From "a tremendous force in science fiction," a collection set on the high-gravity planet of Mesklin, and an essay by the author on Mesklin's creation ( Poul Anderson, Hugo and Nebula award-winning author of The Broken Sword).Discover MESKLIN—Gravity: 3g at the equator, 700g at the polesHal Clement is a Grand Master of SF, and the one most associated with the subgenre of hard SF. From his classic stories in Astounding magazi...

Time was running out for Bob Kinnaird. Without much warning, the Hunter - the green protoplasmic alien that lived inside him and cured all his ills - had suddenly become his destroyer. Day by day Bob grew weaker and weaker, but only specialists from the Hunter's distant world would know what was wrong with him and, more importantly, how to save him.But the only way searchers from his planet could find him was to locate his missing spaceship . . . a spaceship that had crashed beneat...

Mesklin is a vast, inhospitable, disc-shaped planet, so cold that its oceans are liquid methane and its snows are frozen ammonia. It is a world spinning dizzyingly, a world where gravity can be a crushing 700 times greater than Earth's, a world too hostile for human explorers.But the planet holds secrets of inestimable value, and an unmanned probe that has crashed close to one of its poles must be recovered. Only the Mesklinites, the small creatures so bizarrely adapted to their ha...

A team of scientists are sent to Mercury aboard the Albireo to find out why it's developing an atmosphere. A series of events force the scientists out of their ship and onto the surface of Mercury, where only their courage and intelligence can keep them alive. Clement paints a tense and completely believable image of Mercury. He was simply one of the best hard science fiction writers the field ever produced.

Two ships race in from outer space and crash in the Pacific Ocean. One contains a hunter, entrusted with a vital mission. The other, his quarry - corrupt, evil, a criminal from an unearthly civilisation light years away.Yet both these creatures had one thing in common - they were unable to exist alone. Each needed a host, a human body they could invade and control.

THE HARD-CORE SCIENCE OF HAL CLEMENTThe supreme practitioner of "hard" science fiction, Hal Clement combines ingenious problem-solving with suspenseful drama and action. These ten stories show the mastery of science and fiction that Clement has displayed in such favourites as Mission of Gravity, Iceworld, and Needle.UNCOMMON SENSEIf your back's to the wall, even a deadly predator can be useful.ANSWER"Know thyself" is great advice...if you don...

Light on Bottom...The light was artificial. Believe it if you can. I realise that for a normal person it's hard. Wasting watts to light up the outdoors is bad enough. Spending the world's limited power to illuminate the sea bottom, though - well, for a few moments I was too furious to think straight. My job has brought me into contact with people who were careless with energy, with people who stole it, and even with people who misused it; but this was a brand-new d...

Shrouded in eternal gloom by its own thick atmosphere, Tenebra was a hostile planet: a place of crushing gravity, 370-degree temperatures, a constantly shifting crust and giant drifting raindrops. Uncompromising - yet there was life, intelligent life on Tenebra. For more than twenty years, Earth scientists had studied the natives from an orbiting laboratory... and had even found a way to train and educate a few of them.

Mercury had no atmosphere - everyone knew that. Why was it developing one now? An incredibly pulse-poounding science fiction story by one of the greatest science fiction storytellers of all time, Hal Clement! Fall into the magic of awesome sci-fi at its best!

Four men travel where almost no spacecraft has ever dared to go—skimming the outer atmosphere of the red giant VV Cephei. Their research vessel Wraith carries a revolutionary cooling system designed to keep the ship alive in the unimaginable heat. Everything works perfectly… until another ship appears.Suzeraintist extremists have tracked the mission across interstellar space. They seize the Wraith, steal its experimental refrigeration system, and sabotage the vessel before leaving ...

On Mercury, a planet long believed to have no atmosphere, a scientific expedition discovers the impossible: the world has somehow grown one in recent decades. But before the crew of the Albireo can solve that riddle, constant seismic activity, incomplete data, and broken routines force them into a tense, methodical struggle to piece together the truth. Captain Willard Rowson keeps the mission grounded in practical limits, even as boredom, confinement, and personality clashes sharpen the cr...

Dive into the captivating world of "Amazing Tales Volume 117", an anthology that masterfully explores themes of ingenuity, deception, and survival across the cosmos. This collection brings together three enthralling stories that challenge perceptions and stretch the imagination to its limits. In Hal Clement's gripping tale "Attitude", readers are thrust into a perplexing scenario where captives are encouraged to engineer their own escape. Just as victory seems within reach, they face a bew...