Amph Tales From Distant Earth - The Arthur C. Clarke discussion thread

I am utterly shocked appalled and disappointed that this Grand Master of Science Fiction has no thread yet. However, I am honored to start it. What can I say? The man is responsible for some of the greatest science fiction ever written. His work was crossing into the film world when Michael Crighton was a teenager. Various ideas and predictions in his books have actually come true. The man is a legend. Some of my all time favorite works:

- The "Space Odyssey" series (naturally)
- Imperial Earth
- Childhood's End
- Rendezvous With Rama
- Cradle
- The City and the Stars

 

I've read the four Space Odyssey books, Childhood's End, at least two of the Rama series and several short stories by Clarke. I thoroughly enjoyed his stuff. I have more in my den but, of course, I'm twelve years behind in my reading.

 

Yes his short stories are also awesome. I read pretty much as much of his catalogue as a teenager as I could get my hands on.

 

I like his stories too.

I've read all 4 Odyssey tales, as well as The Lost Worlds of 2001, a non-fic book about the writing of the first book and the making of the movie. ACC actually re-wrote some material for the novel after seeing some dailies from the movie. A rather expensive way of writing a novel, wouldn't you say?

I've also read all Rama books, The Deep Range, Fountains of Paradise, Cradle (with Gentry Lee), The Trigger (with Michael Kube-McDowell), A Fall Of Moondust, The Light of Other Days (with Stephen Baxter), Dolphin Island, Childhood's End, and various short stories.

 

I've read quite a bit of his things, from the Space Odyssey books, Rama and a good number of short stories. I think that Billion Names of God is my favorite.

 

I've only read colelctions of his short stories. they were pretty awesome, though

 

Tracy I strongly suggest you read some of his best work. The books I listed are a good starting point. Rendezvous With Rama is seriously amazing.

 

I hate to be the rainfall in a sunny stratosphere . . . . . . but why is he considered the modern grandpa of sci fi? Was there no other sci fi book published in those days? What's so evocative of Clarke and the Foundation and others? I've always been interested in the prehistoria of SF, when it began, where, that sort of stuff. I've got my porcelin plate ready, Strilo old lad. Spill the beans!

 

He shouldn't be considered that. He came along well after the founders of the genre. He is simply one of the greatest sci fi authors of his time. I cannot really speak to him being the grandpa of sci fi as I do not believe that. That title belongs to Jules Verne.

 

I've read The Time Traveller. Was it sci fi? It's very short, as books were in those days. Paper processing wasn't easy then. It read heavily like a professor conjecturing whatever he saw. It was sci fi, true, but only in the slimmest of margins.

Just like Gulliver's Travels. Saw the last hour on TV recently. The guy was opining scientific and conjectural analysis whatever he saw. Were all books doing that at that time? Ah yes, and 1897's Dracula too. Though it was more action oriented, it was also analytical at society.

 

I've read only "2001: Space Oddysey" and I must admit that I was quite dissapointed. I don't like Clarke's style of writing, his habit of describing every device that comes in character's view. Especially the beginning was kinda boring due to this.

However, I don't deny the philosophic genius of the author.

 

Seriously you cannot judge a writer's entire body of work and his writing style based on one book. Go read Rendezvous With Rama or Childhood's End.

 

Sometimes, Strilo, you actually can. Stackpole and especially Zahn amongst amongst others are all authors who write the same people, just changing the names per book. With 11 Zahn books, his copies exactly the same people, indeed, even the stargate endings. I call that criminal, and will refuse to read another book.

I am highly impressed Erikson has managed to avoid this. Mercs and soldiers, he personalities them differently, and with new cultural aspects. Still refereshing after nearly 5000 pages. That says something.

It's becoming quite possible to judge someone on a single book these days.

 

Okay you cannot judge a writer of Clarke's caliber based on one book... better?

 

I ought to try some of those oldies. See why they're so acclaimed . . .

 

Did you guys know Clarke was investigated for being a pedophile? The sordid story was apparently written up by two journalists and the Sri Lanken government looked into it. What they discovered was that these two writters had a history of writing false stories to smear certian people, their main target being Prince Charles. It was thought that because Charles was going to pay a visit to Clarke one year that they concocted a smear story about Clarke in order to make Charles look like he was hanging out with a pedophile. All charges against Clarke were dropped.

Behind every man now alive stands thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion humans have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
2001 Forward.

 

I had heard of the pedophile accusations, and I'm very glad that they turned out to be false. Sometimes our idols turn out to have clay feet, but I'm glad this isn't one of those cases.

 

Yes you should.

 

Some of Clarke's best stuff is his older stories. Billion Names of God is one of my favorites. And there's the short story that they based 2001 off of, which is also really good.

 

2001 is based on The Sentinel. A SETA program is a worthwhile project, but space travel will have to get alot cheaper first.

The Nine Billion Names of God and Sunjammer are my favorite Clarke shorts.

Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.

Clarke's list of best scifi movies of all time:

Metropolis
Things to Come
Frankenstein
King Kong(Original)
Forbidden Planet
The Thing (1982)
The Day the Earth Stood Still
2001: A Space Odyssey
Star Wars
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Alien
Blade Runner

Clarke says this as well: "No way can I make it ten... I'm still brooding over Jedi (Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi), Khan (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan), and E.T. Actually it would make more sense to have two lists: Most important, and Best."

I've never seen Metropois and I've never heard of Things To Come. I didn't like Forbidden Planet that much.
I think it's so cool that Clarke is a Star Wars fan.

 

Definitely, like the first Rama, the first two 2001 and End of Childhood. I love those books, but the sequels (specially the Rama sequels) didn't fulfill my expectations.

 

If I'm not mistaken Genrty Lee did most of the writing for the Rama sequals where Clarke was more of an editor or general idea man or sum such. There were things I liked and disliked about the sequals, overall I'm a touch dissapointed in them. I like that Morgan Freeman is trying to get funding for a Rama film, but last I heard he was having trouble getting the cash to flow for it.

 

I loved Forbidden Planet. Really cool movie.

 

It is called Childhood's End is it not?

 

I believe so, although I haven't read it

I've just recently started in on Clarke's work, and I'm rapidly becoming hooked. I've read The Hammer of God which I liked, and also The Light of Other Days and Time's Eye. TLoOD was good, although I'm still trying to decide whether the ending was innovative genius or unnecessarily weird. Time's Eye had a pretty intriguing premise (even if it does basically boil down to Alexander the Great vs. Genghis Khan) and some very good bits, but wasn't flawless.

Personally I prefer his short stories to his long works, based on what little I've read so far. The Nine Billion Names of God, The Wind from the Sun and The Star are all as close to perfect as it gets - particularly The Star, which in its way is one of the saddest stories I've ever read.