Arthur C. Clarke: Difference between revisions

One of the world's most famous science fiction writers, '''Arthur C. Clarke''' (1917 - 2008) was responsible for works such as ''[[Childhood's End]]'', the ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'' series, ''[[Rendezvous With Rama]]'' and ''[[The Songs of Distant Earth]]''. He influenced almost all the science fiction that has arrived in his wake, from ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' to ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]''. Much of his fiction features [[O. Henry]] style [[Twist Ending|twist endings]]s at the end of each story or chapter. He is considered one of the "Big Three" of [[Science Fiction]] along with [[Isaac Asimov]] and [[Robert A. Heinlein]]. He was the last of the Big Three to leave us, after [[Robert A. Heinlein|Heinlein]] and [[Isaac Asimov|Asimov]], in that order.

* ''[[2001: AThe Space Odyssey Series]]''

** ''[[The2001: A Space Odyssey Series]]''

** In a somewhat sad example, rarely do love interests work out for the good. A common phrase used in his collections of short stories is "married another man." In the ''Space Odyssey'' series, Heywood Floyd is divorced twice with the second time being on his way to Jupiter. In ''3001'' the first woman Poole falls for ends up horrified due to a 'deformation', and the second relationship falls apart romantically 15fifteen years after they get married and have kids.

** If you read his collected short stories, many of his 50's1950s stories involve his [[Author Appeal]] communications satellites. The difference between his stories and the eventual reality? His stories always feature ''manned'' Space Stations as the communication/broadcast satellites.

** ''"Who's There''" has a fluffy [[Tomato Surprise]]. {{spoiler|The reader is lead to believe by the character that something is trying to get into his spacesuit, or that the spacesuit is about to fail because it was repaired after a previous fatal accident. Instead, the astronaut is simply hearing the muffled noises and scratchings of three [[Everythings Cuter WithCute KittensKitten|kittens 'nesting' in the space suit and were born to the station mascot.]]}}.

** ''"The Nine Billion Names of God''" is about a religious sect who hire a computer and two technicians to compute the title names of god. {{spoiler|The technicians decide to cut and run before the program is finished to avoid the angry monks when the prophesied ending of the universe fails to come to pass. The final line is about how the stars were going out above them.}}

** ''"Breaking Strain''" is a story about Grant (ship captain), and McNeil (engineer) who become trapped on a wreckwrecked ship with only enough air to last one of them. The twist is {{spoiler|that Grant has badly misjudged Mc NeilMcNeil and Grant eventualeventually accepts his own death to allow Mc NeilMcNeil to survive}}.

** ''"Loophole''" has Martians telling Earth to stop rocketry research. Earth stops researching rockets. {{spoiler|Instead, they perfect matter transportation and bomb the Martians out of existence without launching a single rocket.}}

** ''"Hide and Seek''": {{spoiler|The reader expects the mysterious agent who avoided the warship to be the teller of the tale. Instead, the teller of the tale is the captain of the ship who was thrown out of the service for being unable to catch a single man with the fastest ship in the fleet}}.

** ''"Superiority''", where the twist isn't anything to do with the technology involved, but that {{spoiler|the narrator has been forced to share a prison cell with the man responsible for the downfall of his entire race.}}

** ''"Reunion''", where aliens approaching Earth reveal that humanity is one of their lost colonies. The aliens are aware that many humans contracted a disfiguring disease which caused hatred and suspicion over many centuries, but they have good news: {{spoiler|they can cure anyone who is still white.}}