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mjrosenb's review against another edition
4.0
Overall, the story was intriguing, the science part of 'science fiction' was pretty good. I think I only caught physics being outright wrong once, and most of the characters acted in a believable fashion. The series of mishaps that befell the characters was a tad extreme, and I thought that "starlight" ended rather abruptly.
thomcat's review against another edition
3.0
Read this to satisfy two challenges - Defining SF books of the 1950s AND 1970s. The first (Mission of Gravity) focuses on the Science of Science Fiction - an adventure story about earthly contact with the 18 inch centipedes of Mesklin.
Certain facts (their size, the length of their day, and so on) are discovered over the first few chapters, though contact has been going on for a while before the story opens. Through their journeys, we examine some interesting facts about high gravity worlds and the effects on biology, chemistry, and physics.
Being two difference groups (species), each has their own motivations also, and this comes out well. Barlennan is a savvy trader, the ideal explorer in an unknown land. The human crew is kept busy in an Apollo 13 like scramble to solve various problems.
For the right (technically minded) audience, recommended!
The short stories "Under" and "Lecture Demonstration" were little bits of hard SF, each a minor puzzle and solution. The essay "Whirligig World" is very interesting for the history of the concept and more science behind the world itself -for me perhaps the best part of the book.
Finally, this book also contains the sequel, "Star Light". This had a lot of the same characters, the Mesklinites still scheming and the Humans still solving problems. The setting is different - a new heavy gravity world, with the first exploration contracted out to the Mesklinites. This story suffers for lack of pre-exploration inspection. The humans have plenty of satellites but have made no maps. They've been studying the world for three years but have no idea about temperature or "seasons", and this causes much grief for the explorers. The schemes are more transparent than the first novel also, and humans completely clueless.
If you like the problem solving aspects of Apollo 13 or The Martian and the hard science of a high gravity world, this can be a good set of stories. The first is on many "best of" lists, the latter was nominated for a Hugo, and the collection is a nice assembly. Mainstream science fiction doesn't often have this tech focus anymore, but it is not for everybody. Overall rating - 3 stars.
Certain facts (their size, the length of their day, and so on) are discovered over the first few chapters, though contact has been going on for a while before the story opens. Through their journeys, we examine some interesting facts about high gravity worlds and the effects on biology, chemistry, and physics.
Being two difference groups (species), each has their own motivations also, and this comes out well. Barlennan is a savvy trader, the ideal explorer in an unknown land. The human crew is kept busy in an Apollo 13 like scramble to solve various problems.
For the right (technically minded) audience, recommended!
The short stories "Under" and "Lecture Demonstration" were little bits of hard SF, each a minor puzzle and solution. The essay "Whirligig World" is very interesting for the history of the concept and more science behind the world itself -for me perhaps the best part of the book.
Finally, this book also contains the sequel, "Star Light". This had a lot of the same characters, the Mesklinites still scheming and the Humans still solving problems. The setting is different - a new heavy gravity world, with the first exploration contracted out to the Mesklinites. This story suffers for lack of pre-exploration inspection. The humans have plenty of satellites but have made no maps. They've been studying the world for three years but have no idea about temperature or "seasons", and this causes much grief for the explorers. The schemes are more transparent than the first novel also, and humans completely clueless.
If you like the problem solving aspects of Apollo 13 or The Martian and the hard science of a high gravity world, this can be a good set of stories. The first is on many "best of" lists, the latter was nominated for a Hugo, and the collection is a nice assembly. Mainstream science fiction doesn't often have this tech focus anymore, but it is not for everybody. Overall rating - 3 stars.
jlsjlsjls's review against another edition
4.0
A fun set of tales that made me wish there were more about Mesklin and the Mesklinites and reminded me how hard science fiction hooked me way back in my youth because it made classroom math, physics, chemistry and biology so much easier to learn and retain by showing me real life uses for them (a Heinlein in-story explanation of plotting interplanetary interception courses and orbits is responsible for me passing high school trigonometry). And I loved the characters of the Mesklinites: Barlennan with his trader's wheeling and dealing and never-let-on-what-you're-really-after approach to his relations with humans, automatically assuming that all humans are doing the same with him (which can work to his, and his people's, benefit ... the University and the opportunity to travel to and explore other worlds) ... but can as easily cause problems (some of the issues on Dhrawn in the last novel that are due to his being a little too devious), and the contrasting personalities of Dondragmer and other members of the Mesklinites; far too often SF (usually the older stuff but it still happens in the new) falls into the lazy convenience of all other species having near identical clone minds/personalities (and, in movies and television, identical appearance/garments/ornaments/hair) rather than individuality. Here I see, alongside the science, some of the psychological/sociological SF I also love.
