Thursday Thirteen #27 “Tribute to Author C Clark”
With the most recent loss of Sci Fi legend Author C Clark, I thought this was a good time to do a tribute to his work for my TT this week. Most of the info on each story I got from Wikipedia, but from what I can tell what was added was accurate.
Thursday Thirteen “Tribute to Author C Clark”
1)
Prelude to Space recounts the events leading up the launch of Prometheus, the world's first spacecraft capable of reaching the Moon. Prelude to Space is Arthur C. Clarke's first published science fiction novel. While he was already popular as a short story writer and as a magazine contributor, Prelude to Space was also a prelude to Clarke's becoming one of the world's foremost writers of science fiction novels.
2)
Against the Fall of Night is an early (1953) work by Arthur C. Clarke. Originally appearing in the November, 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories, it was first published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised as The City and the Stars. The original also appeared in a more recent edition along with another unconnected early work: The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night. A sequel called Beyond the Fall of Night was written in collaboration with Gregory Benford.
3)
The City and the Stars takes place a billion years in the future, in the city of Diaspar. By this time, the Earth is so old that the oceans have gone and humanity has all but left. As far as the people of Diaspar know, they are the only city left in the world. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has come in or left the domed city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity could live - if they never left the planet.
4)
Dolphin Island: A Story of the People of the Sea is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1963. Late one night (in the world of the future), a giant cargo hovership makes an emergency landing somewhere in the middle of the United States, and an enterprising citizen named Johnny Clinton stows away on it. In the space of only a few hours the craft crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The crew ("even the ship's cat") is offloaded onto lifeboats, leaving Johnny (who, as a stowaway, they didn't know was on board) adrift in the flotsam from the hovercraft. His life is saved by the "People of the Sea"--dolphins. A school of these fantastic creatures guides him to an island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
5)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film. The story is based in part on various short stories by Clarke, most notably "The Sentinel" (written in 1948 for a BBC competition but first published in 1951 under the title "Sentinel of Eternity"). For an elaboration of Clark and Kubrick's collaborative work on this project, see The Lost Worlds of 2001, Arthur C. Clarke, Signet., 1972.
6)
Rendezvous with Rama is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1972. Set in the 22nd century, the story involves a thirty-mile-long cylindrical alien starship that passes through Earth's solar system. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers, who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. This novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. It is considered a science fiction classic, and is particularly seen as a key hard science fiction text.
7)
Imperial Earth is a novel written by Arthur C. Clarke, and published in time for the U.S. bicentennial in 1976 by Ballantine Books. The plot follows the protagonist, Duncan Makenzie, on a trip to Earth from his home on Titan, ostensibly for a diplomatic visit to the U.S. for its 500th birthday, but really in order to have a clone of himself produced. The puzzle game Pentominos features in a prominent subplot of the novel. The book offers socially liberal ideas about sexuality and racial attitudes. For example, Duncan Makenzie is Black. This is not mentioned until approximately halfway through the book; his race is no more significant to him than his hair color. At several points Makenzie also reminisces about sexual affairs with males, and that bisexuality is now considered the norm. Exclusive heterosexuality or homosexuality is not generally practiced. It is common in science fiction to offer perspectives of social issues. Clarke addresses issues of racism, the spectre of cloning (which was a very new topic in the early 1970s), and the economics of energy production and control.
8)
A Meeting With Medusa/Green Mars (Special Double Release paperback)
A Meeting with Medusa is a science fiction novella by Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1972 and has since been included in several collections of Clarke's writings. Taking place partly on Earth and partly in the atmosphere of Jupiter, the story tells of Howard Falcon, the captain of a new and experimental giant-sized helium-filled airship. When an accident causes the ship to crash, Falcon is badly injured and takes over a year to fully recover. Whilst recovering , much of his body is replaced by prosthetics, converting him into a cyborg with greatly increased powers of speed, reactions etc.
9)
The Ghost from the Grand Banks is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke. The story deals with two groups, both of whom are attempting to raise one of the halves of the wreck of the Titanic from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in time for the sinking's centennial in 2012. The phrase Ghost from the Grand Banks was also used in an earlier Clarke book, Imperial Earth, also regarding a recovered Titanic.
10)
The Hammer of God is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1993. It deals with an asteroid named Kali headed toward Earth. Captain Robert Singh of the spacecraft Goliath is sent to deflect it. Kali is discovered by Dr. Angus Miller, an amateur astronomer on the planet Mars. A good portion of the book details the life of spaceship-captain Robert Singh (including his running a marathon race on the Lunar surface and uprooting his life and moving to Mars). While filmmaker Steven Spielberg optioned the rights to The Hammer of God for film production, the resultant movie, Deep Impact (1998), bears no resemblance to the book, and Clarke received no on-screen credit for the movie.
