The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton: The Mesklin stories [Hardcover]

Hal Clement (Author), Mark L. Olson (Editor), Anthony R. Lewis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2000

This volume contains the complete Mesklin writings of Hal Clement.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The third volume of the New England Science Fiction Association's Hal Clement reprint series is the most important yet because it includes two of Clement's Mesklin novels, Mission of Gravity (1954) and Star Light (1971), both long out of print. Dealing with relations between Barlinan, a ship captain from a world that has 800 gravities at the pole (i.e., things are very, very heavy there) and rotates in 18 minutes, and human explorers, the books are foundation stones of hard-science sf. Besides the novels, the collection includes Clement's article on the scientific basis of Mesklin, three short stories, and three original critical essays, on whose merits readers can make up their own minds. But have no doubt that Clement's own writing in the volume constitutes an essential acquisition for good sf collections. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

From the Publisher

This is thirteenth book in the "NESFA's Choice" series and the last in a set of three volumes bringing back into print the best works of Hall Clement--the Exemplar of Hard SF Writers.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 522 pages
• Publisher: Nesfa Pr; 1st edition (July 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886778086
• ISBN-13: 978-1886778085
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,614,744 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Things are very very heavy there..., October 28, 2005

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Addison Phillips (San Jose, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Essential Hal Clement Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton: The Mesklin stories (Hardcover)

I had to chuckle to read that little snippet in the Booklist review at the top of the page. Here are the classic Mesklin novels, stories, and some essay material under one cover at long last... what, you've never read them? Scroll back up and click the yellow button.

Although I, for one, would argue that Needle is a more important work, Mission of Gravity has to be a close second in Clement's long career as a "hard" SF writer. This novel takes extreme but entirely plausible science (at least, plausible as of the era: not much has changed in physics and chemistry, but we know rather more about computers) and uses it to build one of the most extreme worlds imaginable and then explores it thorougly, from equator to pole.

The aliens are not very alien acting, not withstanding that they look like nothing so much as a catepillar in a lobster suit and have blood of liquid methane, but the byplay between the human scientists and the aliens and the amazing landscape is still pretty nifty forty or more years on.

StarLight and the other Mesklin material is interesting too and this book is the cornerstone on which later writers or works, such as Larry Niven or the Harlan Ellison "Medea" project draw their inspiration. It's still good.