Have you ever read 'A Fall of Moondust' wherein most of the Moon surface and its craters are filled with thick, liquid-like dust (its only fiction right?), and dust covers much of the surface? If you’re an old-geezer like me you probably did. If you’re a SF newbie I suggest you go and read it. I probably read some of the stories in “Small Changes” roughly at the same time I read “A Fall of Moondust” back in the day. What this re-read showed me is that the best Hard SF is still the one from back in the day. Unvarnished.

Obviously pointing out that some of the so-called SF reviewers nowadays are anti-science loons is unacceptable although true. They probably they just read Fantasy and when once in a while they read something like “Small Changes” they say things like, “too much science and not enough character development”…Bizarrely, it's also apparently against the rules to point out that Einstein, in 1917, was investigating stimulated emission of photons. This was blue skies research, with no obvious practical benefits at the time but ultimately led to the development of the laser. Something that helps run the CDs and DVDs of the anti-science denizens of this blog. This is science. “Small Changes” is Good and Honest Hard SF. Of course layperson bar-stool science is so groovy. Why not make up some shit and write a hard SF novel? Maybe a particular part of the moon made of harder stuff? Or the Celenites of old with their glass towers of lore actually going to the bother of coating the surface in diamonds? Where would they get the carbon? Or would we be speculating some other kind of material like that fossilised bit of tree which passed years as lunar rock? Nope. This would be contemporary Hard SF. If you want Good and Honest Hard SF read “Small Changes”. Two notables: “Dust Rag” and “Uncommon Sense” but they are all still top-notch even today.

Why aren't SF writers as clever as they were a mere 40 years ago or thereabouts? My mum use to buy me spacedust, guess moondust will be the same but cheese. And I’ll write a contemporary Hard SF novel as well. ( )

These are competently written stories illustrating how to survive potential catastrophes in different environments by using standard science and giving us some training in thinking outside-the-box. However, Clement's exceptional ability to create believable alien life forms factors into one story, and his prescient forecasting of future advances in genetic manipulation in another.

These stories are not “gripping” or “dazzling”. They’re just good, easy to read and reassuring—something we all need these days. ( )