Customer Reviews

Mission of Gravity

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First published in 1953, this book was the progenitor of the modern 'hard' SF sub-genre. Using only the known science of the day, it imagined a world so wildly different from our everyday experience that it dazzles the mind, showing just how wild the universe really can be.

The world is Mesklin, a very large planet that rotates on its axis in just eighteen minutes, leading to gravitational forces of 700 gravities at the poles, and just 3 gees at the equator. But this is just the first of the items that make the world unique: its average temperature is a toasty -160 degrees Celsius; a methane/ammonia atmospheric composition that at these temperatures act much like water on Earth - phasing between solid, liquid, and gaseous forms; a wildly ecliptic orbit and planetary axial tilt that has strange consequences for the weather. Now add an intelligent native life form that is fifteen inches long and just three inches tall, looking very much like an overgrown millipede with pinchers, an Earth probe stranded at one of the poles that Terran scientists would very much like to retrieve for the data it contains about high gravity environments, and you have the ingredients for a great scientific adventure story.

Clement, a high school science teacher for much of his life, writes very much in the mold of a much earlier SF writer, Jules Verne. As such, the emphasis is on the science, the puzzles and oddities extreme conditions can present, rather than on character or thematic messages. Every detail of this world was very carefully worked out, right down to why the native inhabitants would 'see' their world as a hollow flattened bowl, complete with accurate maps, and would reject almost out of hand the idea that the surface they could see was really the outside of a sphere. In fact, a good bit of the charm of this book is the portrayed alien mind-set, showing just how much environment shapes the way people look at things. This also applies to the Earth scientists, who have great trouble at times seeing how the extreme conditions lead to important technological conclusions, such as why a canoe is not a viable shape for an ocean-going vessel at super-high gravities.

The plot is pretty much a series of adventures occasioned by various scientific oddities as the Mesklinite party travels across the world from equator to pole in search of the Earthling's probe, with little in the way of character development or any deeper meanings. There is some severe dating of some of the technology used: slide rules, film recordings, environmental suit mechanical linkages, etc. There is one item here that was quite a bit ahead of its time - the use of a water bed as a method for staying in high-gee environments for extended periods of time (but was Clement aware of Heinlein's description of the water bed in Beyond This Horizon, written in 1941?). But the dating does not seriously detract from the main focus of the novel, which is Mesklin itself, just as timelessly incredible as the day this first saw print. Recommended for those who enjoy the scientific puzzle, those who still see the universe as an incredibly varied, complex, and beautiful composition, where scientific fact really is much stranger than fiction.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

PROS: Plausible science, truly interesting world
CONS: Writing style is a bit stiff
BOTTOM LINE: Enjoyable, classic, hard sci-fi.

BRIEF SYNOPSIS: Humans enlist the aid of natives to retrieve a lost space probe on the high-gravity world of Mesklin.

The real appeal of MOG is the planet Mesklin. Clement, who has a scientific background, builds an interesting and believable M&M-shaped world where gravity varies from 3g at the "Rim" (equator) up to 700g at the poles. The native Mesklinites, foot-long caterpillar-like creatures with pincers, are equally interesting as they deal with parts of their planet that have been previously unexplored. The story really conveys a sense of wonder.

Don't be put off or misled by the "juvenile" label put on this book by others; it's not one. Clement wrote one juvenile novel as far as I can tell after research - Ranger Boys in Space. Even so, what would be wrong if it was a juvenile? Many of Heinlein's best-loved works were marketed as juvenile novels (for example, Starship Troopers). Just read it and enjoy!

Overall, this hard SF novel was an enjoyable read.

The Bree is a fine ship, crewed by brave, if slightly greedy natives of the planet of Mesklin. They must explore uncharted waters, trade with dangerous tribes and deal with strange events. And they're only fifteen-inch caterpillars!
The Captain, the brave and greedy, Barlennan has promised to help the humans, aliens of enormous size, to find a rocket they lost on the planet. The rocket is full of equipment which was to run tests and then return to orbit. The problem was that the rocket, designed to handle the high gravity, couldn't handle the gravity. The humans are willing to do anything to get it back.
And in the end, they just might. A great ending.
GREAT book. I love the hard science, the cool alien race, the bonus article- "Whirligig World" - in which Hal Clement tells us how he came up with the amazing, fantastic planet and the life that lived on it. Lots of humor.
Funny Note: I just reviewed the book, The Jupiter Theft, a few days ago. In it the aliens are from the system of Cygnus. That's the same binary system Mr. Clement was thinking about when he started to design the planet of Mesklin.
He did such a good job that the Mesklinites are in Barlowe's Guide To Extraterrestrials, Aliens And Alien Societies edited by Ben Bova, and Clifford Pickover's The Science Of Aliens.

This is one of the great classics that I found and read b/c my father strongly recommended it to me. It is a very interesting look at how the laws of physics come together to make for an interesting world, peopled by interesting folk. It is a HUGE, squat world that is spinning very rapidly. Therefore, the sensation of gravity is much, much greater at the poles that at the equator. Heavy gravity poses all sorts of interesting predicaments. It is set in the distant future but written in the 50's; it's fun to see how anachronisms sneak in completely unaware to the author (e.g. the scientists whip out their slide rules when some quick calculating is needed). This is a "must read" classic of science fiction.

