Another information search! Anybody ever come across a map of Hal Clement's most famous creation, the planet Mesklin? I've seen a report that a "globe" (if you read a description of the planet, you'll see why that is a slippery term!) of the planet existed and was auctioned at a science fiction convention in the 1960's. The NESFA omnibus The Essential Hal Clement, Volume 3: Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton (made up of Mission of Gravity, Star Light, plus the shorter works Lecture Demonstration and Under) contains Clement's essay Whirligig World, which shows a diagram of Mesklin's orbit, a cross section of the planet, a scale drawing (no details) of the planet and its ring system...and this enigmatic hint, which leads back to that "globe":

On the whole, I have a rather weird-looking object. The model I have of it is six inches in diameter and not quite two and a half thick: if I added the ring, it would consist of a paper disk about fourteen inches in diameter cut to fit rather closely around the plastic wood spheroid. (The model was made to furnish something to draw a map on; I like to be consistent. The map was drawn at random before the story was written; then I bound myself to stick to the geographic limitations it showed.) I was tempted, after looking at it for a while, to call the book, Pancake in the Sky, but Isaac Asimov threatened violence. Anyway, it looks rather more like a fried egg.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 03:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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