Synopsis
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 harsh environment can help.

How on earth can the modern day reader of science fiction hope to gleam anything of tangible worth from this novel? The Mesklinites are fifteen inch long, six legged centipede like creatures who use their pincers as we use our hands and their mode of locomotion is described as caterpillar like. Clement details for us that the Mesklinites are acrophobic and that a fall of a mere few inches is potentially fatal. They are traders and the captain of the sea faring ship and his crew traverse the liquid oceans (one that is comprised of methane) in search of new trade routes. Their discovery was by pure accident. Because of the distant at which the planet revolves around its star methane is either liquid, solid, or vapour, depending on the season. I truly detested those little monsters and the climate from which they were created! Naturally, humankind is represented by a professional crew of star faring spacemen headed by one Charles Lackland. He builds up a friendly rapport with Barlennan - the Mesklinite's captain, and asks for his assistance in retreating a lost probe sent to the oppressively heavy gravity location of the planet's southern pole. This was a torturous read. The anthropomorphic qualities the author heaps upon the aliens was palpably transparent. They are looked down upon both figuratively and metaphorically from the moon of the planet via certain technologies left behind to further understand their way of life and it is redolent of hubris. The writing style of Clement is laid back, descriptive, but very workmanlike and builds to no great climax or even hint of a crescendo. It is simply put, a very boring book with no real discernible qualities. This is science fiction from a bygone age that belongs to a bygone age. Avoid or only read if there is nothing else at hand.

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