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September
2002's
Author! Author! Why? Why is Sir Arthur C. Clarke one of my favorite authors? Put simply, he is one of the best. He does everything right, from the opening sentence to a satisfying ending. He uses a lot more science in his work than most science fiction writers use. That is because he is comfortable with the subject. He possesses degrees in both physics and mathematics. He has been involved in many scientific projects, both in space and in the oceans and has written as much science nonfiction as he has science fiction. An author can write good science fiction without knowing science. Mr. Clarke is living proof that an author can write better science fiction if he, or she, does know science. And, when he is writing alone, Mr. Clarke writes his superb fiction without all the foul language, sex and violence lesser authors must depend on to sell their work.
About Sir Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur Charles Clarke was born December 16, 1917, in Minehead, Somerset, England, the eldest of four children. The coastal town is located on the southern coast of the inlet south of Wales. He became interested in science at a very young age, which has included a life-long love of space exploration. He built his first telescope when he was thirteen. His father died the following year, forcing a change in lifestyle as his mother began to give riding lessons to augment the family's income.
From Minehead, at age 18, Clarke moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. It was here that he began to write the B.I.S. Bulletin and science fiction. A link to the British Planetary Society's website is below.
http://www.bis-spaceflight.com/index.htm
Like most men, Mr. Clarke joined the armed forces during World War II and served as an officer in England's Royal Air Force. During his service there, he was in charge of the first experimental tests of "talk-down" radar equipment to control aircraft landings from the ground. The only nonscience-fiction novel he ever wrote, GLIDE PATH, stemmed from this work.
When the war was over, Clarke returned to London and the B.I.S. He even served as its president in 1946, 1947, 1950, 1951, 1952 and 1953. It was during this time that Clarke published his first science fiction story, RESCUE PARTY. It appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in May of 1946. In 1947, he wrote his first published novel, PRELUDE TO SPACE, which he wrote in three weeks. It was just the beginning of what has been a long and distinguished career. Among the awards he has received are the Hugo in 1956, 1974, 1980, the Nebula in 1972, 1973, 1979 and he was named a Nebula Grand Master in 1985.
Clarke also entered King's College after the war, where he earned a B.Sc in math and physics in 1948. Soon afterward, Clarke completed and published the technical paper EXTRATERRESTRIAL RELAYS, in which he proposes that satellites could be used to relay communications all over the world. He was also the first to realize that a geostationary orbit at 42,000 kilometers would be useful for this purpose. Twenty-three years after he published the paper, his dream was realized. Satellites in the geostationary orbit, or the Clarke Orbit, as it is now known, are the backbone of global communications. We find them indispensable. To read these papers, go to the link below.
http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/ACC.ETRelays.html
This was not his only contribution to satellite use. In 1954, Mr. Clarke began corresponding with Dr. Harry Wexler, who was then head of the United States Weather Bureau. Mr. Clarke proposed using satellites to forecast weather. The men corresponded for some time before Dr. Wexler began the drive to move America's Weather Bureau into the space age. Today, we depend heavily on that satellite system to keep us alert to weather conditions all over the world. We can now keep track of El Niño, La Niña, hurricanes and other weather phenomena from Earth orbit.
Clarke's love of space exploration has only been interrupted briefly when he began to explore the ocean. He found that scuba diving could imitate one of space flight's most fascinating properties - weighlessness. He is never far from the sea, though his health has deteriorated to the point he can no longer dive. He has had a recurrence of polio, and cannot walk and breathes with difficulty. Still, he waits impatiently for each new Hubble and Mars discovery. He still firmly believes we will find life on Mars and feels some of the Orbiter photos show vegetation.
It is in his book PROFILES OF THE FUTURE that we find "Clarke's Three Laws," tongue-in-cheek comments on science and life. They are:
Clarke's First Law:
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
Clarke defines
the adjective 'elderly' as follows:
"In physics, mathematics and astronautics it means over thirty;
in other disciplines, senile decay is sometimes postponed to the forties.
