HAL CLEMENT is a grand old man of SF, one of
the last of the living classic writers of the 1940s/’50s golden age
of SF adventure. Here is the core of his accomplishment in two
novels, two stories, and an article. Mission of
Gravity is his most famous work; its sequel, Star Light, was a Hugo Award nominee, and the essay on
Mesklin, the oddly shaped planet featured in the novels, is a
foundation document of modern hard SF. Clement is the writer who
taught later generations of SF writers—from Poul Anderson to Larry
Niven to Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and many others—how to use
science rigorously in SF. His work is as vivid, exciting, and
inspiring as ever and a must for anyone who truly loves science
fiction.
“Hal Clement brought a new seriousness to
the extrapolative hard SF story, and [a] vividness of
imagination—his sense that the universe is wonderful. He is a
figure of importance to the genre.”
—The Encyclopedia of
Science Fiction
“Mission of Gravity
is one of the seminal works of ‘hard,’ rigorous science
fiction.”
—SFWA
Bulletin
“Clement masterfully evokes the rich
strangeness of the physical universe.”
—Interzone
“The hardest sort of science fiction …
Gripping stuff.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
on Half Life