Sir Arthur C Clarke
Someone said, on the death of George Gershwin, " Gershwin is dead but I don't have to believe it if I don't want to."
My two daughters want to know why I haven't posted an obituary for my favourite writer. The answer is that I'm still in denial. How dare he die at only 90 years old! Surely, he's in breach of contract. We're only two books into a new and intriguing series.
I first discovered his writing when I was about 13 or 14. I was just starting to read real Science Fiction (as distinct from Dan Dare - I've never been able to verify the rumour that Clarke acted as science advisor on the early Dan Dare stories) and had read a few of his short stories when my dad brought home a copy of "The City And The Stars" which one of his workmates had passed on to him. My Dad didn't fancy it but I devoured it. The longest book I had ever read up to that time and I couldn't put it down.
Like his friend, the good Doctor Asimov, he wrote wrote serious science books and comic science fiction ("Tales From The White Hart" pre-dates the "Callahan's Place" series by some thirty years).
Having worked on the development of radar during WW11, he was the first to detail how geo-synchronous satellites could be used for world wide communications. He couldn't patent the idea because at that time there was no way to launch one. He was also a keen aquanaut and wrote fact and fiction on that subject as well. Having moved to Sri Lanka many yeara ago he was a great advocate of that country and set one of his novels there, "The View From Serendip". This was the book in which he advocated the Space Elevator which sounded incredible at the time but which is now being seriously experimented on.
AND "2001"!
I could go on but I'm sure there will be many other better obits you could read.
Best just to say, "Thanks for years of entertainment and stimulation. You'll be missed but re-read over and over".
My two daughters want to know why I haven't posted an obituary for my favourite writer. The answer is that I'm still in denial. How dare he die at only 90 years old! Surely, he's in breach of contract. We're only two books into a new and intriguing series.
I first discovered his writing when I was about 13 or 14. I was just starting to read real Science Fiction (as distinct from Dan Dare - I've never been able to verify the rumour that Clarke acted as science advisor on the early Dan Dare stories) and had read a few of his short stories when my dad brought home a copy of "The City And The Stars" which one of his workmates had passed on to him. My Dad didn't fancy it but I devoured it. The longest book I had ever read up to that time and I couldn't put it down.
Like his friend, the good Doctor Asimov, he wrote wrote serious science books and comic science fiction ("Tales From The White Hart" pre-dates the "Callahan's Place" series by some thirty years).
Having worked on the development of radar during WW11, he was the first to detail how geo-synchronous satellites could be used for world wide communications. He couldn't patent the idea because at that time there was no way to launch one. He was also a keen aquanaut and wrote fact and fiction on that subject as well. Having moved to Sri Lanka many yeara ago he was a great advocate of that country and set one of his novels there, "The View From Serendip". This was the book in which he advocated the Space Elevator which sounded incredible at the time but which is now being seriously experimented on.
AND "2001"!
I could go on but I'm sure there will be many other better obits you could read.
Best just to say, "Thanks for years of entertainment and stimulation. You'll be missed but re-read over and over".