# Close to Critical

![Book cover of Close to Critical](/books/covers/close_to_critical.jpg)

by [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/)
Book 2 of [Mesklin](/books/series/mesklin/)
★★☆☆☆

## Review

_Close to Critical_ is the second book in the _Mesklin_ series. It tells the story of a spaceship carrying the children of two
ambassadors that crashes on an inhospitable planet, forcing humans to
collaborate with the primitive native aliens to rescue them.

Easy Rich,[^easy] the 12-year-old daughter of a human diplomat, and 'Mina, the
7-year-old son of a Drommian diplomat, crash-land on the planet Tenebra
following an almost immersion-breakingly improbable series of events that
starts with them playing in a spaceship and ends with them under an ocean of
sulfuric acid. With the planet too inhospitable for humans, the only people
who can help are the natives that the humans kidnapped 16 years before and
raised under the guidance of Fagin, the robotic lander. Complicating matters
are the (justifiably) strained relations between the humans and the Drommians,
caused by the humans' failure to keep the children safe in the first place.

[^easy]:
    Easy Rich has grown up and changed her name to Easy Hoffman in [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/);
    the only connection between _Close to Critical_ and the rest of the [_Mesklin_](/books/series/mesklin/) series.

[Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/) had trouble creating tension in the other two books of the [_Mesklin_](/books/series/mesklin/) series: [_Mission of Gravity_](/books/mission_of_gravity/) and [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/). In _Close to Critical_ he does better by
creating an antagonist on the planet who works against the humans and their
allies. However, like in his other stories, the tension fades away quickly at
the end.

Once again, [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/) prioritizes his "game"[^game] of world-building and
maintaining consistency over crafting a compelling narrative. The result is a
fine but not great book.

[^game]:
    > Writing a science fiction story is fun, not work. [...] The fun, and the
    > material for this article, lies in treating the whole thing as a game.
    > I've been playing the game since I was a child, so 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.
    >
    > --- Clement, Hal. "Whirligig World" *Astounding Science Fiction*. Edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. vol. 51, no. 4. Street & Smith Publications. June 1953. pp. 102–114.

## Reviews that mention _Close to Critical_
- [_Network Effect_](/books/network_effect/)
- [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/)

## Related Books
- [_Mission of Gravity_](/books/mission_of_gravity/) by [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/) --- ★★☆☆☆: Mission of Gravity is a sci-fi adventure story set on the planet Mesklin—a massive, rapidly rotating world with gravity much higher than Earth’s. It follows Barlennan, a Mesklinite, as he sails the Bree across the planet in search of a lost human rocket ship.
- [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/) by [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/) --- ★★☆☆☆: Star Light is the sequel to Mission of Gravity, and continues the theme of Human–Mesklinite exploration, this time focusing on a large star-like planet.
- [_Network Effect_](/books/network_effect/) by [Martha Wells](/books/authors/martha_wells/) --- ★★★★☆: Network Effect, by Martha Wells, is the fifth book in The Murderbot Diaries. It’s the first full-length novel in the series and features Murderbot getting kidnapped by ART to rescue its crew.