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Rating: 
Summary: Long Out-of-Print Stories Resurected
Review: Hal Clement was one of the first "hard science" writers to enter the science fiction field, and has reamined productive over many decades. This volume contains three of his long-out-of-print stories that fans have had trouble finding for many years. If you're not a fan but you like hard-science science fiction, coupled with good writing and a "solve the puzzle" style that keeps you thinking throughout the book, give this a try. The stories may seem amazingly old (the book title tells how he wrote them after all), but they are hardly out of date. Based on human nature (perhaps a bit idealized) and fundamental physics & chemistry, they are just as gripping a read today as they were in the 1950's when they were written.
Rating:
Summary: Long Out-of-Print Stories Resurected
Review: Hal Clement was one of the first "hard science" writers to enter the science fiction field, and has reamined productive over many decades. This volume contains three of his long-out-of-print stories that fans have had trouble finding for many years. If you're not a fan but you like hard-science science fiction, coupled with good writing and a "solve the puzzle" style that keeps you thinking throughout the book, give this a try. The stories may seem amazingly old (the book title tells how he wrote them after all), but they are hardly out of date. Based on human nature (perhaps a bit idealized) and fundamental physics & chemistry, they are just as gripping a read today as they were in the 1950's when they were written.
Rating:
Summary: Three of Clement's best, still great today
Review: The recently deceased Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) wrote many hard science fiction stories, often set in alien environment or with amazingly inventive aliens. Three of his best, Needle, Iceworld, and Close to Critical, are collected here. Needle is the story of a virus-like alien intelligence who with the help of his human host, must track down another of his species. Iceworld tells the tale of a science teacher from another world recruited to stop the flow of drugs from a mysterious source (as it turns out quite quickly in the tale, Earth). Close to Critical is the story of two stranded children, one human, one alien, and the effort to retrieve them from a newly-contacted world with the help of the natives. Clement brings human and alien to life marvelously. Combine that with his ability to make science understandable (an art often seen in, say, Heinlein juveniles, but seemingly lost today) and you come up with enchanting tales. Needle is probably the best of the three (and sparked an equally-good sequel, over twenty years later). It is a true mystery, with all the clues to the solution available to the reader to solve before the characters do. While the characterization is very Fifties (the human host, a teenage boy, is amazingly blase about having an alien in his body observing his every action), it is still a great tale. Highly recommended, as are the two remaining books in the series. Kudos to NESFA for collecting the works of yet another great author into convenient hardcovers!
Rating:
Summary: Three of Clement's best, still great today
Review: The recently deceased Hal Clement (Harry Stubbs) wrote many hard science fiction stories, often set in alien environment or with amazingly inventive aliens. Three of his best, Needle, Iceworld, and Close to Critical, are collected here. Needle is the story of a virus-like alien intelligence who with the help of his human host, must track down another of his species. Iceworld tells the tale of a science teacher from another world recruited to stop the flow of drugs from a mysterious source (as it turns out quite quickly in the tale, Earth). Close to Critical is the story of two stranded children, one human, one alien, and the effort to retrieve them from a newly-contacted world with the help of the natives. Clement brings human and alien to life marvelously. Combine that with his ability to make science understandable (an art often seen in, say, Heinlein juveniles, but seemingly lost today) and you come up with enchanting tales. Needle is probably the best of the three (and sparked an equally-good sequel, over twenty years later). It is a true mystery, with all the clues to the solution available to the reader to solve before the characters do. While the characterization is very Fifties (the human host, a teenage boy, is amazingly blase about having an alien in his body observing his every action), it is still a great tale. Highly recommended, as are the two remaining books in the series. Kudos to NESFA for collecting the works of yet another great author into convenient hardcovers!
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