Hal Clement
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Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 - October 29, 2003), better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American science fiction writer, a leader of the subgenre hard science fiction.
He was born in Somerville, Massachusetts
During World War II he was a pilot and copilot of the B-24 Liberator and flew 35 combat missions over Europe with the 8th Air Force. After the war, he served in the United States Air Force Reserve, and retired with the rank of colonel. He taught chemistry for many years at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.
He went to Harvard, graduating with a B.S. in astronomy in 1943. While there he published his first story, "Proof", in the June 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. His further educational background includes an, M. Ed. (Boston University 1946), and M.S. in chemistry (Simmons College 1963).
Clement received the 1998 recognition as a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). In 1996 he retroactively received a 1946 Hugo Award for his short story "Uncommon Sense".
His best-known novel, Mission of Gravity, is the account of a land and sea expedition across the superjovian planet Mesklin to recover a stranded scientific probe. The natives of Mesklin are centipede-like intelligent beings about 50 centimeters in length. Various episodes hinge on the fact that Mesklin's fast rotational speed causes it to be considerably deformed from the spherical, and its effective surface gravity to vary from approximately 3 gn at the equator to approximately 700 gn at the poles.
Clement's article "Whirligig World" describes his approach to writing a science fiction story:
"Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. ... the fun... lies in treating the whole thing as a game. ... the rules must be quite simple. They are; for the reader of a science-fiction story, they consist of finding as many as possible of the author's statements or implications which conflict with the facts as science currently understands them. For the author, the rule is to make as few such slips as he possibly can. ... Certain exceptions are made [e.g., to allow travel faster than the speed of light, but] fair play demands that all such matters be mentioned as early as possible in the story..."
He also painted astronomically oriented artworks under the name George Richard.
Clement was a frequent guest at science fiction conventions, especially in the eastern United States, where he usually presented talks and slide shows about writing and astronomy.
Planets
Clement created a number of notably unusual planets as settings for his works of fiction. They include:
- Abyormen – A planet circling a dwarf star (Theer) with a hot and a cold season, each of forty years' duration. Some of the native intelligent life forms undergo a seasonal mass death. From Cycle of Fire.
- Dhrawn – A high-gravity world in Star Light.
- Hekla – An ice-age planet in Cold Front (short story, Astounding July 1946).
- Kaihapa – An uninhabited ocean planet, twin of Kainui, in Noise.
- Kainui – An ocean planet in Noise.
- Mesklin — A "superjovian" planet with ultra-high gravity (up to 700 Gs) in Mission of Gravity.
- Tenebra – A high-gravity world with a corrosive atmosphere in Close to Critical.
Bibliography
- Needle (1950), ISBN 0380006359
- Iceworld (1953), ISBN 0345258053
- Mission of Gravity (1954), ISBN 0345316223
- The Ranger Boys in Space (1956) (for children)
- Cycle of Fire (1957), ISBN 0345243684
- Close to Critical (1964), ISBN 0345245083
- Star Light (1971), ISBN 0345023617 (sequel to Mission of Gravity)
- Ocean on Top (1973), ISBN 1451010575
- Through the Eye of a Needle (1978), ISBN 0345258509 (sequel to Needle)
- The Nitrogen Fix (1980), ISBN 0441581161
- Still River (1987), ISBN 0345329163
- Fossil (1993), ISBN 0886775736
- Half Life (1999), ISBN 0312869207
- Noise (2003), ISBN 0765308576
External links
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