Still River: Amazon.co.uk: Hal Clement: Books

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Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey; Reprint edition (Jan 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345329171
ISBN-13: 978-0345329172
Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 11.2 x 2.5 cm

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,075,080 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Synopsis

Five student scientists, each the best its species had to offer, were one step away from the prestigious degree called respection opinion. Their final exam was an expedition to enigma, a tiny planet circling a netron star, a world with so little mass that it should not have had an atmosphere - yet enigma did. The study was to find out why. Everything seemed to be running smoothly - until the team's mapping robots began to disappear. Then molly, the only human member of the team, was accidentally blown into a deep fissure, and she found herself trapped in a series of caves and tunnels that ony led her deeper into the riddle that was the heart of enigma. Her concerned companions soon followed and in the maze of caverns beneath the planet's surface they found enigma's most puzzling anomaly: life which couldn't possibly exist...7/3/88-offsetting ballantine edition: a: 10000 at $3.50: 288pp: uc=47p: max. UK YES --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A baffling puzzle for five very different space students 25 July 2006

By Marshall Lord TOP 100 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Hal Clement wrote a number of very clever stories about how different environments on other worlds might have created equally different biologies and creatures.

Still River tells a story of a graduation exercise set for a class of five students, one human and four incredibly different aliens. They have to explain why a tiny planet, Enigma 88, which should be too small to retain an atmosphere, has one.

Not a story for the sort of sci-fi reader who likes tales of danger, exitement and rapid action, but a very good one if you like tales of the strange, unexpected which force you to think.

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3.0 out of 5 stars Think You Know Your Science? 3 Sep 2009

By Patrick Shepherd TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Hal Clement practically defined the sub-genre of super-hard science fiction with his Mission of Gravity in the '50s. This book continues in that tradition. Still River is based on real scientific facts that you can go out and verify in your local high school science lab. It takes Jules Verne's old story of Journey to the Center of the Earth and creates a world where you really can travel to the center of the planet. For this purpose Clement assembles a group of very varied alien beings and one human, students sent on an (ostensible) assignment to the planet Enigma 88 to determine how such a small planet has kept an atmosphere. The story revolves around their various misadventures as the planet keeps upsetting all their assumptions and oversights, and thereby getting them into deeper and deeper trouble. A very good science puzzle story (and it really helps if you have a pretty good knowledge of inorganic chemistry under some fairly extreme conditions).

The characters are not very well realized (though better than in some of Clement's works); this is a typical failing of his. But at least the portrayed motivations and modes of thought are logical and consistent for each type of being. Not up to the standards of Mission of Gravity or Needle, but entertaining. Recommended for those who enjoy seeing entire fantastic worlds built upon sound science.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars 3 reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Hal gets the chemistry right for a scientific puzzle 12 Oct 2003

By C. I. Black - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Mass Market Paperback

This is a slightly odd book.

Hal Clement has been renowned for writing SF with real science, and his early novel "Mission of Gravity" is a classic of physics and chemistry. If you can appreciate this ultra-scientific approach, with little emotional content, you might really enjoy "Still River".

The plot is fairly straightforward: five students from an advanced interstellar culture are left alone on the small planet Enigma 88 as a practical assignment towards getting their advanced degrees.

Enigma 88 is a weird place. It orbits an O-type supergiant, and stars like that aren't supposed to have planets at all. It also has an atmosphere, despite being small. Although the students are pretty capable, it doesn't take long for some of them to be in physical danger.

I said that there was little emotional content. That's because most of the species of this interstellar culture are extremely reserved by our standards and have strong codes of privacy. There is one human on the expedition, Molly, and we do learn a little more about her feelings. Perhaps deliberately, Clement doesn't give many details about this culture - it adds to the slightly odd, detached, understated tone of the book.

The author succeeds in what he surely set out to do - create a scientific SF adventure puzzle. His aliens have a definite reality about them, perhaps because they do seem to think differently to us.

If you've read anything by Hal Clement, please try this - its my favourite of his novels.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Think You Know Your Science? 26 Aug 2001

By Patrick Shepherd - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Hal Clement practically defined the sub-genre of super-hard science fiction with his Mission of Gravity in the '50s. This book continues in that tradition. Still River is based on real scientific facts that you can go out and verify in your local high school science lab. It takes Jules Verne's old story of Journey to the Center of the Earth and creates a world where you really can travel to the center of the planet. For this purpose Clement assembles a group of very varied alien beings and one human, students sent on an (ostensible) assignment to the planet Enigma 88 to determine how such a small planet has kept an atmosphere. The story revolves around their various misadventures as the planet keeps upsetting all their assumptions and oversights, and thereby getting them into deeper and deeper trouble. A very good science puzzle story (and it really helps if you have a pretty good knowledge of inorganic chemistry under some fairly extreme conditions). The characters are not very well realized (though better than in some of Clement's works); this is a typical failing of his. But at least the portrayed motivations and modes of thought are logical and consistent for each type of being. Not up to the standards of Mission of Gravity or Needle, but entertaining. Recommended for those who enjoy seeing entire fantastic worlds built upon sound science.

5.0 out of 5 stars This is an increadable story, I could not put it down. 6 Mar 2011

By S. Keller - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Mass Market Paperback

The book has a great story and riviting caracters. My only regret is that it's not an ebook too. That way I could take it with me everywhere.

Still River [Mass Market Paperback]

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