11)
Time's Eye is a 2003 science fiction novel co-written by Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Stephen Baxter. It is the first book in "A Time Odyssey" series. The next book in the series is Sunstorm. The book starts out with two hominids, Seeker and Grasper, who are somewhere in the genetic chain between humans and apes (never clearly stated, but probably Australopithecus). While Seeker, the mother of Grasper, examines a strange metallic floating orb they are both captured by two British scouts.
12)
Sunstorm is a 2005 science fiction novel co-written by Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Stephen Baxter. It is the second book in the series "A Time Odyssey". The books in this series are often likened to the Space Odyssey series, only that these ostensibly deal with time rather than space. The first book in the series was Time's Eye. Sunstorm opens with the last chapter of Time's Eye as its initial chapter, and Bisesa Dutt is in London, reunited with her daughter. It is June 9, 2037, the day after her helicopter was shot down in the Northwest Frontier region of Pakistan. The five years that she spent on Mir are now only memories (though the fact that her body has aged five years since June 8, 2037, will eventually serve as some confirmation of her story).
13)
Firstborn is a 2007 novel by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke. It is book three in the A Time Odyssey series. Arthur C. Clarke's Time Odyssey series contains hints about the Firstborn, who were the first intelligent beings and started an endless mission to regulate the development of sentient life in the Universe, in order to prevent other (un-civilized, in their view) species from harnessing too much of its energy. They believe that this will at the very least delay the inevitable heat death of the Universe, supposedly just enough for them to make up a plan to escape. They see Humanity as one of the biggest threats to their project, given its unusually accelerated rate of development as well as human's own tendency towards self-destruction (which would mean that all of humanity's progress has been in vain).
Bonus:
The Last Theorem is an Arthur C. Clarke science fiction novel co-written with author Frederik Pohl, with an anticipated publication date in 2008. The story is of a young Sri Lanken mathematician who finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and is hired by the CIA because of the high interest in cryptographic applications of the proof. Clarke said in 2007 that "The Last Theorem has taken a lot longer than I expected. That could well be my last novel, but then I've said that before". Just a few days before he died, on March 19th 2008, Clarke finished reviewing the final manuscript of the novel. " Last odyssey for sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke.".
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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Thursday Thirteen “Tribute to Author C Clark”
1)
Prelude to Space recounts the events leading up the launch of Prometheus, the world's first spacecraft capable of reaching the Moon. Prelude to Space is Arthur C. Clarke's first published science fiction novel. While he was already popular as a short story writer and as a magazine contributor, Prelude to Space was also a prelude to Clarke's becoming one of the world's foremost writers of science fiction novels.
2)
Against the Fall of Night is an early (1953) work by Arthur C. Clarke. Originally appearing in the November, 1948 issue of the magazine Startling Stories, it was first published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press. It was later expanded and revised as The City and the Stars. The original also appeared in a more recent edition along with another unconnected early work: The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night. A sequel called Beyond the Fall of Night was written in collaboration with Gregory Benford.
3)
The City and the Stars takes place a billion years in the future, in the city of Diaspar. By this time, the Earth is so old that the oceans have gone and humanity has all but left. As far as the people of Diaspar know, they are the only city left in the world. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has come in or left the domed city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity could live - if they never left the planet.
4)
Dolphin Island: A Story of the People of the Sea is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1963. Late one night (in the world of the future), a giant cargo hovership makes an emergency landing somewhere in the middle of the United States, and an enterprising citizen named Johnny Clinton stows away on it. In the space of only a few hours the craft crashes into the Pacific Ocean. The crew ("even the ship's cat") is offloaded onto lifeboats, leaving Johnny (who, as a stowaway, they didn't know was on board) adrift in the flotsam from the hovercraft. His life is saved by the "People of the Sea"--dolphins. A school of these fantastic creatures guides him to an island on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
5)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It was developed concurrently with Stanley Kubrick's film version and published after the release of the film. The story is based in part on various short stories by Clarke, most notably "The Sentinel" (written in 1948 for a BBC competition but first published in 1951 under the title "Sentinel of Eternity"). For an elaboration of Clark and Kubrick's collaborative work on this project, see The Lost Worlds of 2001, Arthur C. Clarke, Signet., 1972.
6)
Rendezvous with Rama is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1972. Set in the 22nd century, the story involves a thirty-mile-long cylindrical alien starship that passes through Earth's solar system. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers, who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. This novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. It is considered a science fiction classic, and is particularly seen as a key hard science fiction text.