Also enjoyed the plots of the stories themselves ... everyday practical problem solving and species in the early stages of getting to know each other rather than flashy "Crises!" and "Drama!" ... I appreciate a quiet tale just as much, usually more, than one that skews too much towards being exciting just for excitement's sake.
Now I need to dig up some more classic Clement to enjoy.
Also enjoyed the plots of the stories themselves ... everyday practical problem solving and species in the early stages of getting to know each other rather than flashy "Crises!" and "Drama!" ... I appreciate a quiet tale just as much, usually more, than one that skews too much towards being exciting just for excitement's sake.
Now I need to dig up some more classic Clement to enjoy.
editor_b's review
3.0
Note: This review concerns Mission of Gravity, a 1953 novel which is out of print except for this anthology.
The story concerns a huge planet which spins very fast on its axis; gravity is three times Earth normal at the equator but something like 700 times at the poles. There are some humans visiting, but they are offstage or peripheral for the most part, with the main players being the small centipede-like natives who are perfectly at home in gravity that would crush us. One might assume such creatures would be very strange and alien, but in Clement’s story they play out like humans in disguise. That seemed rather unlikely to me, but this is not a work of great psychological depth. Indeed, many traditional literary elements such as character and style are somewhat underdeveloped; the plot chugs along and unfolds at a steady pace, but it’s all in service to something else, namely, scientific speculation. Clement is mainly interested in high-gravity physics.
This is one of the geekiest books I’ve ever read. (Slide rules are deployed with reckless abandon.) It’s somewhat charming, rather strange, even quaint. While I can’t recommend the novel solely on its merits, I have no reservations recommending it to anyone interested in the history of science fiction. It’s a seminal work. It represents an early effort to distinguish science fiction as something more than adventure fiction with ray guns, something more than space opera. Clement injects a healthy dose of intellectual rigor into the genre. I especially enjoyed his essay “Whirligig World” (included in this volume) which is about the process of writing Mission of Gravity, and reveals his underlying motives.
The story concerns a huge planet which spins very fast on its axis; gravity is three times Earth normal at the equator but something like 700 times at the poles. There are some humans visiting, but they are offstage or peripheral for the most part, with the main players being the small centipede-like natives who are perfectly at home in gravity that would crush us. One might assume such creatures would be very strange and alien, but in Clement’s story they play out like humans in disguise. That seemed rather unlikely to me, but this is not a work of great psychological depth. Indeed, many traditional literary elements such as character and style are somewhat underdeveloped; the plot chugs along and unfolds at a steady pace, but it’s all in service to something else, namely, scientific speculation. Clement is mainly interested in high-gravity physics.
This is one of the geekiest books I’ve ever read. (Slide rules are deployed with reckless abandon.) It’s somewhat charming, rather strange, even quaint. While I can’t recommend the novel solely on its merits, I have no reservations recommending it to anyone interested in the history of science fiction. It’s a seminal work. It represents an early effort to distinguish science fiction as something more than adventure fiction with ray guns, something more than space opera. Clement injects a healthy dose of intellectual rigor into the genre. I especially enjoyed his essay “Whirligig World” (included in this volume) which is about the process of writing Mission of Gravity, and reveals his underlying motives.
will_sargent's review
4.0
Actually two books in one, plus a couple of essays. Covers the adventures of a crew of 18 inch centipedes on a planet with 300 times the gravity of Earth. Very interesting, if a little threadbare around human motivations (who can't really go exploring themselves, for obvious reasons), and heavy on the physics, chemistry, astronomy and just about all the hard sciences. Although there is one funny bit where they get out the sliderules, which just goes to show how technology has changed since the 1950s.
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