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Clement, Hal
CLOSE TO CRITICAL
book-date: 1964
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GRADING:
Ballantine
1975
3rd
Paperback
Dean Ellis
$1.50
VG+
ex-ChUSFA: stamp on first inside page, page 85. MORE INFO

Spine reinforced with 2" non-yellowing library tape; extra stamp on top page block. Front cover has a couple of short finger-creases in middle.

The planet Tenebra was another puzzle for scientists, with 370 degree temperature, 800 (Earth) atmosphere pressure - with an atmosphere of mostly water near its critical temperature (silicate rocks disolve rapidly in those conditions.) The place cools off enough just enough each night to let a little of the atmosphere turn liquid - making for a constantly shifting crust. There was life there, even intelligent life. Earth scientists had landed a robot decades ago and made contact with the natives. They called the robot "Fagin" and the humans nicknamed their most friendly contact "Nick Chopper." At the same time that Nick's tribe is being overrun by another, the children of 2 VIPs (one human / one Dromm) visiting the experiment station take off in an experimental bathyscaphe, bound for the world below.

Serialized in Astounding May to July 1958. Star Light (1970) is a sequel involving some of the same characters.