Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1374293 in Books
• Published on: 2001-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 912 pages

Customer Reviews

A Wonderful Near Comprehensive Collection
Sir Arthur C. Clarke (December 16, 1917 - March 19, 2008) was one of the masters of Science Fiction. For over 50 years he wrote stories which amazed and delighted readers, and this collection helps bring together his short fiction in one place for fans to enjoy. Early editions of this collection were fraught with error, and so it has developed a poor reputation. From what I can tell, though, these problems have been corrected, and this is now a great collection for those who want to experience not only his greatest works, but also those which are not so great. You can see his development as a writer within these pages.

The quality of Clarke's work varies quite a bit from the earlier fanzine stories to his excellent work later on, which results in the overall collection having variable strength. There also appear to be some stories omitted, which makes this less than a complete collection, though certainly most of his works are here. You will certainly find great works such as "The Nine Billion Names of God", "The Sentinel", "The Star", "A Meeting with Medusa", and others, but for me those works are already easily found elsewhere, and the interest in this work was being able to read some of his rarer works, even if they weren't his greatest stories.

I can easily see why some would give this work less than five stars, especially if they had an earlier edition which had so many spelling errors and other mistakes in it. However, for me, it rates five stars because of the near comprehensive look at the short fiction from one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.

Essential reading if you're a fan of sci-fi
This is a truly HUGE collection and I'd seriously suggest you consider the hard cover option because the paperback won't have much of a shelf life owing to its size.

The collection covers virtually every short story AC wrote, starting in the 1930's and moving right through to current times.

His early styles of writing are rather bland or prosaic when compared to his later work, but even in those you can see his genius. The very first story features transportation by wire - Trekkies eat your heart out!

It's well known that stories such as 'The Sentinel' went on to be enlarged into massive concepts and a series of books and films, but the strength and wealth of AC's work lies in those many, many stories which lie in the background.

All I can really say is - if you enjoy sci-fi and if you want to see the birth and gestation of sci-fi over the last 30 years, then it's all here in one volume.

An enjoyable read
This book is a nice little collection of stories, although not quite as good as I expected from Clarke's reputation. This is partly personal preference: I'm not terribly interested in space travel, which is the subject of the majority of stories, I prefer sociologically/philosophically based science fiction, and it's very difficult to write science fiction that doesn't date somewhat (aliens sporting tentacles and names consisting only of consonants, bless them).

His style slightly reminded me of John Wyndham (whom I find both rather sweet and extraordinarily oblivious of feminism), and Clarke shared Wyndham's concern that we're going to do a great job of sending ourselves to a variety of hells if we don't watch out, satirising human prejudices and wars. The humourous stories were a lovely surprise and frequently had a clever sting in the tail, for instance the one about the man who tries to train a giant carnivorous orchid to munch up his irritating aunt, or the chap who designs the sets and equipment for a trashy space opera and ends up being picked up by aliens for accidentally revealing their state secrets. He also provided a new take on old cliches, such as suggesting that if aliens were to try to contact us, it wouldn't be all that straightforward: we'd either not take them seriously, or get the planet demolished by the rudeness of our reception, or they'd take one look and not believe their eyes. Well, he could have a point.