A.C. Clarke checks out
Mar. 19th, 2008 05:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylHe's been declared dead before, but this time, the news comes from the Beeb, so I suppose it's genuine: Arthur C. Clarke has died. Sad news.
Updated: Having had time to reflect on the news, I've started to feel the loss more acutely. Although I haven't read many of Clarke's novels recently, his books — and those of Asimov — formed a key part of my early reading life.
I can still remember the first Arthur C. Clarke novel — and possibly the first SF novel — I ever read: Islands in the Sky. I was, perhaps, seven when I found it in the school library. I also have a strong memory of re-reading Fountains of Paradise in my teens after being given a physics problem that involved calculating the properties of the space elevator cable.
Of the other books that stick in my mind, I remember liking both Against the Fall of Night and The City and the Stars almost equally. I think what struck me most was the idea of the city of Diaspar as the senscent relic of a one great civilisation, its material fabric perpetually renewing itself whilst its inhabitants fade away. Another particular favourite was, of course, Rendezvous with Rama — the dazzling descriptions of a baffling alien world mixed with the bittersweet knowledge that the human explorers only have a matter of weeks to try to comprehend it all.
Time, perhaps, for a massive re-read.
Updated: Having had time to reflect on the news, I've started to feel the loss more acutely. Although I haven't read many of Clarke's novels recently, his books — and those of Asimov — formed a key part of my early reading life.
I can still remember the first Arthur C. Clarke novel — and possibly the first SF novel — I ever read: Islands in the Sky. I was, perhaps, seven when I found it in the school library. I also have a strong memory of re-reading Fountains of Paradise in my teens after being given a physics problem that involved calculating the properties of the space elevator cable.
Of the other books that stick in my mind, I remember liking both Against the Fall of Night and The City and the Stars almost equally. I think what struck me most was the idea of the city of Diaspar as the senscent relic of a one great civilisation, its material fabric perpetually renewing itself whilst its inhabitants fade away. Another particular favourite was, of course, Rendezvous with Rama — the dazzling descriptions of a baffling alien world mixed with the bittersweet knowledge that the human explorers only have a matter of weeks to try to comprehend it all.
Time, perhaps, for a massive re-read.
