The Wood Beyond The World Forum Arthur C. Clarke RIP

Another Grand Master gone... ; (

 

Nick

Sigh! Just another sign of getting older.

Arthur C. Clarke will indeed be missed   'Childhood's End" was one of my favorites of his books

 

ps   I have taken Dark Times down while I do some major revisions etc etc..  Leah prompted me to take another good look at Chapter Two and I have completely rewrittne it, cutting down on the number of  characters from 8 to 4... Little more manageable I think

Kathy B

A link to BBC article about Clarke's funeral.  In a sidebar there's a radio interview with Terry Pratchett concerning Clarke and his significance to sci-fi.

 

I suppose I will step forward and be a little bit of a sci-fi heretic here. Clarke was amazing when he wrote short stories. He was one of those writers that made me realize the power of that form. But when it came to novels, save Childhood's End, I feel his stuff sucked. Be it Rendezvous with Rama to the endless 2001 sequels, I saw the gem of a short story that got bloated into a novel just to sell.

Then again, I find that with many sci-fi writers. Some are great with novels, like David Brin, Iian Banks, etc. Yet there are those like Asimov, Niven, etc. whose voice worked better in the form of a short story. It's too bad the industry doesn't allow the writer to stay with the form that works for them. Of course, this is my most humble (yeah right) opinion.