Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke (left) and Stanley Kubrick
As most probably know by now, science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke died yesterday. I'm not sure I can say that I was ever a massive fan; though I did read a lot of his books, and even a biography of him. I think the style of what he wrote prevented you from forming any kind of attachment to the man himself.
Probably my first exposure to his work was the film 2001: A Space Odyssey (though, actually, I happened to see the sequel 2010 first, and I still think that is a fine film as well). I don't remember which of his books I read first, but eventually I worked my way through 2001 and its sequels (2010, 2061 (my favourite), and 3001), Rendezvous with Rama and its sequels (which were 'co-authored' with, which means much of the writing was done by, Gentry Lee: Rama II, The Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed), and stand-alone novels such as Childhood's End (maybe his best work), A Fall of Moon Dust, The Fountains of Paradise, The Songs of Distant Earth, Cradle, The Ghost from the Grand Banks and The Hammer of God. I've certainly also read at least a handful of his short stories, and remember catching a few episodes of his shows on unexplained phenomena, Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers.
Clarke was widely considered, along with Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, as one of the A-B-C's of the golden age of science fiction (or, if you're Martin Prince of The Simpsons, the 'B' would be replaced by Alfred Bester). His work displayed a large-scale imagination, best exemplified in the gigantic world-in-a-spaceship in Rendezvous with Rama, or the vision of the end of humanity and the evolution of the entire universe in Childhood's End. At the same time his work displayed one of the main weaknesses of fifties-era science fiction, flat and bland human characters. I'm not sure I'd feel as enthusiastic about his works if I read them again now. Clarke stated that he thought that religion was a form of insanity the human race would grow out of. And then he put his faith in things like cloning humans from DNA samples, and aliens from other solar systems or galaxies making contact with earth in real life. I guess it's up to each person to decide which is more mentally unbalanced.