Novel: Mission of Gravity

Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement [1953]

I stumbled across this book when searching the net for less popular, yet nonetheless classic, science fiction literature.  In particular I have taken an interest in the genre named “hard science fiction”; meaning science fiction in which the author pays specific attention to technical scientific details, giving the work plausibility and explanation.  

Clement starts off the book without preamble and directly in the midst of the main character Barlennan’s life as the captain of his boat named the Bree.  Eventually we soon realize that Barlennan is not on Earth and that he isn’t even human; he is of the species named Mesklinite on the planet Mesklin.  Clement enjoys playing with the reader’s sense of imagination by revealing physical properties of Mesklin and its inhabitants after certain events take place that are a direct result of their associated phenomena.  For example, Barlennan’s boat is described as being composed of many small flat floating rafts that are connected to each other by some sort of rope.   At first this seems like a very unusual way to build a boat.  Eventually it is explained that it is designed this way because of Mesklin’s unique gravity; the planet is elliptically shaped which results in a 3g environment at the equator and a 700g environment at the poles.  Because Barlennan comes from a region of high gravity, his boat must be designed in such a way so that the weight of the boat does not cave in when riding over wave crests in the ocean.  With Clement frequently writing this way throughout the story, one starts to imagine the hows and whys before they are explained; this makes for an interesting and critical reading experience.

The indigenous Mesklinites are intelligent life-forms that resemble centipedes with scorpion or crab-like claws.   We soon find them working with a group of humans who have visited Mesklin on a journey from space to learn more about the physics of gravity.  The intelligence of the Mesklinites is epitomized in the ease with which they learn how to speak English in order to communicate with the humans.  Despite their intelligence, the Mesklinite culture is not developed scientifically.  This results in them having many misconceptions about the shape of their own world, thinking that it is bowl shaped with a rim that one can fall off of.   This unusual misconception is explained to be an optical illusion of the rapid pressure change in Mesklin’s atmosphere due to high surface gravity that bends and distorts the refraction of light on the horizon.  Throughout the story themes of scientific development and innovation resonate with the unfolding of the plot that glorify the ever-expanding way that science can improve practical and informational aspects of society.  Also put forth is the idea that science develops much like the building of a puzzle; many small pieces may fit together with unexpected and powerful results:  ie without the knowledge of even simple aerodynamics a plane will not fly.

Although not thoroughly (though not entirely left out) in Mission of Gravity, the technical aspects behind Clement’s design of the planet Mesklin is admirable.  As explained in Mission of Gravity, Mesklin is a planet that features a strong and variable gravity due to the centrifugal force of its fast rotational speed; a day on Mesklin is equivalent to a little under 18 minutes on Earth.  To support native life-forms based on methane, Mesklin is accordingly cold to support soild, liquid, and gas states of methane: an average temperature of -170C.  Oceans of methane, that has a low boiling point, were under the control of a unique weather pattern controlled by a variety of factors including (but not limited to): a year of 1800 Earth days, an elliptical orbit around the sun where perihelion was brief, and a northern hemisphere that contains a polar ice cap and is only briefly exposed to midsummer when Mesklin is closest to it’s sun.  Apparently Clement went into more detail about the technical aspects of the scientifically based creation of Mesklin in an article he wrote for the June 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction named “Whirligig World”.

While I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and still believe that it deserves to be recognized as a classic work in the body of science fiction, there were a few things that I did not like.  For one, I didn’t like his descriptions.  Im not really the best at visualizing things, but I found Clement’s descriptions to be hard to follow.  There were a lot of places I had to re-read numerous times before I was able to see what he was trying to get at, and even then I thought his wording could have been more clear.  Also his depiction of “alien” life definitely seemed to draw a little too strongly from the human model.  Although I was aware of this popular criticism of Mission of Gravity before I read it, I dismissed it as being overly critical and a trite criticism of most alien depictions.  However after reading the book and allowing my opinions of it to culminate, I feel as though it is appropriate criticism.  There were cultures of Mesklinites that resembled Native Americans that featured bows and arrows and canoes.  And however slight, there was a suggestion of religious paranoia in the river people, of which seemed to allow Barlennan and his companions to pass through.  Also the flying culture that lived on the sea resembled our fishing and shipping industry, even requiring boating parties to have passport-like credentials.  Emotionally the Mesklinites seemed to have a psychology that mirrored human interaction, often exhibiting feelings of jealousy, pride, sympathy, and mutual respect.  The similarities keep going on from here, and the overall feeling of their interactions seemed very much like that between two humans of different races, let alone that of different worlds entirely.  It is obvious that Clement is more into scientific accuracy when it deals with the physical sciences as opposed to the life sciences.  

Overall this book was an interesting read and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes their science fiction with a bit of technical detail.  An astronomy or chemistry background would probably be recommended as a lot of this book’s redeeming values come from the technical aspects of these sciences.  Anyone into social science or psychology could probably sit this one out.  [6.5/10]