There are of course, glorious exceptions; but as every researcher just
out of college knows, scientists of over fifty are good for nothing
but board meetings, and should at all costs be kept out of the laboratory."
(in Profiles of the Future.)
The Second Law of Arthur C. Clarke:
"The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible."
The Third Law of Arthur C. Clarke:
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
After he wrote these three laws, Clarke also wrote, "Since three laws was sufficient for both the Isaacs - Newton and Asimov - I have decided to stop here." But, of course, he didn't stop there. In the second appendix of THE ODYSSEY FILE, he wrote the Sixty-ninth Law of Arthur C. Clarke:
"Reading computer manuals without the hardware is as frustrating as reading sex manuals without the software."
Clarke now lives
in Colombo, Sri Lanka, as he has done since 1954. He loves this island
and has no wish to leave it, unless he could fly into space. I wish
for him that his body could roam the stars as easily as his mind has
done.
| Reviews |
The Fountains
of Paradise
By Arthur C. Clarke
Aspect/Warner Books - September 2001
ISBN: 0-446-67794-9 - Paperback
Science Fiction
Reviewed
by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com
Buy
a Copy
When THE FOUNTAINS OF PARADISE was first published in 1979, the bridge from Earth to space was impossible, because it required a material that is stronger than steel. With the discovery of "buckminsterfullerene," the tower is more than a possibility, but could easily be a probability.
Vannevar Morgan was no ordinary engineer. He had just finished building a bridge across the Strait of Gibraltar, a feat his critics said couldn't be done. Now, he wants to build a bridge to space, a tower that railroad-style cars could climb to escape Earth's gravity without the noise and expense of a rocket. Only one thing stands in his way - a Buddhist monastery that stands atop the only mountain on Earth where the tower could be safely anchored. And the monks have possession of it until the golden butterflies come to the top of the mountain. Can Morgan ever achieve his dream?
Along with the legend of the butterflies, Morgan learns the legends that surround much of the area. The story of the evil king that murdered his father to take the throne is quite fascinating and is based on historical fact. And, as with all truly great writers, Clarke tells the story without the use of foul language or explicit sex and violence. The only thing that detracted from the story was the atheistic view of an alien probe he called Starglider. If an alien actually comes to visit, he might be totally surprised!
=====================================
The Lion
of Comarre & Against the Fall of Night
By Arthur C. Clarke
Harcourt, Brace & World - March 1987
ISBN: 0151525242 - Paperback
Science Fiction
Reviewed
by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com
Buy
a Copy
These two books were printed in one volume first in 1968. It was in hardback then and there was no ISBN number. But the books themselves are timeless. Both books deal with the desires of a young man to go beyond the accepted limits of a stagnant society. First, lets look at THE LION OF COMARRE.
Richard Peyton III wants to be an engineer. But the Earth doesn't need engineers. Everything that could be invented has been invented, hasn't it? Robots see to all the needs of man and are so sophisticated they take care of each other. The World Council is happy with the status quo. There is total peace and contentment and they have little to do. Peyton has got to be stopped. So, they send the boy's grandfather to talk him out of it. He is, after all, one of their own members.
But young Peyton avoids his grandfather and hightails it to Scientia, an island of labs and science projects. There, his best friend, Alan Henson, tells Peyton he has a relative who was an engineer of the first magnitude. Rolf Thordarsen was Peyton's great-grandfather twenty-two generations ago. He had a dream, but the world Council refused to allow him to go any further. But Thordarsen built the City of Comarre and no one who went there ever came back. They all said they didn't want to leave. For that reason, Comarre is now off limits, and has been hidden so thoroughly, most people think it is a myth. Scientia wants Peyton to find Comarre and find what Thordarsen did to make people stay there. But if he goes in, can young Peyton get back out?
THE LION OF COMARRE is a story of human resistance to change the status quo and how rare the spirits who must go beyond the known truly are. As always, Arthur C. Clarke presents interesting characters and a frighteningly possible plot. He will keep you reading to the end and will leave you hungering for more. May mankind never be too satisfied to dream, to search for a better tomorrow.
