RIP: Arthur C. Clarke

[vicki]

In the news: the obituary of Arthur C. Clarke (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/books/19clarke.html).

I haven't yet read any of his books or stories, but I was suitably impressed and mystefied by the film he co-wrote, 2001: A Space Odyssey (from a short story called "The Sentinel," which he expanded into a novel of the same name as the film).

[jtb1951]

Another one of the science fiction giants passes; along with Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Leiber, Ellison, Silverberg, Wilhelm, LeGuin, Farmer, Niven, and a few others, Arthur C. Clarke was an important part of my formative reading years. He wrote some classic novels: Childhood's End, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Rendezvous With Rama, and others, along with many collections of wonderful short stories. As the iconic figures of science fiction and fantasy pass one by one, I pause to appreciate all the reading joy they brought to me in my youth (and beyond!), and celebrate the talents that they shared with their myriad fans. Requiescat In Pacem, Sir Arthur!

John.

[vicki]

John, where is a good place for someone to start with ACC?

In fact, I should probably get a general top 10 classic SF reading list from you (you may have posted one before, but I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast, unfortunately) <thwaps head repeatedly to realign brain cells>. I have enormous gaps in my classic SF reading--or rather, bits of classic SF reading dotted amongst a great void. No Asimov or Heinlein, even. Not a smidge. :o Ellison only if you count the Trek contributions. Some Bradbury and LeGuin. It's bad. Very bad.

[kriddle]

Don't worry, Vicki, at least you remember if you ATE breakfast. We just got the game Brain Age. It classified me as having the brain age equivalent to an 80-year-old. I think the next one older is brain-dead (no offence to those over 80).

Childhood's End is a very interesting and haunting story. It involves human evolution. Classic. Dh and I devoured the Space Odyssey series. Sci Fi equivalent to Russell series...you have a lot of great reading to look forward to with this series! Do not let the movie scare you away...it was the classic 'doesn't translate well to screen' scenario. The book doesn't make you wonder what the heck is going on without explaining later. (movie was on TV several weeks ago and I had to stop myself from banging my head against the wall listening to my mom trying to explain to my daughter what was going on. Without reading the book she didn't have a clue. Not her fault, like I said, it didn't translate well.)

[tangential1]

Another one of the science fiction giants passes; along with Asimov, Heinlein, Sturgeon, Bradbury, Leiber, Ellison, Silverberg, Wilhelm, LeGuin, Farmer, Niven, and a few others...

Bradbury?? LeGuin??? They aren't dead yet, are they? :confused: I just saw Bradbury this past summer at ComicCon San Diego. And LeGuin has a new book coming out next month!

[jtb1951]

Bradbury?? LeGuin??? They aren't dead yet, are they? I just saw Bradbury this past summer at ComicCon San Diego. And LeGuin has a new book coming out next month!

No, they are alive and kicking; my list was of influential sf/f writers from my youth, my point being that another of their number had left us, indeed several of them are still very active writers. Sorry for the confusion!:)

John.

[jtb1951]

In fact, I should probably get a general top 10 classic SF reading list from you (you may have posted one before,

I will have to look back and see if I did (my memory is also not quite what it used to be!); if not, maybe I can cobble something together. I agree with kriddle, Childhood's End is a great place to start, then the Space Oddysey books, and some of the short story collections (The Nine Billion Names of God, The Wind From the Sun, and Reach For Tomorrow) to follow. I believe he also had a couple of "Best Of..." collections.

[tangential1]

No, they are alive and kicking; my list was of influential sf/f writers from my youth, my point being that another of their number had left us, indeed several of them are still very active writers. Sorry for the confusion!:)

John.

Ah, I see my misread now.:rolleyes: Oh, the importance of punctuation!

[vicki]

Okay--I went and rifled through the shelves and found a collection I'd half forgotten about: Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century, ed. by Orson Scott Card. It has a number of stories I've heard about here and elsewhere. In fact, I just took in "The Nine Billion Names of God" by ACC and laughed out loud at the end of it. :D After that, I went back to the beginning of the collection and now I've just started "Call Me Joe" by Poul Anderson. :)