Customer Reviews

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up a later edition of this book without the spelling errors. This is one of my favourite go-to books when I'm in between something new to read and I want to revisit some old classics. I had been collecting Arthur C. Clarke's short stories for quite some time, and most of these I already had elsewhere. Having them all in one place, however, and having a nearly complete set of his short stories, was too good to pass up. Plus there are some more recent ones here that were very hard to find collected elsewhere.

So many classics, including several that no sci-fi fan should be without!

"The Sentinel" and "Encounter in the Dawn" were used as the basis for 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is hard to believe they were written over 50 years ago. Whether they will still entrance a young audience who know more about space than we did 50 years ago, I don't know. They are still excellent stories. The point of Clarke's stories was not character development or drama, it was to put you in awe of the universe and remind you that whatever is out there is probably a lot stranger than we can imagine.

"Rescue Party" is a personal favourite which will keep you wondering to the end. "The Star" is simply haunting. "The Longest Science-fiction Story Ever Told" is a cute one, and the title is not untrue, even though you will have it read in no time at all! "The Wall of Darkness" is probably my favourite story here, and one which I read regularly. It really sets the imagination on fire, especially with what we now suspect about other universes. Perhaps there is a strange world like this one out there after all.

There are so many ideas contained herein that were far-reaching and imaginitive then, and still captivating today. Yet they were all grounded in the science that was known at the time. I hope that younger readers can pick this up and enjoy these stories the way that readers enjoyed them over half a century ago.

Arthur C. Clarke was and is my favourite author. Long may these stories live!

Sir Arthur C. Clarke (December 16, 1917 - March 19, 2008) was one of the masters of Science Fiction. For over 50 years he wrote stories which amazed and delighted readers, and this collection helps bring together his short fiction in one place for fans to enjoy. Early editions of this collection were fraught with error, and so it has developed a poor reputation. From what I can tell, though, these problems have been corrected, and this is now a great collection for those who want to experience not only his greatest works, but also those which are not so great. You can see his development as a writer within these pages.

The quality of Clarke's work varies quite a bit from the earlier fanzine stories to his excellent work later on, which results in the overall collection having variable strength. There also appear to be some stories omitted, which makes this less than a complete collection, though certainly most of his works are here. You will certainly find great works such as "The Nine Billion Names of God", "The Sentinel", "The Star", "A Meeting with Medusa", and others, but for me those works are already easily found elsewhere, and the interest in this work was being able to read some of his rarer works, even if they weren't his greatest stories.

I can easily see why some would give this work less than five stars, especially if they had an earlier edition which had so many spelling errors and other mistakes in it. However, for me, it rates five stars because of the near comprehensive look at the short fiction from one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time.

All of Clarkes short stories in one volume? What could better? I checked this out of the library and then bought my own copy after about a week. There are a few spelling errors, but who cares, really? All books have a few. This book is definetely worth having.

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 the majority of stories, I prefer sociologically/philosophically based science fiction, and it's very difficult to write science fiction that doesn't date somewhat (aliens sporting tentacles and names consisting only of consonants, bless them).

His style slightly reminded me of John Wyndham (I find both rather sweet and extraordinarily oblivious of feminism), and shared Wyndham's concern that we're going to do a great job of sending ourselves to a variety of hells if we don't watch out, satirising human prejudices and wars. The humourous stories were a lovely surprise and frequently had a clever sting in the tail, for instance the one about the man who tries to train a giant carnivorous orchid to munch up his irritating aunt, or the chap who designs the sets and equipment for a trashy space opera and ends up being picked up by aliens for accidentally revealing their state secrets. He also provided a new take on old cliches, such as suggesting that if aliens were to try to contact us, it wouldn't be all that straightforward: we'd either not take them seriously, or get the planet demolished by the rudeness of our reception, or they'd take one look and not believe their eyes. Well, he could have a point.

Sir Clarke himself gathered his own pithy "Golden Age" sci-fi short stories for the reader to peruse, and (unforgiveably numerous typesetting errors aside) what a selection here. In chronological order, he begins with his fine early work ("Rescue Party", "The Sentinel") and propels the reader into vignettes of lost space missions, time travel, and apocalyptic warnings from lunar monolith-depositing super beings. This anthology makes a convincing case for Clarke, who is the most commercially successful writer of the genre but hasn't received the critical acclaim given Heinlein, Bradbury, or Asimov. It's really not fair. Clarke so cleverly buries social commentary into his best work ("Imperial Earth") that the reader is lured into wondering whether the technical surroundings of his characters was a bi-product of his physics degree from the Royal Academy of Science or a result of early mentor/editor John W. Campbell's demand for commercial success in a post-WWII war-weary literary world. At any rate, Clarke is pleading with earthers to stop pointing those nasty lasers at each other and just get along. Or else.

This is a really cool collection of stories. Apparantly, Clarke's older stuff was much better than the newer stories, such as 2061 which was horrible. I can't imagine any sci fi lover not enjoying this book.

The number of typos and other errors in this book is astounding. I love all of these stories and am happy to have them all in one volume, but the incredibly bad editing is unforgivable -- Clarke deserves better.

It was about time somebody collected all of Clarke's short stories into one volume. I looked forward eagerly to re-reading them (I wore out my '50s and '60s paperbacks of Clarke's stories long ago). Sadly, the poor copyediting ruined this book for me. Tor must have hired some minimum-wage illiterate to keypunch the stories, then neglected to proofread any of them. There are mispellings on every page ("BEWARD OF LIONS"), and whole lines (or worse) are completely missing from many of the stories! (A whole *series* of paragraphs was missing from one of my favorite stories, "Superiority".)

I'm almost sorry I bought this book. You can buy it for its historical significance, but expect to be disappointed by its quality.

Finally, at long last, we get a (very nearly) complete collection of Arthur C. Clarke's short works all in one volume. This collection is very convenient to the ACC collector, because his short works are scattered across numerous volumes (many of which are out of print) and several are uncollected. 104 stories, nearly 1,000 pages... all classic Clarke works. His first published story Travel By Wire! (1937) is here, as is his most recent Improving The Neighborhood (1999), his only collaboration The Wire Continium (with Stephen Baxter, 1998), and similar novelties. The stories range in length from 33 words to over 18,000. There is also a nice introduction from Clarke. Prefaced to each story are notes on when and where it was first published (very useful information to the Clarke collector), what ACC retrospectives it has since appeared in, and (most of the time) some brief notes on the story from Clarke. The stories collected here are widely varying, from absolute classics of the genre like The Star, The Nine Billion Names of God, The Lion of Comarre, The Wall of Darkness, All The Time In The World, Breaking Strain, etc.; to "seed" shorts like The Sentinel, Guardian Angel, Earthlight, The Songs of Distant Earth, The Hammer of God, etc.; to light-hearted, hilarous SF romps like the numerous "White Hart" tales, Trouble With the Natives, How We Got To Mars (previouly uncollected), and more. With all these extras in mind, along with the fact that it contains several previously uncollected stories, this book is essential not only to the Clarke newbie, but also to the hardcore admirer who already owns most everything he has ever written. This long-awaited omnibus is truly an absolute must-own for any science fiction fan. Period.

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke is a splendid and entertaining plethora of all of Clarke's stories to date. From the hilarious first forays into SF (the previously uncollected 'How We Got To Mars') through all of his classics (The Sentinel, Earthlight, The 9 Billion Names Of God, and Songs Of Distant Earth, to just name a few), and right up to his most recent 'Improving the Neighborhood'. Clarke, truly one of the originators in the field of hard SF, has, and always will, influence SF writers for generations to come... Gary S. Potter Author/Poet.