|
|
/ Book Reviews | Get your free email address: you@dowse.com | UK
time: |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
Reviewed by Tony Lee This huge volume brings together about a hundred short stories from the world’s most famous living genre writer and, as such, it reads like a genuine historical document on the history and explosive growth of science fiction, as well as being the delivery vehicle for some vintage adventure tales - set on Earth, the planets and moons of our Solar system, and a host of imaginary worlds. What distinguishes Arthur C. Clarke from his peers, and rivals in the SF field is his great imagination. He’s not a literary writer or an intellectual or even a great stylist, like Brian Aldiss, J.G. Ballard, or Philip K. Dick. Whereas other writers in the business may concoct amazing and wonderful objects, then simply contrive situations to explain, explore or describe these things, Clarke’s work is somewhat different - and often goes one step further. He also imagines quite amazing and wonderful things, but he then sets out to demonstrate their consequences. In showing us what might happen if… Clarke, more than any other writer, has been tagged “a prophet of the space age” (something he’s keen to deny, in spite of his legendary ego). This means that his works (also more than any other SF authors) are closely scrutinised by detractors of the genre for their perceived lack of, or failed, predictive quality. Reading the wealth of vital fiction presented here, in timely order, goes a long way to discounting this criticism as, overall, it’s Clarke’s vaulting imagination, and unerring skill with the sort of twist endings that have long since fallen into cliché (though it’s important to remember that these used to be cutting-edge stuff!), that’s most obvious - and not his more recent rise to the exalted status of wise old guru, appearing on tabloid-TV with a half-chortled quote for populist science documentaries or SF-themed centennials. On the subject of SF themes, this collection packs in a full spectrum of genre concepts from the macrocosmic event to boffins’ gadgetry, from the domestic to the eternal. Even if you have not read every last one of these stories before (few will have, I think it’s fair to say) some may seem familiar because they formed the basis for, or were incorporated into, one of Clarke’s later novels. From the “absolute zero” of his Travel By Wire (1937) to the witty Improving The Neighbourhood (1999), Clarke’s imagination spans the far reaches and deep ranges of challenging, hard-SF ideas, and the stories (many previously anthologised, of course) remain entertaining reading, today (I’m compelled to add, with unrestrained enthusiasm - ‘especially’ today), making this book an essential purchase for any serious fan or student of SF. Tony Lee is editor of SF magazine The ZONE, published by Pigasus Press Tony Lee © 2001 Speculative
Fiction Book Reviews at the TTA Review
|
Antiques .
How
to make .
Suggest
links
|
*
|
THE
COLLECTED STORIES
Arthur C. Clarke |