Close To Critical

If your anything like me, you wouldn't have heard of Clement much - he isn't in the spotlight of SF. He only ever got recognized as a Grand Master of sci fi recently, being given the award by the SWFA; and also for winning a Hugo for 'uncommon sense', a short work.This is yet another book in the same universe that Star Light and other Mesklin stories were in. We meet a key character of Star Light, a young Easy - daughter of an ambassodor and a long way from home.Thats where the trouble is. Yet again we find humans have conquered space, only to discover that they can't really go anywhere they need to - its just not a friendly place. An alien world, with a weather system that makes no sense and a chemical muddle for an atmosphere swallows whole a small craft containing none other than two small children - Easy and her Drommian companion; both are stuck, both are young, and both go a good way into cementing interspecies relations in what turns out to be a masterfully crafted tale of hard science fiction.

How would you explore a planet that was totally impossible to set foot on. This book gives you a perspective of how this could be done by the people that live there. The plot is conceivable. The characters, both human and otherwise are realistic, and the scientific basis for the situation they find themselves in is based on true physics. This book could have been written by Asimov. I think anyone that enjoys a fine fantasy that is plausible will enjoy this book.