Tuesday, April 24, 2007

"Reach for tommorrow" (collection): Annotated table of contents

This short story collection by Arthur Clarke was first published in 1956, & contains 12 stories published in desperate places over several years.

The only interesting stories in the collection are "Rescue Party", "Time's Arrow", & "Jupiter Five". And may be "Trouble with the Natives" & "The Possessed".

Here is the complete list of stories in the collection:

  1. "Rescue Party": Clarke's first published story. And a smaller version of "The Songs of Distant Earth".
  2. "A Walk in the Dark": Circumstances force a man to face the primeval fear of darkness.
  3. "The Forgotten Enemy": Coping with the next Ice Age.
  4. "Technical Error": An accidental electric short circuit opens fearsome new vistas.
  5. "The Parasite": Men from distant future play telepathic games across time.
  6. "The Fires Within": A man begins exploring interior of earth. And dooms humanity's future.
  7. "The Awakening": Man shall not inherit the earth!
  8. "Trouble with the Natives" (also called "Three Men in a Flying Saucer"): Humor. When aliens visited a little English village.
  9. "The Curse": Sad & nostalgic. Fate of a bombed city. This is the same story as "Nightfall", published under a different title for some reason.
  10. "Time's Arrow": A visit to Jurassic Park, reversed!
  11. "Jupiter Five": A shorter version of "Rendezvous with Rama".
  12. "The Possessed": Intellect in the abstract!

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