Written by Hal Clement
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 32 Kbps

n some ways the main character of Hal Clement?s under-appreciated novel, Mission of Gravity, is not Charles Lackland, the human explorer dispatched to the planet Mesklin to retrieve stranded scientific equipment. Nor is it the small caterpillar-like creature named Barlennan, a native of Mesklin who agrees to help Lackland find and recover the equipment. Rather, the main character is the planet Mesklin itself, a place with utterly unique characteristics that make themselves felt during every interaction and calculation the intrepid Lackland and his guide have to make. Odd, formidable and of serious interest to the human scientists sent to study it, Mesklin has, at its poles, the strongest gravitational pull in the known galaxy. A place of obvious interest to Earth?s scientists with the potential to provide human beings with the most new insights into the space-time continuum since Einstein?s day, Mesklin proves a daunting challenge to the explorers who have to cope with the strange and often trying conditions.