Harry Stubbs, AKA Hal Clement, died this morning.
Clement's most famous novel is Mission of Gravity, one of the best SF books of the 50's. His other books include the novels Star Light, Needle, Close to Critical, Iceworld, Ocean on Top, and The Nitrogen Fix. His most recent novels are Half Life (1999) and Noise (2003). His short stories were recently republished in the three volument collection The Essential Hal Clement. In 1999, Clement was given the prestigious Grandmaster Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America.
I (Lisa) had the pleasure of meeting him at Boskone on two occasions. He was a gentleman and gentle soul. Goodbye, Hal.
I was startled, then saddened. I've met Hal a number of times and liked him very much.
Posted by: Steven Harper Piziks | October 29, 2003 at 09:25 PM
I met him only once, at a convention in Vancouver where he nibbled cookies to keep his blood sugar up while offering critiques of apprentices' fiction. But I'd been reading him since Mission of Gravity appeared in the old Astounding SF, when I must have been 10 or 11 years old.
I have a paperback of his novel Iceworld on my shelf, the original paperback.
Posted by: Crawford | October 31, 2003 at 12:32 AM