50s Hard Sci-Fi

I have just started Hal Clement's classic Sci Fi book, Mission of Gravity. It is marvellous to see the hardness of style that has come to be known as Hard SF without any adornment. This book dates from 1953; this future is fifty years old and still valid. God!

From the same era, Asimov's style in his Galactic stories is similarly void of ornament, but I find his work unaccountably depressing and flat. Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity on the other hand sparkles with the fresh invention of an informed mind (he was a high school science teacher), and he so considerately explains his world that the leap of faith required to invest upfront in a new world is almost easy.

What marvellous exposition! Orson Scott Card I believe, or perhaps Robert Silverberg, or maybe both, recommend this book for the clear, concise, realistic use of complex exposition. The style would be ponderous is the story were not so fleet.