Have you ever read anything of Athur C Clarke

[VetLegion]

Wow, BlackSheep seeks strength in numbers, as expected

If you would suggest what exactly is it that makes ACC's books worth reading perhaps I would take a peek, but obviously we have a case here of "everybody read it, so it must be good". Like with Mona Lisa or whatnot.

Pardon me but I prefer not to be part of the herd

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Whoha
Richter Ten.

terrible-worst book of "his" that I read. Luckily it wasn't really his book. Its been years since I read it, perhaps it would be better now, if its on my shelf somewhere.

favorites: beyond fall of night, 2001, childhood's end, rama series

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Impaler[WrG]
I have a The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke book Winston mentions and I've read it cover to cover, its an amazing value vs buying them in the many smaller collections (especially cause the smaller ones are so non-chronological and their story picks repeat the most popular stores many times you would kill many trees unnecessarily).

I've read most of the Novel as well, but a few have escaped me such as Richter Ten.

A few that I dis-recommend, Beyond the Fall of Night (1990) (with Gregory Benford) and Cradle also co-authored with that Beford hack.

"Beyond the Fall of Night" seems to be a re-make of "The City and the Stars" (which is the one I've read, I find it ends weaker then it starts but is overall excellent) itself an expansion of a shorter novella "Against the Fall of Night" (thus explaining the title of the 3rd book).

BFN pairs this 3rd rehashing with a second half that continues the downward trend with a ridiculous set of new characters with the original hero making tired cameos *bleeech* Anyone else find this one to be sub-par?

What's your problem with Benford? He's a very strong writer in his own right. I loved BFN myself. A big difference though is that Benford is a writer in the much harder science SF genre as opposed to Clarke who was more in the moderately hard science SF genre. Benford always had a scientist as the main character in his books (excluding his stuff outside the hard SF genre anyway) and focused often on the actual practice of the science, with some thriller elements and such mixed in. I suspect you're just noticing the somewhat combination of genres and disliking that. (It's also common to dislike stories rewritten by a second author as the style will sometimes not fit with your expectations - Benford almost certainly did all of the writing that was new on BFN).

[Whoha]

Originally posted by asleepathewheel


terrible-worst book of "his" that I read. Luckily it wasn't really his book. Its been years since I read it, perhaps it would be better now, if its on my shelf somewhere.

favorites: beyond fall of night, 2001, childhood's end, rama series

If you didn't like it then it probably hasn't improved for you. I like giant evil maniacal plans such as the end all earthquakes one though.

[classical_hero]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
This poll is invalid

Exactly. It was only until he died, that I had heard of him. I am not into SF that much. IT does not mean that I am illiterate, if I have not read one of works.

[classical_hero]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
It wasn't gripping enough eh Zkribbler?

Apparently he was reading it for the articles, but got lost at all the silicon.

[N35t0r]

Originally posted by snoopy369


I'm fairly sure I've read the list above plus a few others. Read the new stuff if you haven't, the Time's Odyssey series he co-wrote with Stephen Baxter (who is also a great writer in and of himself) ... pretty interesting stuff

QFT!

[Xorbon]

I've watched the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". Does that count?

...well, not so much watched as 'skimmed past during commercials'...