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64th out of 1,169 books
—
878 voters
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
Author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Childhood's End, The City and the Stars, and the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke is the most celebrated science fiction author alive. He is—with H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, and Robert A. Heinlein—one of the writers who define science fiction in our time. Now Clarke has cooperated in the preparation of a m...more
Paperback, 966 pages
Published
January 14th 2002
by Tom Doherty Associates/Orb Books
(first published January 1st 2002)
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For anyone who has no background with Arthur C. Clarke (or Science Fiction in general), this collection is a marvelous introduction.
The best part of this being a collection is you can pick and choose the titles that sound interesting to you until you've gotten into the genre. Some of my absolute favorites in here include The Star, The Nine Billion Names of God, and Siseneg.
Clarke is best known for penning the screen-play of 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as it's literary adaption (which is signif...more
The best part of this being a collection is you can pick and choose the titles that sound interesting to you until you've gotten into the genre. Some of my absolute favorites in here include The Star, The Nine Billion Names of God, and Siseneg.
Clarke is best known for penning the screen-play of 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as it's literary adaption (which is signif...more
Included stories:
Travel by Wire!
How We Went to Mars
Retreat From Earth
Reverie
The Awakening
Whacky
Loophole
Rescue Party
Technical Error
Castaway
The Fires Within
Inheritance
Nightfall
History Lesson
Transience
The Wall of Darkness
The Lion of Comarre
The Forgotten Enemy
Hide-and-Seek
Breaking Strain
Nemesis
Guardian Angel
Time's Arrow
A Walk in the Dark
Silence Please
Trouble With the Natives
The Road to the Sea
The Sentinel
Holiday on the Moon
Earthlight
Second Dawn
Superiority
'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...'
All the Time i...more
Travel by Wire!
How We Went to Mars
Retreat From Earth
Reverie
The Awakening
Whacky
Loophole
Rescue Party
Technical Error
Castaway
The Fires Within
Inheritance
Nightfall
History Lesson
Transience
The Wall of Darkness
The Lion of Comarre
The Forgotten Enemy
Hide-and-Seek
Breaking Strain
Nemesis
Guardian Angel
Time's Arrow
A Walk in the Dark
Silence Please
Trouble With the Natives
The Road to the Sea
The Sentinel
Holiday on the Moon
Earthlight
Second Dawn
Superiority
'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...'
All the Time i...more
Jan 24, 2012
Corytregoart
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Anyone even vaguely interesting in science fiction.
Shelves:
science-fiction
Arthur C. Clarke is a brilliant man, and no where does his brilliance shine brighter than in his short stories. I've read some of his novels, and enjoyed them, but they often suffer somewhat from deficiencies in characterization. Short stories are often too...well, short for this to become a problem, so Clarke is free to do what he does best: explore fascinating and brilliantly original ideas. Some of his ideas are so unexpected that they make my jaw drop, or force me to laugh out loud. Take the...more
Sep 18, 2011
Alexander Arsov
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
arthur-clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
The Collected Stories
Gollancz/Orion, Paperback, 2001.
8vo. x+966 pp. Foreword by Arthur Clarke, June 2000 [ix-x].
First published thus, 2000.
Reprinted, 2001 and 2002.
Undated 10th printing, fixed typos and ''Superiority''-problem.
Contents*
Foreword
1. Travel by Wire! [1937]
2. How We Went to Mars [1938]**
3. Retreat from Earth [1938]
4. Reverie [1939]**
5. The Awakening [1942]
6. Whacky [1942]
7. Loophole [1946]
8. Rescue Party [1946]
9. Technical Error [1946]
10. Castaway [1947]
11. The Fires...more
The Collected Stories
Gollancz/Orion, Paperback, 2001.
8vo. x+966 pp. Foreword by Arthur Clarke, June 2000 [ix-x].
First published thus, 2000.
Reprinted, 2001 and 2002.
Undated 10th printing, fixed typos and ''Superiority''-problem.
Contents*
Foreword
1. Travel by Wire! [1937]
2. How We Went to Mars [1938]**
3. Retreat from Earth [1938]
4. Reverie [1939]**
5. The Awakening [1942]
6. Whacky [1942]
7. Loophole [1946]
8. Rescue Party [1946]
9. Technical Error [1946]
10. Castaway [1947]
11. The Fires...more
An enjoyable read: They've brought out another edition and they seem to have proofread it this time; I only noticed a small handful of errors in nearly 1000 pages. (At least, the edition I got in the UK was fine.) So don't be put off by tales of dreadful misspellings, the danger has passed.
It's a nice little collection of stories, although not quite as good as I expected from his reputation. This is partly personal preference: I'm not terribly interested in space travel, which is the subject of
...more
Included stories:
Travel by Wire!
