet and they need to recover an expensive probe from an area they cannot go. Thus they recruit some locals for the adventure. We are repeatedly made aware that the very helpful locals have something else on the agenda. I really came to like the native sea trading captain who was enlisted by humans for the adventure.
The writing is a little clunky here and there and a bit of that I might attribute to style 60 years ago. Still, this gets a high rating by me for classics in the genre.
Show Less
LibraryThing member Rudolf
King Solomon's Mines in Space
Mission of Gravity is a sf classic because of its compelling world building: an extremely fast-spinning planet with a gravity 700 times that of earth at its poles. It is marred however by totally unconvincing inhabitants. The Mesklinites encountered by the
An even bigger problem is the absence of any conflict to drive the story. The leading earthman, Lackland, and leading Mesklinite, Barlennan (yes, the aliens have human names, too), interact so awfully friendly and harmoniously that it becomes boring from very early on. In the beginning there is a hint that Barlennan has a hidden agenda; but in the end that turns out to be nothing bad really. Also, the title's second meaning of "something of great importance" doesn't come into its own: the information gathered about the planet by the lost probe that the Mesklinites have to recover is no doubt scientifically interesting but not really a matter of life and death.
One could also mention the colonialist subtext of the novel. The Mesklinite explorers and their superior Terran mentors behave like European explorers in "Dark Africa". They hunt big game, are attacked by primitive natives and trade peacefully with friendly primitives, making maps along the way to make the unknown territory controllable. But I guess all that was only normal in the 1950s western view of the world.
Mission of Gravity is a sf classic because of its compelling world building: an extremely fast-spinning planet with a gravity 700 times that of earth at its poles. It is marred however by totally unconvincing inhabitants. The Mesklinites encountered by the
Show More
"Earthmen"--back in 1953, the idea of female scientists or astronauts apparently was inconceivable even for a science fiction author--speak better English than most native speakers on earth, and they behave and think like humans. Also their civilization is entirely human even though they are caterpillars. With a captain and first mate, even the command structure of the raft Bree is that of a western European/American ship. Convincing alien life is also part of compelling world building and the novel entirely fails in that respect. Nothing on Mesklin feels really alien. An even bigger problem is the absence of any conflict to drive the story. The leading earthman, Lackland, and leading Mesklinite, Barlennan (yes, the aliens have human names, too), interact so awfully friendly and harmoniously that it becomes boring from very early on. In the beginning there is a hint that Barlennan has a hidden agenda; but in the end that turns out to be nothing bad really. Also, the title's second meaning of "something of great importance" doesn't come into its own: the information gathered about the planet by the lost probe that the Mesklinites have to recover is no doubt scientifically interesting but not really a matter of life and death.
One could also mention the colonialist subtext of the novel. The Mesklinite explorers and their superior Terran mentors behave like European explorers in "Dark Africa". They hunt big game, are attacked by primitive natives and trade peacefully with friendly primitives, making maps along the way to make the unknown territory controllable. But I guess all that was only normal in the 1950s western view of the world.
Show Less
Subjects
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 1954)
Ignotus Award (Winner — 1994)
Locus All-Time Best (Science Fiction Novel — 36 — 1987)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1953 (serial)
1954 (book)
Local notes
Missing dust jacket.
"Paul S. DiSenso" on first page.
"Paul S. DiSenso" on first page.
Similar in this library
Jem by Frederik Pohl