goofyfish
10-29-03, 05:40 PM
I just heard that Harry Stubbs -- better known to the world as Hal Clement -- died today.
A grandmaster of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Hal was one of the greats of science fiction. He pretty much invented hard SF, insisting that all his science be as accurate as possible. Other writers of the time were more than willing to jettison the science for a good tale, but Hal never did, rewriting things if he found out he had made an error in his numbers. Hal never wrote anything unless he could justify every inch of the science involved.
Sadly, more and more when I'm at the science fiction shelves in the bookstore, I realize the writers whose names I'm looking for are dead.
:m: Peace.
A grandmaster of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Hal was one of the greats of science fiction. He pretty much invented hard SF, insisting that all his science be as accurate as possible. Other writers of the time were more than willing to jettison the science for a good tale, but Hal never did, rewriting things if he found out he had made an error in his numbers. Hal never wrote anything unless he could justify every inch of the science involved.
Sadly, more and more when I'm at the science fiction shelves in the bookstore, I realize the writers whose names I'm looking for are dead.
:m: Peace.