Glide Path [Paperback]

Glide Path is the only "mainstream" novel that Sir Arthur C. Clarke ever wrote (unless he writes another one in the future, we should never count him out despite the fact that he's retired, well over 80, and in a wheelchair...). It's set in Britain during World War II, and tells a (partly) fictionalized story of the early days of "talk-down radar." The story was inspired by Clarke's own experiences during World War II, when he, as an RAF officer, was in charge of the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials.
Glide Path is well-written, but the story is not really all that interesting (despite the fact that the hero, Alan Bishop, visits a clandestine "establishment" on several occasions...), unless you happen to be a WWII buff, or otherwise interested in the early history of radar. Also, the book just sort of fades out in the end, with no real "ending" as such. Nowadays, Glide Path will probably be of interest only for Clarke completists.

This book is significant as being the only non-science fiction fiction book that Arthur C. Clarke ever wrote. It was inspired by (and partially, I'm sure) based upon his experience in World War II as a member of the Royal Air Force, using the GCD (Ground Controlled Descent) system to "talk-down" pilots. This is the setting of the story. Though the technology described is not impressive by today's standards (almost 40 years after the book was written, and 60 after the events it fictionalizes), the radar system is gone into in a quite detailed way, and it's obvious that Clarke knows what he's talking about. However, aside from this, there is another reason that this book is significant. Here we actually have Clarke employing a main character (Alan Bishop) as a main character, and developing him. Perhaps this was spurned on by his own personal involvement with the setting of the story, but, whatever the reason for it, this is probably actually the most "human" story that Clarke has ever put out. Those who claim that they can't read Clarke because all of his stories are just complex scientific esoteria that nobody understands wrapped up in a science fiction premise with cardboard cutout carichatures of characters who act merely as set pieces must revise, at least partially, this view of the author after reading this book. We see Clarke develop the character of Bishop. This, indeed, is one of his relatively few books (including among them Imperial Earth, The Songs of Distant Earth, and perhaps The Fountains of Paradise), where a human being is actually the star of the show, and not a machine or an idea. This is a bit of a change of pace for the reader of ACC's fiction, and it is a pleasant diversion. While this is most assuredly not one of his major works, it is an enjoyable read, and an interesting contrast. It balances the technological and human elements of the story rather well. A nice, quick read as well. Pick it up if you can find it.

Longtime fans of Arthur C. Clarke should be wary of Glide Path, a departure from his usually excellent science fiction fare. In this novel, Clarke looks back on the early days of World War II to recount the inside story of the research team that developed a radar talk-down system for pilots called GCD - Ground Controlled Descent. The hero is Flying Officer Alan Bishop, a trainer with experience in radio and radar, but not much else. Through Bishop's eyes we meet the scientists, engineers, and RAF officers whose combined talents were responsible for this valuable life-saving tool. The science is admittedly well out of date, but Clarke's real focus is not on the physics but on the human elements: Dr. Hatton, a biologist who sees the application that the physicists don't, Professor Schuster, the theoretical genius who designs the whole system but doesn't understand a voltage adapter, Flight Lieutenant Collins, whose upper-class dress and manners inspire nothing but derision, and especially Bishop, who talks down hundreds of pilots but has never flown himself. Clarke tries to fill out Bishop's story with scenes from his personal life, showing us his relationships with his father, his governess, and his lady friend, as well as his fellow officers, but in the tradition of British reserve, these chapters come off rather flat. He succeeds in fleshing out Bishop's character, but generally fails to endear him to the reader. Perhaps the real problem is that by focusing on Bishop the Everyman, he condemns his story to be equally mundane. Since so much of this book is about Bishop (it could be argued that this novel is his coming-of-age story), and only tangentially about the technology, Clarke needed to make us interested in Bishop's fate. By the novel's conclusion, though, we recognize that relatively little has actually happened to him. While clearly some character development takes place over the course of the novel, there is nothing especially suspenseful or even interesting about Bishop's progress into manhood. If the essence of a story is conflict, whom may we say Bishop is in conflict with? We get only the briefest of hints that there's actually an enemy out there. The best moments are the talk-down landings, where Bishop defies Nature and himself trying to do what was once thought impossible, but many more such moments would have been needed to make this book a real success. Instead this book is a pleasant piece of historical fiction, but it isn't meaty enough to be taken as seriously as Clarke perhaps intended it.