# Mission of Gravity

![Book cover of Mission of Gravity](/books/covers/mission_of_gravity.jpg)

by [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/)
Book 1 of [Mesklin](/books/series/mesklin/)
★★☆☆☆

## Review

_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.

_Mission of Gravity_ is primarily story-driven. Barlennan, a centipede-like alien,
and his crew journey to unknown parts of Mesklin on their ship, the _Bree_,
coming across strange inhabitants as they seek to rescue the humans' rocket
stranded at the pole. The main appeal of the book lies in observing how the
Mesklinites interact with new tribes and navigate these situations through a
combination of human knowledge and Mesklinite cunning. Some memorable
encounters include:

- Gigantic builders who construct cities as traps to snare even larger
  predators.

- Primitive canoe-building Mesklinites who capture the crew but release them
  after being tricked into believing the radio is a god.

- Island-dwelling Mesklinites who have developed gliders in the lower-gravity
  equatorial region and attempt to impound the _Bree_ and its crew as
  suspected spies.

The adventures are fun, but don't really come together into a greater whole.
_Mission of Gravity_ never really builds any tension because you know Barlennan is
going to succeed, so each conflict feels more like a delay than a significant
plot development. There is a hint that Barlennan has a secret motive for
helping the humans, but at the end it is exactly what it appeared to be: he
wants to advance Mesklinite technology by studying the human rocket. But the
impact of this reveal is blunted because, through his journey, Barlennan
realizes that:

1. He won't be able to understand the technology.

2. The humans would willingly share anyway.

_Mission of Gravity_ is said to have inspired [Robert L. Forward](/books/authors/robert_l_forward/)'s [_Cheela_](/books/series/cheela/) series:
[_Dragon's Egg_](/books/dragons_egg/) and [_Starquake_](/books/starquake/). While both explore life under immense
gravity, [Robert L. Forward](/books/authors/robert_l_forward/) takes the concept further.

He introduces much stronger gravity, essentially creating a 2D civilization;
incorporates strong magnetic fields that significantly impact the Cheela's
evolution and experience; and covers a broader narrative, from the discovery
of agriculture to space travel, due to the fact that the Cheela experience the
universe one million times faster than humans. While _Mission of Gravity_ felt like
Earth with a twist, the neutron star in the [_Cheela_](/books/series/cheela/) series was a
completely alien world.

Part of the fun of reading old sci-fi is seeing what technology an author
mispredicts; I pointed out a few cases before, for example in my review of [_Eater_](/books/eater/). But _Mission of Gravity_ does a particularly bad job. The central
conflict only exists because wireless data transmission is nearly impossible
in the story's setting. Characters can travel the stars but use slide rules
for calculation---the electric calculator was invented just 8 years after the
book was published! They can't create digital maps, instead manually pasting
together hard-copy photographs from orbit. The novel's world is analog while
our actual future is digital.

I think the wrong technology really stands out in _Mission of Gravity_ because it
is so narrowly focused on the day-to-day life of Barlennan and his crew. [_Childhood's End_](/books/childhoods_end/), written around the same time, also makes several wrong
predictions, but its broader focus on humanity's fate makes these easier to
overlook.

_Mission of Gravity_ was good but not great. Perhaps I would have found it more
groundbreaking had I read it before the [_Dragon's Egg_](/books/dragons_egg/) and [_Starquake_](/books/starquake/), but
in comparison, it felt underwhelming. I plan to read [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/), the
next book in the series, but I don't expect much of it.

## Reviews that mention _Mission of Gravity_
- [_Close to Critical_](/books/close_to_critical/)
- [_Dragon's Egg_](/books/dragons_egg/)
- [_A Fire Upon The Deep_](/books/a_fire_upon_the_deep/)
- [_Star Light_](/books/star_light/)
- [_Starquake_](/books/starquake/)
- [_Surface Detail_](/books/surface_detail/)

## Related Books
- [_Close to Critical_](/books/close_to_critical/) by [Hal Clement](/books/authors/hal_clement/) --- ★★☆☆☆: 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.
- [_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.
- [_Dragon's Egg_](/books/dragons_egg/) by [Robert L. Forward](/books/authors/robert_l_forward/) --- ★★★★☆: Dragon’s Egg is a hard sci-fi novel by Robert L. Forward. It is the story of first contact between humans and the Cheela: beings who live on a neutron star.