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A fair assessment, I think, of Clarke. I certainly grew up reading him, and Dennis's choice of examples is excellent. I probably haven't read the "Nine Billion Names of God' in 60 years but I remember the last line with clarity. Clarke's prose could range towards pedestrian, but the concepts oh my! charley On Sun, Dec 10, 2017 at 2:35 PM, Dennis Fischer <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Arthur C Clarke at 100: still the king of science fiction > 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood’s End, Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious > World … one hundred years after his birth, the British writer is the > undisputed master > [image: Genuine sense of wonder … 2001: A Space Odyssey.] > > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/09/arthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction#img-1> > Adam Roberts <https://www.theguardian.com/profile/adam-roberts> > Shares > 1,508 > Comments347 > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/09/arthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction#comments> > Born on 16 December 1917, Arthur C Clarke > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/arthurcclarke> lived long enough to > see the year he and Stanley Kubrick made cinematically famous with *2001: > A Space Odyssey* > <https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/nov/27/2001-a-space-odyssey-review-rerelease>, > and it seemed for a while as though he might see in his centenary too: he > was physically active (he had a passion for scuba diving), non-smoking, > teetotal and always interested in and curious about the world. But having > survived a bout of polio in 1962, he found the disease returned as > post-polio syndrome in the 1980s; it eventually killed him in 2008. > For a while Clarke, Robert Heinlein > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2009/jan/12/heinlein-hugo-stranger-strange-land> > and Isaac Asimov <https://www.theguardian.com/books/isaacasimov> constituted > the “big three”, bestriding science fiction like colossi. Like many SF fans > I grew up reading Clarke. He was, for a time, everywhere: his books > thronging the shops, he himself popping up on telly to present *Arthur C. > Clarke’s Mysterious World*. He was a prolific science writer and > presenter, a rationalist and space flight advocate. But most important was > his science fiction. With “The Nine Billion Names of God” (1953), *Childhood’s > End* (1953) and *2001: A Space Odyssey* (1968) he has a fair claim to > have produced the best short story, novel and screenplay in 20th-century SF. > Sign up for the Bookmarks email > > Read more > > <https://www.theguardian.com/info/ng-interactive/2017/mar/30/sign-up-for-the-bookmarks-email> > What all three works share is the ability to construe moments of > astonishing transcendence out of the careful delineation of scientific or > technological plausibility. The amazing final line of “Nine Billion Names” > (I won’t spoil it, if you don’t know it), the expertly paced uncovering of > the mystery of the alien “overlords” who place Earth under benign > dictatorship in *Childhood’s End* and the wondrous uplift of *2001* – > this is the genuine strong black coffee of science fiction. > Not that he lacks detractors. He was an unshowy writer, his prose > functional rather than beautiful, his characterisation rudimentary. Some of > his short stories are marvellous but many read like five-finger exercises, > often aiming at a humorousness that hasn’t aged well. Towards the end of > his life Clarke fell into the rut of producing myriad sequels to his > earlier masterpieces rather than new work. *Rendezvous with Rama* (1973), > about the appearance in the solar system of a mysterious alien space > station, vast and seemingly unpiloted, won all the SF awards when it was > published; but Clarke’s egregious three sequels, co-authored with Gentry > Lee between 1989 and 1993, neither won nor deserved prizes. > [image: Arthur C Clarke in 1984.] > > <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/09/arthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction#img-2> > Facebook > <https://www.facebook.com/dialog/share?app_id=180444840287&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2017%2Fdec%2F09%2Farthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_fb%26page%3Dwith%3Aimg-2%23img-2&picture=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.guim.co.uk%2F496092a5300d8cf6f783a434e3b472ac4e4c6082%2F0_236_4200_2521%2F4200.jpg> > Twitter > <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Arthur%20C%20Clarke%20at%20100%3A%20still%20the%20king%20of%20science%20fiction&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2017%2Fdec%2F09%2Farthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction%3FCMP%3Dshare_btn_tw%26page%3Dwith%3Aimg-2%23img-2> > Pinterest > <http://www.pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?description=Arthur%20C%20Clarke%20at%20100%3A%20still%20the%20king%20of%20science%20fiction&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fbooks%2F2017%2Fdec%2F09%2Farthur-c-clarke-king-science-fiction%3Fpage%3Dwith%3Aimg-2%23img-2&media=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.guim.co.uk%2F496092a5300d8cf6f783a434e3b472ac4e4c6082%2F0_236_4200_2521%2F4200.jpg> > Arthur C Clarke in 1984. Photograph: c.MGM/Everett / Rex Features > Clarke’s own novelisation of his screenplay *2001: A Space Odyssey* makes > an interesting companion piece to the film, from which it differs in many > respects. But once again the sequel itch struck Clarke in the 1980s: *2010: > Odyssey Two*(1982) was followed by *2061: Odyssey Three* (1987) and when > number four was published as *3001: The Final Odyssey* (1997) fandom > breathed a sigh of relief. > Advertisement > –– ADVERTISEMENT –– > We can take with a pinch of salt his claim to have invented the concept of > geostationary satellites, where a spacecraft completes one orbit in the > same 24 hours of the Earth’s turning, so that it occupies a fixed place in > the sky (this is the principle behind today’s communication satellites that > enable everything from digital TV to GPS). Clarke certainly did publish an > article advocating it (Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give > Worldwide Radio Coverage?) in Wireless World in October 1945. But Slovene > rocket engineer Herman Potočnik proposed exactly this idea in 1928, and in > 1942 American science fiction writer George O Smith published a novella, *QRM > – Interplanetary*, set on a stationary “relay station” in space. I’m not > accusing Clarke of plagiarism, yet the concept was clearly in the air in > the 1940s. > But none of this matters. We don’t need to advocate the whole of Clarke to > recognise the best of him, and to acknowledge that his influence continues > to inform the genre. His plain writing style and meticulous attention to > detail are there not for their own sake but to provide the most effective > platform from which to create a genuine sense of wonder. > Not for nothing is the UK’s premier science fiction prize called the Arthur > C Clarke award <https://www.theguardian.com/books/arthurcclarkeaward>. > Knighted in 2000, he is properly speaking Sir Arthur; but for the huge > affection many in SF fandom have for him, he could almost be King Arthur. > -- Charley Desert Sailor