===================
Against
the Fall of Night
By Arthur C. Clarke
Harcourt, Brace & World - March 1987
ISBN: 0151525242 - Paperback
Science Fiction
Reviewed
by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com
Buy
a Copy
Alvin had never seen a cloud before and his father had only seen one. The Earth had once known many clouds and seas had once covered two-thirds of her surface. Once, her lands were dotted with cities and mankind also made his home among the stars. The Invaders changed all that. They had driven man from the stars, forced him to hide Earth's oceans and had left him with only one great city, Diaspar.
Mankind himself had changed, too. He no longer knew the taste of death. Alvin was the first child to be born in Diaspar in seven thousand years. Population had to be strictly controlled to avoid overtaxing Diaspar's resources. It would take young Alvin several centuries to grow to manhood.
But, like all young boys, Alvin was curious, even adventurous. He wanted to see what lay beyond Diaspar. He knew there had once been more cities and he wanted to know why they were now in ruins. He also wanted to know who the Invaders were and why man could no longer go to the stars.
With the aid of Rorden, the Keeper of Records, Alvin found Lys and a way to get there. Though it was forbidden, he left the city of Diaspar and journeyed to a land so different from his own the two cities no longer communicated. Would they let him go home? And was the reason man no longer went to the stars truly fear of the Invaders?
Again, we see a society content with what it has and is too afraid to dream. Again, it is faced with a maverick that, for better or worse, is not satisfied to let things alone. And, once again, Clarke has set out to motivate human beings to move out of their complacency and look beyond their day-to-day existence.
===================
Rendezvous
with Rama
By Arthur C. Clarke
Bantam Spectra (reissue) - December 1990
ISBN: 0553287893 - Paperback
Science Fiction
Reviewed
by Jo Rogers, MyShelf.Com
Buy
a Copy
In the year 2130, scientists almost missed the single most astounding scientific opportunity in the history of mankind. The long-awaited visitor from the stars was written off as an asteroid. Finally, it got close enough to be recognized for what it was, an interstellar spacecraft, and it was heading for our little corner of space. Only one vessel was in position to meet the stranger, the Solar Survey Ship, Endeavour, commanded by Commander Bill Norton.
Commander Norton put Endeavour down on the north pole of the forty-kilometer-long ship without knowing if it was inhabited or what kind of reception he would receive. He set his ship down between the hub and one of the three pillbox structures on the north pole. The alien vessel, which had been christened Rama when it was still thought to be an asteroid, was spinning enough to create a small artificial gravity that would hold Endeavour in place while her crew checked out the inside.
When the crew entered the Rama, they found that beside each of the three pillboxes were three identical airlocks leading to three identical ladders that led to three identical stairways into to the interior of the ship. These were placed at 120° around the circular surface of the ship. Apparently, the Ramans did everything in threes.
Inside, the ship was dark and the temperature was below freezing. Had the Ramans come all this way to meet the humans of Earth only to die in transit? Or were they lurking in the darkness to see if the humans were friendly? Or did they mean to kill the intruders from the third planet?
RENDEZVOUS
WITH RAMA is the beginning of a fascinating four-volume series that
explores the possibilities of first contact. The next three volumes
were written with Gentry Lee, who is not as clean in his language
as Clarke himself is. But that is the only disappointment from a
science fiction giant whose creativity never disappoints, Arthur
C. Clarke.
| Booklist |
|
Fiction Across the Sea of Stars (1959) Coauthored with Gregory Benford with Gentry Lee with Mike McQuay with Michael P. Kube-McDowell with Stephen Baxter
Nonscience-fiction Glide Path (1963) Edited Project Solar Sail (1990) with George W. Proctor
Nonfiction Arthur C. Clarke & Lord Dunsany: A Correspondence (1998)
Coauthored with Chesley Bonestell with Peter Hyams with Robert Silverberg with Mike Wilson with John Fairley
Technical Papers Extra Terrestrial Relays in Wireless World, October 1945, pages 305-308. |
| 2002's Honorary List | |||||