Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2009–2024years
33% recommend67% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- If I recall, he used that invention in several stories. They're quite enjoyable. Sheffield, as a writer with a hard science background, came up with some very interesting ideas, such as The Sturm Invocation, and the entire Proteus series was very well-considered. Sometimes I get a taste for the diamond-hard sf and he scratches that itch. Hal Clement, too, if you're into that; Half Life is probably the best novel where the concept of the scientific method itself is at the forefront.
- I now have Half Life on order, your fault.
I was intrigued by another Hal Clement title, Trio for Slide Rule and Typewriter. I have a slide rule sitting a few feet from me as I write this, in case of emergency. No typewriter, though.
- You might like Hal Clement's work, especially "Mission of Gravity", "Close to Critical", and "Cycle of Fire". "Iceworld" and his next to last "Half Life" are interesting but not as well written as some of his others. "The Nitrogen Fix" isn't paritcularly well written either, but is an interesting near future, post-unexpected-apocalypse novel. Note Clement was a high school science teacher, and tried to make all his science at least plausible though sometimes he goofed, like the shape of Mesklin.
