Just borrowed this book from Amazon. It’s over 900 pages. Any particular stories I should check out or avoid specifically? I don’t really plan to read it cover to cover unless every single story is a winner, which I doubt.
From memory:
The Star is probably one of his more famous (and anthologized) stories.
The Sentinel is what led to the book 2001. Interesting read if you liked the book/movie.
Travel by Wire is an early story, and kind of fun.
The Nine Billion Names of God.
Plus, all of the Tales from the White Hart.
I love Arthur C. Clarke’s sci-fi short stories, and I’ve had a different edition of that same collection for many years. It does indeed run to nearly a thousand pages.
As a fan, I can’t think of any that should be avoided, and it’s hard to come up with a favourite. But as I particularly love Clarke’s ability to get into hard science, as opposed to the kind of fantasy that often passes itself off as sci-fi, I’ll recommend a somewhat obscure story – “Technical Error” – the plot of which centers not only on physics, but also on a somewhat esoteric aspect of biochemistry.
But my recommendation would be to enjoy them all!
Rescue Party
Technical Error
many more
Yes, those are good.
I disliked The Star.
Concur with Rescue Party (and the tales of the White Hart).
Looking at the TOC, I’m reminded of Superiority, Crusade, Reunion, and I Remember Babylon
I greatly enjoyed the short story Against the fall of night. Clarke later expanded it into a novel, albeit a short one, which as also good, IMHO.
I thought both versions were short novels - though substantially different
The expanded version is The City and the Stars. 277 pages in my paperback edition, so not that short, but much longer than Against the Fall of Night.
Ah. There was a novella form of Against, then a novel form and then “City and the Stars” Against the Fall of Night - Wikipedia - I had only seen the novel form of Against (and City), not the original novella
I think “Earthlight” was the same thing - a short story expanded into a novella. The novella version is quite good.
And one of our Dopers likely has a first edition of that:
it was revised and expanded in 1951 and published in book form in 1953 by Gnome Press.
Dial F for Frankenstein was my favorite…before I found out how prescient it is.
Thanks for the mention of this, which prompted me to buy the Kindle book. I have various collections of his books in storage, so this is more convenient than digging through boxes in the storage room.
The Nine Billion Names of God will take about 20-25 minutes to read and will stay with you for much longer than that, IMHO. Can’t think of a single Clarke story I wouldn’t read again.
Indeed. And I wrote about the book here. More Clarke history here and here.
For reading, here’s another vote for “Nine Billion” and the White Hart stories. Never much liked “The Star.”
If I’m being honest, Clarke has the weakest fiction credentials of any of the star sf writers of that era. (On second thought, no, that’s Asimov.) His early work is bad, but he did get marketly better over time. Pick up a book of his collected nonfiction instead. The articles may be dated, but that’s where he shined.
I concur on The Star.
Asimov had the Robots (especially the R Daneel series) the Black Widow “mysteries” and of course one of the great classics of all time- the Foundation trilogy.
Now yeah, later on when he was writing the prequels and the sequels to that- it went downhill.
I thought Rescue Party (the first story Clarke sold) was better than early Asimov by a considerable margin (I’ve read “The Early Asimov” and much of it is dire, while “Rescue Party” is workmanlike) But mileage varies.
Indeed, I read that over 35 years ago and still remember the last line. One of the best story endings of all time, IMO.