How We Went to Mars
Retreat From Earth
Reverie
The Awakening
Whacky
Loophole
Rescue Party
Technical Error
Castaway
The Fires Within
Inheritance
Nightfall
History Lesson
Transience
The Wall of Darkness
The Lion of Comarre
The Forgotten Enemy
Hide-and-Seek
Breaking Strain
Nemesis
Guardian Angel
Time's Arrow
A Walk in the Dark
Silence Please
Trouble With the Natives
The Road to the Sea
The Sentinel
Holiday on the Moon
Earthlight
Second Dawn
Superiority
'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...'
All the Time i...more
Travel by Wire!
How We Went to Mars
Retreat From Earth
Reverie
The Awakening
Whacky
Loophole
Rescue Party
Technical Error
Castaway
The Fires Within
Inheritance
Nightfall
History Lesson
Transience
The Wall of Darkness
The Lion of Comarre
The Forgotten Enemy
Hide-and-Seek
Breaking Strain
Nemesis
Guardian Angel
Time's Arrow
A Walk in the Dark
Silence Please
Trouble With the Natives
The Road to the Sea
The Sentinel
Holiday on the Moon
Earthlight
Second Dawn
Superiority
'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...'
All the Time i...more
Clarke is definitely a cool customer when it comes to writing adventure yarns. His stories vary between adventure and conundrums based on science and/or the supernatural ("Nine Billions Names of God").
His style in adventure stories often creates a situation where an explorer is trapped in an unbearable situation. For instance, in one in which an astronaut is stranded on a moon of Mercury, the heat is just beginning to become unbearable and the man loses all control and screams into his open micr...more
His style in adventure stories often creates a situation where an explorer is trapped in an unbearable situation. For instance, in one in which an astronaut is stranded on a moon of Mercury, the heat is just beginning to become unbearable and the man loses all control and screams into his open micr...more
Forget Arthur C. Clarke's heavy reputations: the futurist, the founding father of hard science fiction. Clarke was a master of the suspenseful short story, of the twist ending.
Turning to the final page of a story, out of the corner of your eye, you see the blankness after it ends. After the first few stories in this book, I became conditioned to connect that sensation with my mind being blown. Even now, I can open this book and begin reading a story. When I begin to expect a story to end, the ha...more
Turning to the final page of a story, out of the corner of your eye, you see the blankness after it ends. After the first few stories in this book, I became conditioned to connect that sensation with my mind being blown. Even now, I can open this book and begin reading a story. When I begin to expect a story to end, the ha...more
Forget Arthur C. Clarke's heavy reputations: the futurist, the founding father of hard science fiction. Clarke was a master of the suspenseful short story, of the twist ending.
Turning to the final page of a story, out of the corner of your eye, you see the blankness after it ends. After the first few stories in this book, I became conditioned to connect that sensation with my mind being blown. Even now, I can open this book and begin reading a story. When I begin to expect a story to end, the ha...more
Turning to the final page of a story, out of the corner of your eye, you see the blankness after it ends. After the first few stories in this book, I became conditioned to connect that sensation with my mind being blown. Even now, I can open this book and begin reading a story. When I begin to expect a story to end, the ha...more
This is a personal opinion, but I've always found Clarke's short stories to be his strong point as an author. This is an enormous collection of all of his shorts, minus one, "When the Twerms Came" which he either forgot or didn't have full rights to. You can see the evolution of his writing from typical 1930's pulp material to the more refined form that he exhibited in his heyday that dripped with exotic ideas. If you're looking for a book that will leave you pondering concepts and what might be...more
As far as I know Arthur Clarke occupies a level of science fiction that only Isaac Asimov shared. Every time he had a scientific idea or came across a new piece of science, he wrote a short story about it. If he encountered several ideas and couldn't disentangle them, he'd write a novel about them. Clarke breaks from Asimov in that his prose a bit more fluid, his subject-matter is sometimes treated too abstractly for perfect translation into his storytelling (such as the one-sided wall in the fi...more
Downloaded from Audible.com
The actual title of the Audible.com book is:
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke: 1937-1999 (Unabridged Selections)
Narrator: Arte Johnson, Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, and more
Publisher: Audio Literature, 2002
Length: 12 hours and 26 min.
Publisher's Summary
From early stories like "Breaking Strain," to classics like "The Nine Billion Names of God" and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later groundbreaking...more
The actual title of the Audible.com book is:
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke: 1937-1999 (Unabridged Selections)
Narrator: Arte Johnson, Stefan Rudnicki, Harlan Ellison, and more
Publisher: Audio Literature, 2002
Length: 12 hours and 26 min.
Publisher's Summary
From early stories like "Breaking Strain," to classics like "The Nine Billion Names of God" and "The Sentinel" (kernel of the later novel and movie, 2001: A Space Odyssey), all the way to later groundbreaking...more
When I first purchased this book, I did it because I have a tendency to not be able to put a good read down (I read the Lord of the Rings trilogy in three days - I would even read while cooking, literally holding the book in one hand and stirring a pot with the other). I figured, "Hey, it's short stories, how involved can I get."
