Kernos' Korner

The Nitrogen Fix by Hal Clement My rating: 3 of 5 stars Classic Clement, as usual. This science was fascinating. I had never considered that there is enough nitrogen around to completely fix all of the oxygen in the atmosphere given the right catalysts. Is it inevitable, especially now that we are mucking with genetic [...]

Close to Critical by Hal Clement My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is the 5th of Clements novels which I have been reading in publication order. It is the least enjoyable so far, not so much for the science in the fiction, but the characters and plot. I did not find the characters nor [...]

Cycle of Fire by Hal Clement My rating: 5 of 5 stars Another fascinating story by the father of hard SF. Human, Nils Kruger, stranded on a planet with a cometary orbit around the lesser of a binary star in the Pleiades cluster, survive by cooperating with native Dar. A friendship develops and through their [...]