In spite of its publication date of 1954, 'Mission Of Gravity' contains one of the most unique races of aliens ever brought to the written world to date. The planet of Mesklin is explored in 'Mission Of Gravity'. Clement's studies and training have paid off in this "hard" SciFi novel of physical possibilities.

A valuable rocketship has crashed in the polar regions of Mesklin, an area of such high gravity that a human could never travel there. At the "Rim", or the equator of the planet, however, the gravity is only three times Earth's gravity. It's here that human Charles Lackland meets Barlennan, Captain of the merchant ship Bree, and establishes communication with the strange being. The Bree is an odd ship, composed of many rafts lashed together, and as tough as her captain.

Here at the Rim, Barlennan and his crew are in dangerous territory, so light that a small wind could lift them away. The Mesklinites are genetically designed to live in the outrageously heavy gravity of the poles, looking like a cross between a scorpion and a caterpillar, accustomed to severe gravity, and only fifteen inches in length and two inches in diameter.

Lackland and Barlennan come to an agreement. In exchange for weather reports and maps, the wily merchant Captain agrees to salvage the un-manned ship at the southern pole. Through a hydrogen atmosphere, across seas of liquid methane, and through ammonia snows, the captain boldly sets out on Lackland's mission - but he has an agenda of his own, something he wants from Lackland in return for his favor.

Barlennan and Dondragmer (first mate of the Bree) are two of the most interesting alien life forms I've ever read about. The interaction between what could be considered on an insect on Earth and the humans at the moon station is astoundingly well written. Barlennan is a fascinating personality, bold and clever and completely likable.

'Mission Of Gravity' is "hard" enough for the science expert yet thrilling enough for the "soft" or "vague" SciFi aficionado, 'Mission Of Gravity' is a well-told story that will enchant every fan of every sub-genre of SciFi. Accompanying this timeless novel is an Afterward comprised of an article Hal Clement wrote for 'Astounding Science Fiction' magazine in June of 1953, outlining the work he put into this pleasurable tale. Enjoy!

"Mission of Gravity" by Hal Clement was first published in Astounding Magazine from April through July of 1953. Hal Clement is the pseudonym of Harry Clement Stubbs. He was originally a high school teacher, and his approach to science fiction established the sub-genre known as hard science fiction. "Mission of Gravity" is undoubtedly is most well known work, and it was recognized by the fans and fellow authors numerous times. In 1955 it was nominated for the International Fantasy award. In 1956 it tied for 18th on the All-Time Poll for best science fiction book, and was ranked 15th on the same poll in 1966. Locus readers rated it 16th in 1975 for novels, 36th in 1987 for sf novels, and 37th in 1998 for sf novels written before 1990. In 1994 it won the Ignotus award for best foreign novel. Lastly, it was nominated for the retro Hugo award for the year 1953 for best novel.

Hal Clement used the scientific theory and facts of 1953 to build an unusual world and shape an intriguing story. He created Mesklin, a disc-shaped planet with a very wide radius at the equator and much smaller between the poles. As a result the gravity changes radically depending where one is on the surface, from as little as three times that of Earth at the equator, to several hundreds of times that of Earth at the poles. The planet is inhabited by Mesklinites, who are a millipede type people much smaller than humans. The premise of the story is that an Earth probe which has crashed near one of the poles needs to be recovered, but it is impossible for humans to survive in such an environment and so they enlist the aid of the Mesklinites to recover the needed data.

In addition to the science of the story, Clement does a good job of creating an alien society, where trade and profit are the prime factors. He also creates interesting characters and an engaging story. The most interesting character is the alien commander, Barlennan, with whom Charles Lackland, one of the humans, communicates and works throughout the story. The story has become dated, as one would expect given the advances in science over the last 50+ years. However, in spite of this and because of the great job of characterization and story telling, this remains a book well worth reading.

Never mind the way out (yet detailed and accurate) planet and its weird chemistry and physics, the meat of this book is its alien characters. First contact stories are as old as the hills, but very few have been done from the aliens' point of view. Clement created one of the most memorable characters (human or alien) in all SF - Barlennan the Explorer is that rare alien character who, despite the odds, sets out to beat the strange "humans" at their own game.

I'm rereading the book right now and it's still fun even twenty years after I first read it.

Highly recommended

This book is great. Great planet, great, interesting aliens, who are,
well, alien. A fine piece of work, while being explanatory you don't
necessarily notice it a lot. Then the twist at the end, just beautiful.
It is quite short, but you don't really know it. There is some questing
involved in the plot, and it doesn't seem rushed.

Highly recommended.

I read a 1950s hard cover of this Hal Clement novel, a sort of hard SF archetype well worth reading.

"Mission of Gravity" is suffused with what some might call a naive optimism about science and technology-- its like a love letter to physics and mechanical engineering. Lacking any literary pretensions, it is a straightforward account of how explorers deal with a series of technical challenges on a planet with a very unusual environment. Clement's fascination with science is infectious, and the book charmingly succeeds in accomplishing exactly what it set out to do; unlike some later hard SF novels which get loaded down with incompetent character development or boring philosophical digressions, Clement keeps his book lean and focused, and never tries to do something he isn't good at. A classic.

I have been an avid science fiction reader since the early 50's. There is no better "hard" science fiction book than "Mission of Gravity". I have heard it called a "juvenile" book because no child could be offended by reading it, but I think only an adult can fully appreciate the science involved. Looking back on 45 years of reading science fiction, I rate "Mission of Gravity" as the very best I have ever read.