Apparently a lot. This collection really gives you a sense of Clarke's maturation as an author over a span of decades, and it also serves as a chronicle of what is consi...more
Apparently a lot. This collection really gives you a sense of Clarke's maturation as an author over a span of decades, and it also serves as a chronicle of what is consi...more
Oct 17, 2007
Jamie
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
fans of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits"
Shelves:
sci-fi,
short-stories
Clarke was a prolific writer. Some would say that qualifies as being a great writer, but I would say that putting out a high quantity of stories just fills the bell curve as far as quality of stories. Maybe it is because of the span of time over which these were written, but many of them read like episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits" - and many more read like bad episodes of such.
Reading these stories, you get a feel for where the seeds of other sci-fi stories came from, but often t...more
Reading these stories, you get a feel for where the seeds of other sci-fi stories came from, but often t...more
Exactly what the title suggests, in chronological order. Lots of good ones—some great ones, in fact, but Clarke's style is very cool and generally very flat, so you can't read too many in a row. Mind you, I remembered some vividly from single readings over 20 year ago, so that tells you something. Nevertheless, it took me forever to get through this book (it is long-—over 900 pages, but still. . .).
Orson Scott Card talks a lot about idea-based vs. character-based science fiction, with the point that character-based stories are, in a word, better.
I didn't realize quite how far one could go into the idea-based side of things before I read this book. Some of Clarke's stories, especially the earlier ones, don't even have characters!
I was surprised to see that Clarke stays within the solar system the large majority of the time, often going no further than the moon.
It is interesting to see how...more
I didn't realize quite how far one could go into the idea-based side of things before I read this book. Some of Clarke's stories, especially the earlier ones, don't even have characters!
I was surprised to see that Clarke stays within the solar system the large majority of the time, often going no further than the moon.
It is interesting to see how...more
Many interesting short stories. Some of his later novels come from the stories in this book. For example, "The Sentinel" was the seed of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". As with any collection of short stories, some are better than others, and some will stick in your mind for a long time - they paint a picture or evoke a single feeling.
Great collection of short stories.. presented chronologically as published.
I read it in paperback over several vacations... would get Kindle if i had had one at the time.. because it probably weighs 3+ pounds :)... and luggage is expensive on flights... but in any form... a great collection.
I read it in paperback over several vacations... would get Kindle if i had had one at the time.. because it probably weighs 3+ pounds :)... and luggage is expensive on flights... but in any form... a great collection.
A massive collection of stories that capture an entire era of science-fiction with its fluctuating thrusts and priorities. My favourites, from amongst this collection, are too many, to list here. Recommended, but for best possible appreciation, try to spread it across a considerable time.
This book spans Clarke’s stunning career and offers a window into his mind, which words do not exist to describe. It’s a pity that humanity has lost him. I’m glad that I forced myself to wade through this immense collection. Just amazing.
It's easy to underrate this series of stories because most of these concepts are trite in the 21st century. When taking the publication year into account, this is a seminal masterpiece, decades ahead of its time.
An absolute must-have for Arthur C. Clarke fans.
In addition to the stories are brief notes from Clarke himself framing the work. Here you can see the author experimenting with themes he would later fully realize in novel form. They aren't all masterpieces, and Clarke would be the first to tell you.
Make a few inches of space on your shelf for this one. This large collection is a real treasure, perhaps the best way to really get to know Arthur C. Clarke as a writer and a thinker.
In addition to the stories are brief notes from Clarke himself framing the work. Here you can see the author experimenting with themes he would later fully realize in novel form. They aren't all masterpieces, and Clarke would be the first to tell you.
Make a few inches of space on your shelf for this one. This large collection is a real treasure, perhaps the best way to really get to know Arthur C. Clarke as a writer and a thinker.
Jan 05, 2012
Dilina
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
favourites,
science-fiction
simply amazing. one of the best and definitive collections of some of the best writing ever seen. You can see how Clarke's writing matures with age over the decades, but I daresay I loved his earliest one's the best.
view all 5 comments
Stephen King recommended "esteemed" author as mentioned in Chapter 2 of the Berkley's 1983 paperback edition of Danse Macabre.
Clarke was able to predict scientific changes as well as social fascinating reading for many different reasons
For the most part I quiet enjoy this, however, there was one story or two that were boring, but most were quite good.
This is to represent the many AC stories and(probably) anthologies I've read years ago. Date read is a guess.
I don't think Clarke could ever write something that wasn't interesting and thought provoking!
I always enjoy SF short stories. This is the thickest collection of them I've ever seen.
Some of the best scifi I have ever read is contained within this collection.
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Arthur C. Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.
Clarke was a graduate of King's Co...more
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Clarke was a graduate of King's Co...more
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“...science fiction is something that could happen - but usually you wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that couldn't happen - though often you only wish that it could.”
—
13 people liked it
“Much blood has also been spilled on the carpet in attempts to distinguish between science fiction and fantasy. I have suggested an operational definition: science fiction is something that COULD happen - but usually you wouldn't want it to. Fantasy is something that COULDN'T happen - though often you only wish that it could.”
—
3 people liked it
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