7)
Imperial Earth is a novel written by Arthur C. Clarke, and published in time for the U.S. bicentennial in 1976 by Ballantine Books. The plot follows the protagonist, Duncan Makenzie, on a trip to Earth from his home on Titan, ostensibly for a diplomatic visit to the U.S. for its 500th birthday, but really in order to have a clone of himself produced. The puzzle game Pentominos features in a prominent subplot of the novel. The book offers socially liberal ideas about sexuality and racial attitudes. For example, Duncan Makenzie is Black. This is not mentioned until approximately halfway through the book; his race is no more significant to him than his hair color. At several points Makenzie also reminisces about sexual affairs with males, and that bisexuality is now considered the norm. Exclusive heterosexuality or homosexuality is not generally practiced. It is common in science fiction to offer perspectives of social issues. Clarke addresses issues of racism, the spectre of cloning (which was a very new topic in the early 1970s), and the economics of energy production and control.
8)
A Meeting With Medusa/Green Mars (Special Double Release paperback)
A Meeting with Medusa is a science fiction novella by Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1972 and has since been included in several collections of Clarke's writings. Taking place partly on Earth and partly in the atmosphere of Jupiter, the story tells of Howard Falcon, the captain of a new and experimental giant-sized helium-filled airship. When an accident causes the ship to crash, Falcon is badly injured and takes over a year to fully recover. Whilst recovering , much of his body is replaced by prosthetics, converting him into a cyborg with greatly increased powers of speed, reactions etc.
9)
The Ghost from the Grand Banks is a 1990 science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke. The story deals with two groups, both of whom are attempting to raise one of the halves of the wreck of the Titanic from the floor of the Atlantic Ocean in time for the sinking's centennial in 2012. The phrase Ghost from the Grand Banks was also used in an earlier Clarke book, Imperial Earth, also regarding a recovered Titanic.
10)
The Hammer of God is a science fiction novel written by Arthur C. Clarke in 1993. It deals with an asteroid named Kali headed toward Earth. Captain Robert Singh of the spacecraft Goliath is sent to deflect it. Kali is discovered by Dr. Angus Miller, an amateur astronomer on the planet Mars. A good portion of the book details the life of spaceship-captain Robert Singh (including his running a marathon race on the Lunar surface and uprooting his life and moving to Mars). While filmmaker Steven Spielberg optioned the rights to The Hammer of God for film production, the resultant movie, Deep Impact (1998), bears no resemblance to the book, and Clarke received no on-screen credit for the movie.
11)
Time's Eye is a 2003 science fiction novel co-written by Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Stephen Baxter. It is the first book in "A Time Odyssey" series. The next book in the series is Sunstorm. The book starts out with two hominids, Seeker and Grasper, who are somewhere in the genetic chain between humans and apes (never clearly stated, but probably Australopithecus). While Seeker, the mother of Grasper, examines a strange metallic floating orb they are both captured by two British scouts.
12)
Sunstorm is a 2005 science fiction novel co-written by Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) and Stephen Baxter. It is the second book in the series "A Time Odyssey". The books in this series are often likened to the Space Odyssey series, only that these ostensibly deal with time rather than space. The first book in the series was Time's Eye. Sunstorm opens with the last chapter of Time's Eye as its initial chapter, and Bisesa Dutt is in London, reunited with her daughter. It is June 9, 2037, the day after her helicopter was shot down in the Northwest Frontier region of Pakistan. The five years that she spent on Mir are now only memories (though the fact that her body has aged five years since June 8, 2037, will eventually serve as some confirmation of her story).
13)
Firstborn is a 2007 novel by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C. Clarke. It is book three in the A Time Odyssey series. Arthur C. Clarke's Time Odyssey series contains hints about the Firstborn, who were the first intelligent beings and started an endless mission to regulate the development of sentient life in the Universe, in order to prevent other (un-civilized, in their view) species from harnessing too much of its energy. They believe that this will at the very least delay the inevitable heat death of the Universe, supposedly just enough for them to make up a plan to escape. They see Humanity as one of the biggest threats to their project, given its unusually accelerated rate of development as well as human's own tendency towards self-destruction (which would mean that all of humanity's progress has been in vain).
Bonus:
The Last Theorem is an Arthur C. Clarke science fiction novel co-written with author Frederik Pohl, with an anticipated publication date in 2008. The story is of a young Sri Lanken mathematician who finds a short proof of Fermat's Last Theorem and is hired by the CIA because of the high interest in cryptographic applications of the proof. Clarke said in 2007 that "The Last Theorem has taken a lot longer than I expected. That could well be my last novel, but then I've said that before". Just a few days before he died, on March 19th 2008, Clarke finished reviewing the final manuscript of the novel. " Last odyssey for sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke.".
Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants