"Islands in the Sky" (novel): Description of futuristic space stations

Very readable space adventure, but with a somewhat filmy presentation.

Story summary (spoiler).

This story is set in the mid twenty first century (or is it late twenty first - I forget). Told mostly in first person, it describes the adventures of a young man in near earth space & on a trip around moon - over a period spanning a few weeks.

Main protagonist, Roy Malcolm, wins an all-expenses-paid trip to "Inner Station" by winning a television quiz. This Inner Station is a space station about 500 km above earth, & is a kind of fueling & maintenance depot for space ships. Travel between earth & Station is via rocket powered machines that are somewhat advanced versions of NASA's current space shuttles.

This space station, & others described, don't look like the kind we normally read about. But the claim is they are realistic, if futuristic.

About half the story is a description of this station, & life aboard it. There are far more human interest elements here than in "Rendezvous with Rama" - another novel that is chiefly the description of a machine. Among the many generally interesting events & devices is the shooting of a movie in space that occupies not insubstantial part of this first half.

An interesting device described is a solar electric generator that doesn't use photo-voltaic elements, but a curved mirror to focus heat at a point - to heat water that will then be converted to electricity via a steam based generator! The mirror reminded me of the lens I sometimes used as a child to concentrate solar heat to make burn marks on dry twigs.

Much of later half of the story is adventure travel to other space stations & around moon in circumstances that are often very filmy. We are given a tour of a space station that is a hospital & a biology research center, much above the orbit of Inner Station. We are also shown how tiny earth creatures can grow to huge sizes in zero gravity conditions.

Next is an accidental trip around moon as part of a journey from hospital station to Inner Station! Here we are introduced to a new kind of space launch device: a kind of magnetic rail - several km long, with one end open, on the surface of the moon. To launch a payload, you accelerate it to moon-escape velocity & let it fall off open end! Because moon has much more curvature than earth, if enough velocity is given, the payload goes to space! No rockets!

We then go to one of the three Relay Stations in geosynchronous orbit - the kind of radio communication relays Clarke is often credited with first describing. Only they don't look anything like communications satellites we are familiar with. Also, in the scheme here, only 3 huge devices (and manned space stations at that) live in this orbit, 120 degrees apart - giving coverage over entire earth's surface. Presumably, some kind of UN agency must be running them, though it is not mentioned.

A few days after return to Inner Station, our friend must leave for earth via a space hotel - a machine very similar in concept to Rama, along with a swimming pool that is essentially a smaller version of Rama's cylindrical sea.

We are told Mars, Venus & Moon are now inhabited. This hotel, located in orbit of Inner Station a few kilometers away, provides three levels of Rama-style gravity - earth level, two thirds of it, & one third of it. This is used by travelers from smaller worlds to adjust to earth's higher gravity. Our friend will have to readjust as well, because he has spent some weeks in zero gravity.

In between, there are two stories told by people other than Roy.

One is a manned trip to Mercury's "night side". I am not sure the latest data supports the assumption that Mercury always shows same face to Sun, but this is an old story. We also meet an animal native to Mercury here!

Other story is of Martian colony. Chief highlight of this story is to tell us that current novel is kind of a sequel to "The Sands of Mars" - the story assumes background set by Sands.

One thing that was very obvious from this story, & also some other space travel stories of Clarke as also the Wikipedia article on NASA space shuttles, is something very familiar to every Mumbaikar: humans tend to litter when they are not being watched.

There are probably a lot of meteorites floating in earth orbit & in space that are man made, as also some of the stuff falling from the sky. You don't need something anymore? Just jettison. With luck, nobody will get hurt. At least not often enough for substantial court settlements! I am getting sympathetic with environmentalists!

Fact sheet.

"Islands in the Sky", novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1952
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A

See also.

1. "Rendezvous with Rama" (novel): Both stories are essentially about the description of a machine. Also, the space hotel near Inner Station is very similar in design to Rama, though of much smaller size.
   
2. "The Sands of Mars" (novel): There is a hint Islands is a kind of sequel to Sands.
3. Robert Heinlein's short story "Misfit" (1939) is about construction of space station, but at a scale much grander than Islands. And Heinlein's station won't orbit earth, but sun - between the orbits of earth & Mars - to support interplanetary traffic.
4. "Maelstrom II" (short story): Shares a small plot element with this story - space launches on moon via electromagnetic rail based catapults.
   

"Richter 10" (novel): Taming the earthquakes

First half of this book is outstanding; next quarter is good; last quarter is positively lousy, & completely unrelated to rest of the story.

The most irritating thing I find in all Clarkian novels - the tendency to spend a lot of time on threads totally unrelated to main story - is here in full glory. In spite of this, I have no hesitation in calling the first half the best among all Clarkian novels I have reviewed to date (current one is #17).

This story is actually not written by Clarke. It was written by late Mike McQuay to outline provided by Clarke - in a manner similar to Rama sequels.

Story summary (spoiler).

The story spans the lifetime of the main protagonist, Lewis Crane, beginning late 20th century.

There are three memorable scenes in the story, all in first half: a little boy rendered a cripple & an orphan by an earthquake in US; a callous administration letting an entire village die unnecessarily in Japan; & unscrupulous politicians & businessmen letting thousands die unnecessarily in big quake in US. Each of these scenes borders on horror, & yet there is a lot of optimism.

First scene introduces the hero, Lewis Crane. In a milder, but still very moving, variant of similar opener in Jean Auel's "The Clan of Cave Bear", the little boy loses use one arm, his parents, & his house in an earthquake in California.

Next we encounter Crane as an adult, world's foremost expert on earthquakes, a Nobel laureate, a top grade entrepreneur, & founder of the Foundation - his research organization. And now finally ready with his first big earthquake prediction months in advance - at a Japanese island called Sodo. The quake will destroy most of the island, & one entire inhabited village called Aikawa.

Only trouble is: no one believes Crane. Villagers & local government are unhappy because this prediction has ruined tourist traffic. Crane has collected world media for the event at a small spot on the island that will survive, & but a lot of media is covering the event from air.

And here we get the second big scene. Mayor arrives with cops to arrest Crane & deport him because they see him as scaremonger. That is when the quake hits. Everything is to prediction. When the dust settles, the village is a beach.

Crane is now a celebrity & harbinger of the evil. That is when he decides to raise funds for his bigger & super secret project: banish quakes by stopping all tectonic activity - by fusing together the plates comprising earth's crust at strategic places, about 50 locations in all. Using atomic bombs in a way that will direct their power towards earth's core, without any damage to surface.

Next major scene is a big quake prediction in some parts of the US bordering Mississippi river; in between, we have seen Crane directing rescue at a volcano (Pelee) affected island (Martinique) in the Mediterranean - but that was a minor thread. Only problem is: elections are soon due, & someone has figured a way to benefit from the quake. In a bizarre twist, field data of Foundation is intercepted & forged by the villain. Result is: Crane prediction is too soon by a few months. Crane loses credibility.

When Crane figures out the reason, & the fact that quack is still coming, there is a problem in communication - he needs to get credibility. Enter Harry Whetstone, his billionaire benefactor & friend. He convinces Harry to bet most of his $3b wealth on his prediction. And our friends go public with a wager: at 2:1 odds, our friends offer wagers of $50 each that quake will happen on new date. Wager is quickly lapped up.

Come D-day. Government is publicly denying any quake possibility. Public is against our friends, though there are sympathizers. In a relief camp set up at a safe location near to-be-worst-affected areas, Crane & his benefactor are arrested.

Of course, the quake hits as predicted. Our friends are on the scene directing relief. Crane emerges larger than life after the event. He has returned the $3b borrowed from friend, & now has enough money for his Foundation from the won wager that he no longer need depend on any external sources.

To kickstart his big project - the fusing of tectonic plates, Crane has some help from earth. About 20 years down, there will be a quake that will split much of California from rest of US, & make it a Pacific island. With widespread loss of life & property. And this event can be avoided - by putting the first "spot weld" joint somewhere in western US that will also substantially cut down the number of quakes worldwide.

He enlists political support, sets up a secure facility on the lines of US bomb making project in 1940s.

Rest of the story, about a quarter of the book, is bizarre - to say the least. And second rate, at least to me. And links with many tangent threads that have already been introduced into the story.

Falling apart of Crane with his main technical man Dan; Dan joining a muslim fundamentalist organization; terrorist attack on the secure facility that destroys the facility & kills Crane's wife & child; formation of an Islamic state within US. And introduction of more tangent threads - creation of a colony on moon, & their mining of water from permafrost on Mars rather than from Earth!

Among the other tangent threads in the story are: Middle East as a radioactive wasteland, a radioactive cloud that has been moving around earth for decades, ozone layer gone, Europe & US as Third World, & the world dominated by Africa & China. At one stage, we are told the world is 70% muslim, & US is mostly black & hispanic! These threads spread all through the book.

There is a stage where some sanity could have been introduced into the plot. Dan's key technical objection to Crane's fusion project are probably sound: there would not have been any life on earth if earth could not renew itself with tectonic activity; how do you know you are not banishing future life from earth? But this angle is never developed & quickly abandoned.

The book describes a lot of tech toys - brain implants, mood enhancing drugs, wrist-worn computers, projector-based televisions that normally use clouds & outside of public buildings as display surfaces, aural implants, flying cars, ... I wonder why just quake taming was not enough sf!

End of the book is the big quake in California. Crane & Dan have made peace, & will be committing suicide in the quake together!

Key characters.

1. Lewis Crane: Hero - the man who will banish the earthquakes.
2. Dan Newcombe aka Abu Talib: Close associate of Crane. The man who imparts mathematical rigor into Crane's predictions.
3. Lanie King: A computer simulation expert. Girlfriend of Dan, & later wife of Crane.
4. Harry Whetstone: Billionaire friend & benefactor of Crane. Plays a crucial role at one point in the plot.
5. Burt Hill: Kind of majordomo of Crane. The man of administration who ensures Crane can focus on important things, & not have to worry about details.
6. Sumi Chan: A Chinese woman in US who has faked her appearance, & hidden her sex from world for some weird & unfathomable reason. People think she is a he. Rises to be a US president in his male avatar, & later becomes second wife of Crane.
7. Kate Masters: A politician, & a friend of Lanie & Chan.
8. Mohammed Ishmael: A separatist & a terrorist. Prominent through the book, but is part of a tangent plot unrelated to main story.

Fact sheet.

Richter 10, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke & (Late) Mike McQuay
First published: 1996
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A

See also.

1. Jean Auel's "The Clan of Cave Bear": Opener where a child is the only survivor of an earthquake is very similar. Though Jean's story is more heartrending.
2. Robert Heinlein's first published story, "Life-Line" (1939). There is much similarity in plot - both stories involve predicting something that is well beyond our current capabilities, both see the main protagonist die at the end, & in both, the main protagonist plays a similar stunt to get recognition from public as a prophet rather than a charlatan - by betting a large sum of money with whoever prove the prophet wrong.
   
3. "The Ghost from the Grand Banks" has some very similar earthquake scenes. Also, volcano Pelee on islands named Martinique is involved.
   

"The Sands of Mars" (novel): Optimism galore, & very readable

This will easily qualify as among the best stories by Clarke - particularly the last third, or may be the last half. Be happy, & do the best you can - and gods will generally smile back! Sounds like Gita!

And by & large, it is a down to earth story, in spite of native Martian animals, technology to create a sun, & a few other exotics.

Story summary (spoiler).
Main story is about terrafarming Mars - by increasing oxygen content of local air to enable humans to live in the open.

There are three parts to the plot: a space voyage from Earth to Mars where new human colony is struggling to become self-sufficient; a skeptic's view of possibilities offered by the colony, & his conversion to their cause; & finally the terrafarming.

In between, there are sub-plots involving discovery of native Martian animals, Martian plants, a shorter version of "A Fall of Moondust", & a short romance.

I got a feeling that first third is partly autobiographical, though Clarke never says so.

Main protagonist, Martin Gibson, is a well known science fiction author. He is offered a free passage on the maiden run of Ares, a passenger liner between Earth & Mars. Expectation is to use his writing on the experiences as PR material by the firm running the ship.

There are detailed descriptions of by-rocket travel to space station in Earth's skies; transfer to liner; liner interiors & crew; an adventure mid way through; landing on one of the Martian moons; travel down by another rocket; & architectural details of the Martian city ("Port Lowell").

Gibson was not exactly a welcome visitor, but colonists accept the visit with grace. Middle third is about his conversion to someone who believes in the Martian story. If you have worked in half decent startup, you should have no difficulty associating with the process of conversion.

Last one third is about a mega-project ("Project Down", if I recall correctly) that is also super secret, except that the secret is revealed about midway through this mystery story - if you are paying attention. Though I had not guessed the exact form the new heat source will take.

Key characters.

1. Martin Gibson: Main protagonist.
2. Jimmy Spencer: Son of Gibson.
3. Warren Hadfield: Man in charge of "Port Lowell", one of the two cities on Mars. Most of action on Mars happens here. I forget the name of the other city.
4. Mayor Whittaker: Assistant to Warren.
5. Irene - Jimmy's girlfriend, & Warren's daughter

Fact sheet.
The Sands of Mars, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1951
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A

See also.

1. A small part of "Islands in the Sky", near end, suggests Islands is a sequel to Sands.
   
2. In "2010 Odyssey Two", aliens convert Jupiter into a sun - Lucifer - to terrafarm Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Here humans convert Phobos, a moon of Mars, into a sun to terrafarm Mars.
3. A sub-plot at about two thirds through the book involving a plane crash is almost a mini version of a "A Fall of Moondust". Robert Heinlein's "Searchlight" is also a similar shipwreck short story, but on moon.
   
4. "The Songs of Distant Earth" is the only other Clarkian novel I have read that shows this level optimism - though there is no doomsday scenario in this book.
5. First one third of the book appears to be autobiographical in the spirit of Hindi movies Aandhi & Guru - a highly fictionalized & dramatized account! The movies are in no way related to this book - except general tone. Note that Clarke never mentions of any autobiographical content - I am just guessing.

"Imperial Earth" (novel): Good book, notwithstanding the juvenile title

I kept postponing this book because of title. Sounds like one of those space empire stories. But the title is totally inappropriate. This is a story about very ordinary politics & diplomacy, in a rather exotic environment. And quite readable.

Story summary (spoiler).
There are three parts to the plot: a description of the life in a human colony on Titan (a moon of Saturn); a description of space voyage from Titan to Earth in a passenger liner; & the life on earth just a little before the year 3000 AD - time where the story is set.

Note that "3001 The Final Odyssey" is also set about the year 3000 AD. But I find Imperial Earth's descriptions far more realistic. In spite of rocket engines powered by man-made black holes, & people on earth living underground because it is much cheaper to melt the earth's crust than build over ground structures!

Duncan, the main protagonist, is a third generation clone & Titan resident. His grandfather clone made the colony viable by mining hydrogen far more cheaply there than on earth; & hydrogen is a popular jet propellent used in interplanetary ships. The family is very powerful among the Titan's ruling elite.

The voyage to earth is in a cylindrical (I think) ship with multiple levels (7 or 10 levels, I think). Aspects of voyage are described in painstaking detail, reminiscent of "Rendezvous with Rama" - though Rama was a very different kind of ship & story.

And this ship is powered with an engine that contains a tiny man-made black hole that sucks in large quantities of hydrogen, & releases energy that is then tapped!

Description of life on earth of about 3000 AD is fantastic (of course), but far less fantastic than in "3001 The Final Odyssey". We are also given a tour of Titanic, the ancient lost ship that has now been hauled from Atlantic bottom to New York & is a museum piece.

Among the many other wonders are a visit to a lagoon in Mediterranean with bio-engineered marine life that can mine gold from sea water (aka "The Man Who Ploghed the Sea"), & a design for supermassive antenna (comprising of linear elements) to search for extra-terrestrial life that will work on one of the outer moons of Saturn, but no closer to Sun, because of solar effects.

Key characters.

1. Duncan Mackenzie: Main protagonist, a third generation clone, & a member of the first family of human colony on Titan.
2. Karl: Minor role as a friend of Duncan; but their relationship is a love/hate mix.
3. Calindy: Common girlfriend of Duncan & Karl. Said to be a very smart woman.
4. George Washington: Guide of Duncan on earth.
5. Malcolm Mackenzie: Grandfather clone of Duncan, & a business & political hero on Titan.
6. Colin Mackenzie: Father clone of Duncan.
7. Aunt Ellen: Separated wife of Malcolm, & aunt to Duncan. Minor role.

Fact sheet.
Imperial Earth, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1976
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: A

See also.

1. "The Man Who Ploghed the Sea": This novel includes a variant of this story. Rather than a mechanical device that can mine arbitrary metals from sea water, this novel has a story of genetically engineered marine life to mine gold from the sea water.
2. "3001 The Final Odyssey": This novel also describes the life around the year 3000 AD. But I find the Imperial Earth description more realistic.
3. "The Ghost from the Grand Banks" has a Titanic salvage operation that will eventually make it a museum piece in Florida in US. Imperial Earth not only has a chapter titled "The Ghost from the Grand Banks", it actually has salvaged Titanic as part of a museum in New York.
   

"Exile of the Eons" aka "Nemesis" (short story): Socrates meets Hitler!

This is one of the more imaginative stories of Clarke. And well told.

And this story could not have been possible if quartz watches were around when the story was written. That should tell something of the age of the story.

Story summary (spoiler).
First thread of the story, the one involving the war monger ("Master"), begins almost in our time. After bringing a lot of world to ruin, Master is facing definite defeat soon. He is currently hiding somewhere in the Himalayas with with his coterie.

That is when he takes extreme action. Kills his coteries by deceit by assembling them in a gas chamber, & activating it after own escape.

He has already prepared a hibernation chamber for self in a cavity deep inside a Himalayan mountain. Inaccessible with the only entries sealed under massive piles of rock. Explosives are planted to blast himself out after awakening.

Goes to hibernation for 100 years. Any earlier appearance will mean definite trial for war crimes; any later, & world would have changed so much that he won't really be able to dominate.

Only problem is: all the fancy hibernation gadgets depend on a rather rudimentary clock. It is a kind of light sensor outside the mountains. It counts days by watching the sun's rise & fall. While it is triplicated, all three sensors are destroyed by a falling bomb while the war is still in closing stages.

So the dictator sleeps not for 100 years, but through geological ages. His mountains have been under the seas, risen again, & now slowly eroding with winds, rains, & snow.

Second thread of the story begins at this stage. Humans have been occupying the far flung reaches of galaxy for untold eons. And we see a trial of a philosopher for hearsay. The trial is very similar in spirit to Plato's "Apology" (though Apology is a far more readable book).

Philosopher refuses to change his opinions. Three options are presented: kill him (unthinkable - capital punishment has been off bound for eons); modify his mind using a machine (unthinkable - he is one of about a dozen best brains galaxy wide); & send him via a time machine to a future where his opinions can no longer affect human affairs.

Third option is adopted. He is sent, with ample supplies (including a building & a flyer), to earth at a time when earth has become a dead planet. Sun is much colder, earth is mostly a desert, & a day on earth is much longer.

He explores the earth after arrival in new time - a small place in his flyer, almost the sole living being on the planet, though air is still breathable.

That is how he encounters the hibernating Master, & awakens him. Now the philosopher comes from a era where telepathy was common. As Master is awakening, the philosopher learns of his deeds & targedy by probing his mind.

And kills this bad sample of humanity, choosing to live alone on this desolate earth.

See also.

1. Robert Heinlein's "Successful Operation": Another story where a dictator meets an unwelcome end.
   

Fact sheet.
Exile of the Eons, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Rating: A

This story has also been published under the following titles.

1. "Nemesis"

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Expedition to Earth"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"

"Loophole" (short story): Government bureaucracy doing what it does best - push the papers!

This engrossing piece of satire is written in a somewhat unconventional style - as a series of memos between government officials & departments.

Story summary (spoiler).
Martians have had a technology civilization for a while, while humans are still at a rather primitive stage. With advent of radio on earth, Martian government have been monitoring the development of earthlings.

That is when they detect the three US nuclear explosions - an initial test, & the two bombs dropped on Hiroshima & Nagasaki. A little later, they detect rockets being tested by earthlings.

They decide to act. Several Martian spaceships reach earth, & issue a warning: stick to earth, or face the consequences. No rockets & space exploration allowed for such violent beings.

We are told of above proceedings in the form of memos moving around in Martian bureaucracy - usually with very comic contents.

In the final act, we see the Martian civilization decimated. It seems, the earthlings invented Star Trek style material transporters when rockets were barred! And used that for attack Martians.

End is again a bit of humor, as the victorious earth soldiers on Mars are not too keen on traveling at speed of light via the beam, but would rather prefer rocket travel, & want earth to develop it for their transport!

See also.

1. "Travel by Wire!" (1937) (A): This story about a Star Trek type device to beam people & things around has an ending that shares sentiments of returning soldiers in Loophole. One of the inventors of beaming machines who is also behind the big electronic transportation empire prefers traveling the old fashioned way!
   

Fact sheet.
Loophole, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1946
Genre: Humor
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Expedition to Earth"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"

"Second Down" (short story): Symbiosis of hominids & cattle, with cattle as masters!

In spirit, this story has something in common with the story of Moonface in "2001 A Space Odyssey". But the link is tenuous; this is generally a different story.

It concerns the transformation of an almost animal community into a technological civilization. And is well written, even with some rather incredulous assumptions.

There is another view I can take of this story - as an allegory in the tradition of "Animal Farm" of George Orwell. Kind of relationship between those in services business, & those who dirty their hands with material things - who contributes more? But I doubt that was the view taken by author when this story was written.

Story summary (spoiler).
Story is set on a world different from earth, & concerns two different species of local animals.

From the descriptions, this world appears to be very similar to earth, except that there are two suns - a bright one like our sun, other just gives some orange colored light but no heat.

One of the species is what we would call cattle; other are hominid. But details are different from familiar forms. Story is essentially of cattle; hominids are secondary, & used as tools by cattle.

These cattle are very smart - very good at abstract mathematics & philosophy, but with no control whatever over their environment. Constant fight for food. No tools. Nomadic gazers under open skies. They are also telepathic - at least when communicating among own species, though they can communicate with sounds, & also have own forms of music & dance.

Hominids live on a tiny island in the delta of a river. From the descriptions, they appear to be at about the level of development that humans were about 10,000 years back. There is agriculture, village life, tools made from natural materials. Metals are about to be discovered.

There is a bit of anomaly here. Animals at this level of development, & confined to a single island in a river? While the cattle are hunted by carnivores, they are left in peace by hominids! Note at this stage, not only were humans everywhere on earth - including Americas, but the first Polynesians were were crossing half the Pacific in their tenuous canoes to colonize Hawaii!

OK - let's get back to story.

This is the situation when one of the smarter cattle members discovers this hominid community. He quickly has them dancing to his tune, & is treated by them as a godman. And he figures a way of combining the use of his kind's cattle-brains to these hominids that can control their environment.

Story ends in the two species comfortable in a kind of symbiotic relationship where cattle are masters.

And we are also shown some magic. In less than a generation, the combined civilization moves from hominids at the level of humans of about 10,000 years ago, to that of around 1400 AD!

Fact sheet.
Second Down, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Expedition to Earth"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"

"The City and the Stars" (novel): Harry Potter style fantasy

Best thing about this book is readability - at least the first 80% of it. Most of the time, I found it difficult to put it down. And that is when fantasy is not really my genre!

Last 10 or 20% is garbage - where some ultimate answers are given. Something that should be best left to Hitchhiker's Guide.

If you like Harry Potter, this will probably be an interesting book; if Potter bores you, this will too. Very simple test to determine your compatibility.

As an additional bait for Potter fans, you have a character called Vanamonde. He is not the villain here, but doesn't the name rhyme with Voldemort?

This is principally an adventure story - a restless man bored with his comfortable life, & seeking something different. It also has a very liberal sprinkling of Hindu mythology during first one third, a hell lot of fantasy all through, & some science fiction.

Among the cool stuff, you find everything you can name for a book labeled Speculative Fiction! There are immortals, telepathy, materialization/dematerialization devices, machines that respond to thoughts, aliens, energy beings, hive intelligence, spaceships that move faster than light, anti-gravity, worm holes in space-time, alternate universes, genetic engineering marvels, artificially created suns & planets, a variant of reincarnation, robots that can put Issac Asimov's robots to shame, weapons that can pulverize moon, self-sufficient closed habitat, virtual reality, computer games, utopia, religious cult, creatures that look like plants that move around, ... you name it! It's a massive cocktail.

So put reason aside, & enjoy the fantasy ride.

Story Summary (spoiler).
The story is set more than a billion years in future. Earth has lost its seas, & is nearly all of it desert. Moon no longer exists; it was destroyed by humans when it threatened to crash into earth at a time now long forgotten.

There are only two human communities on earth (or elsewhere) - physically very close together, psychologically completely disconnected. A closed habitat called Diaspar, & a collection of countryside villages called Lys.

Amazingly, members of these communities still look essentially like humans of today. Remember, we are talking of geological time. In this time, humans were created from probably pre-fish life forms! But we already agreed to put reason aside.

Our hero, Alvin, is a 20 year old child in a community of immortals. These immortals live in Diaspar, the closed habitat of a billion humans of which only about a 100 million are alive at a time.

What does that mean? This habitat is run by a robot that can digitize all information needed to recreate a human being, plus all or any of his/her selected memories. New individuals are continuously being created - but this creation is essentially materializing them from stored digital data. They live may be a 1000 years; then get dematerialized again into digital data to be rematerialized after a random amount of time in future.

This means there are no real children. You come out of the House of Creation fully developed, but your old memories will not return till about 20 years of age. And you are treated as a immature till you are may be a couple of centuries old.

There is an essential difference between these immortals, & current humans. They have a severe inbuilt fear of open spaces. None of them can even stand the thought of going outside the closed habitat. This situation is very similar to earth-inhabiting humans in Asimov's three Spacer novels (Caves of Steel, & two that followed it).

But our hero is different. He is one of the only a dozen Uniques the House of Creation has produced in all these billion years. He doesn't fear outside, & is in fact itchy to go there.

The story is of his adventures - to close by Lys country side community, to far off steller systems, & of helping rid his people of their fear of open spaces.

Influences.
There are at least two later books of Clarke that borrow major plot elements from this book: bio-magic in "Rama Revealed", & a somewhat sensible religious/philosophical discourse in the middle of "3001 The Final Odyssey".

Creatures that are plant-like & move slowly are also found in Space Odyssey sequels.

"The Light of Other Days" shares general style with this book in that it also tries to squeeze in every theme known to sf into the story!

According to Clarke's introduction, this book is a major rewrite of an earlier book - "Against the Fall of Night"; about 25% text is common. But I have not read this earlier book.

Fact sheet.
The City & the Stars, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Adventure, with a sprinkling of Hindu mythology, fantasy, & some science fiction
Rating: A

"The Fountains of Paradise" (novel): Extraordinary plot, ruined

This could have been among the best science fiction stories by anyone, but Clarke just keeps going on tangents rather than sticking to the main story. I felt a bit sad at the end; what a waste!

This also is among the most down to earth stories of Clarke, in company with "The Deep Range". Except for various diversions. Also, these two stories share a tenuous link via Thero, a kind of Dalai Lama of a fictional Buddhist sect based in Lanka; this was first introduced in Deep Range, & also gets substantial coverage in Fountains.

Story summary (spoiler).
Main story is about a concept called "space elevator". Depending on your perspective, it can be seen as an ordinary elevator of extraordinary size (some 40,000 km high), a space vehicle, or a subway.

Idea is to outdate the rockets that take off from earth, & make space travel affordable for ordinary people.

In a massive construction project, a space station will be connected to earth via a physical tower - a kind of very thick cable. All spacecraft will leave off the space station rather than earth - means much cheaper & environment friendly takeoff. You can buy a ticket for joy ride up the elevator, or for actual travel to moon, mars, or elsewhere.

It is the story of an entrepreneur civil engineer. Beginning with the concept, to getting funding, overcoming political opposition, handling displaced people, apart from the various technical aspects. Though handling displaced people has been treated as a joke here. I guess Mukesh Ambani might have done a more convincing job presenting this story, but Clarke does a good enough job - so long as he sticks to the main story. Main story is set sometime between 2100 AD & 2200 AD.

This main story is interwoven with several completely unrelated tangents: the story of a feudal empire in Lanka around 100 AD; story of an alien robotic spacecraft moving through our solar system aka "Rendezvous with Rama"; story of the Sun cooling down to turn earth into an icy wasteland aka first story in "History Lesson"; story of visit to earth of aliens that look like a more physical version of the Swarm in "The Possessed"; a rather juvenile story of our heroic boss of the whole enterprise rescuing some stranded explorers up in the tower during an accident. There might be more, but I can recollect these off hand.

It took me nearly 3 weeks to cover first 20% - story begins on one of the tangents. Around 20% mark, real story begins & for a while you cannot put the book down.

Then the alien robotic spacecraft visits. It is both similar to Rama & different. For one thing, it is very talkative - likes to converse with humans. It is cylindrical, but main craft has dimensions only in meters rather than kilometers. But it has a 500 km diameter antenna for communicating with its home world!

Then again the main story continues well for a while, amid reports of changes happening to the Sun.

Rescue drama begins when you are may be 60 or 70% through the book, & occupies most of the remaining pages. It is not only juvenile, but very filmy - everything that can go wrong does but one at a time, keeping you reading far longer than necessary.

Last 5% is set in about 4000 AD. We meet an alien who is a more physical version of the Swarm of "The Possessed". This is also where we have not only the original space elevator in working condition, but many more across earth, all linked together in space - forming a ring habitat; interior of this habitat will be detailed in the first one third of "3001 The Final Odyssey". You also see earth that is essentially uninhabited because it has now turned into an icy wasteland aka first story in "History Lesson"; humans live in ring habitat up in the sky, & also on Venus & Mercury which are now both habitable.

This is not a book worth skipping. But I had to skip a lot of pages on first reading; then came back to go through the fillers.

Putting the height of space elevator in perspective.
It is easy to read numbers like 36 or 40 thousand kilometers tall. Yes, it sounds tall - but how tall?

This is about the size of the perimeter of earth. Or about 3 times the diameter of earth!

This is also 7% the distance to moon. 15 such structures, & you can drive to moon!

An ordinary commercial jetliner will make you sit for over 40 hours to travel this distance.

How realistic is the concept of space elevators?
There are actually a lot of documents on the subject. I include only a few "not boring" articles meant for general public.

1. "Space elevators"
2. LiftPort's space elevator projects' discussion at Slashdot.
   

Fact sheet.
The Fountains of Paradise, novel, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Science fiction, with a sprinkling of fantasy & ancient feudal history
First published: 1979
Rating: A
Hugo Award winner in novel category in 1980

See also.

1. This article includes illustrations of space elevator anchors at earth end & sky end (near the bottom of the article).
   
2. "The Ghost from the Grand Banks" also has an unrelated small subplot at the end where aliens investigate a now barren earth.
3. All Hugo Award stories.

"Moving Spirit" (short story): A man copes with sin taxes

This lovely little piece of humor is set in England around the time of war. I presume one of the world wars is meant. But it might as well have been set in India of 1970s or 80s; situation is very familiar.

Story summary (spoiler).
In a little town, you have alcohol shortages, governmental rationing, & a prohibition on brewing. Plus ordinary citizens have to pay several hundred percent sin tax on it. Of course, citizenry doesn't like it.

Our hero anyway brews at home - for own consumption, but he is still in violation of regulations. On one of these brewing occasions, there is a little accidental blast - no real damage, but a lot of noise. It was a coincidence that among the neighborhood that heard the noise & rushed to help was a tax inspector. Of course, there was smell of alcohol all over the place. Everyone understood, except the tax inspector.

Much of the story is a court room drama. Real meat of the story is the ingenious arguments of defense that get our man off the hook in a hurry. I really wonder why a lot of movies have not copied this defense. It's beautiful.

And then, there is a final twist - after the man is freed of charges. You know, one of those little incidents that make you smile in irony!

Fact sheet.
Moving Spirit, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Humor
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Tales from the White Hart"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"

"The Ultimate Melody" (short story): Why do you like some music tracks, but not others?

This must be one of the very few Clarkian stories that border on being somewhat philosophical.

Story summary (spoiler).
We know about circadian rhythms - those bodily cycles that said to be linked to your body's clock. I am not sure if these are what Clarke means by rhythms of the mind, but let's assume they are the same - for the purpose of this article.

Here is the central thesis of this story: When an ECG machine captures the activity of your brain, what we see on display is a wavy thing that looks like it's rhythmic. And these rhythms vary with stimulus, moods, health, etc. Could likable music's rythms have something in common with these mind rhythms?

So the hero, a doctor specializing in brain activity gets interested in the correlation. And a businessman is interested too - far, how much money can be made by a music publisher if you could always produce hit tunes?

Well - the search for the ultimate melody, to which all hit music is supposed to be but a crude approximation, is ultimately found. And a major disaster results!

Fact sheet.
The Ultimate Melody, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1956
Rating: A

See also.

1. Henry Kuttner's "Nothing but Gingerbread Left": Uses a similar idea - employing the power of catchy chants as a weapon during an alternate version of World War II.
   
2. "Patent Pending": Another story by Clarke that involves a machine that lets you experience virtual reality. But nothing else is common between these two stories.
3. "Big Game Hunt": Another story involving direct manipulation of nervous system's electrical activity to generate desirable behavior.
   

Collected in.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Tales from the White Hart"

"Sleeping Beauty" (short story): A cure for your snoring problems!

Welcome the modern equivalent of the great Druid from the village of Indomitable Gauls. The maker of impossible potions. Because this one is modern, he injects them into your body via a syringe rather than making you drink it. But that is about the only difference.

Enjoy in this lovely piece of humor.

Story summary (spoiler).

A man gets ultimatum from his wife: do something about your snoring, or we are parting ways!

There is an additional complication: the man is to inherit a small fortune bequeathed by an uncle five years down, but only on condition that he has never been divorced till the time he gets the money! Can you count the number of movies with some variant or other of this constraint? I know there are a lot in Hindi.

OK - so he approaches the druid - an uncle who is a professor of biochemistry, or something.

Uncle is aware of the will. He extracts a bit of money immediately, & a contract to a part of fortune that will eventually come. In return, he promises to do what he can.

A while later, the snorer is injected with a newly brewed drug by professor. But he is not told that he is the first guinea pig of the wonder drug. Result is magical. Snoring is completely cured. So is the sleep!

Our snorer will never need to sleep again.

Part of the following story is concerned with speculation of how you will use all your extra time if you never needed to sleep.

But another fatal problem is surfacing. Because our man doesn't sleep, he cannot spend much time in bedroom with his wife. He gets out about midnight, & keeps himself occupied with nightly adventures.

Wife is not amused. She would rather have her snorer back!

Another visit to professor. An antidote is delivered. Unfortunately, the professor dies soon after administering drug - in a lab accident.

And, of course, need-to-sleep problem is cured, without snoring, & far better than anyone had hoped for! Our snorer never need to be awake again! Becomes a Kumbhkaran, the demon who loved to sleep - even truer than the original.

No one is complaining, least of all the wife who gets to enjoy the fortune without being burdened with a man of extremes.

Fact sheet.

Sleeping Beauty, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Comedy
First published: 1957
Rating: A
See also: Other Clarkian comedies.

This story appears in the following collections.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Tales from the White Hart"

"The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch" (short story): Don't fear the complicated title, please

It was the tongue-twister title of this story that I first found attractive - in a perverse sort of way. After dusting my 20 year old nearly unused Webster (I had brought it because of beautiful bright red cover!), I found the meaning of "defenestration": throwing someone or something out of window. Ermintrude is the name of a women who happens to be the heroine of the story; Inch is her surname, & her husband's.

The story is actually is a timeless piece of humor - told since times immemorial in all cultures. And yet, every telling is different. And often attractive.

Story summary (spoiler).
A man - a sound engineer - feels harassed by his wife, because she speaks too much! After one of their numerous quarrels (wife thinks she hardly speaks, ever!), he decides to do something about it.

Result is what Clarke calls Word Counter (I think), but a more appropriate name would be "Wife Silencer". Or may be "Spouse Silencer", to be politically correct.

This is an ingenious piece of electronics that can isolate words in spoken language, & can associate each word with a speaker. When switched on, every word the wife utters in the living room will increment a very visible counter called Hers; & man's word will increment the counter named His.

On the first run of a few hours, wife's counter beats man's by a factor of 100. And wife is somewhat silenced. Over next several days, situation begins to turn towards a semblance of equality, though wife still beats man by a factor of 2.

But she is feeling depressed. Says she feels stifled because of readily visible counters. OK - the man juggles the gadget so the mike is hidden in living room, & rest of the gadget in another corner of home. A temper-proof seal is attached to now invisible counters - it will be opened a week hence.

Routine becomes normal. until the seal is broken a week down the line. And surprise - man's counter beats woman's by 100! Man is incredulous, & begins debugging the machine. Defenestration occurs when he identifies the cause.

And there is a final twist yet remaining in the tale!

Well told, & enjoyable tale.

Fact sheet.
The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Comedy
Rating: A

See also.

1. "Silence Please": This story introduced a more general purpose silencer. But gadget of our current story should appeal to more entrepreneurs - because of much larger market!
2. "The Reluctant Orchid": Some of emotions of main protagonists are very similar.

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Tales from the White Hart"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"

"Time's Arrow" (short story): A visit to Jurassic Park, reversed!

I had been wondering why there has been no story involving a time machine by Clarke. And here it comes.

In spite of having seen several time travel movies, I find this story original.

Story summary (spoiler).
A group of paleontologists have hit upon a geological discovery of some importance - fossilized bed on an ancient riverbed with footprints of a big dinosaur. The story is about reconstructing the physical path the dinosaur took around this location.

Looks like the beast stopped in the wet riverbed, then saw something interesting, & ran towards it. So our friends painstakingly dig the ground towards the source of interest.

Near the digging site is an enigmatic facility of several buildings. No one really knows for sure what goes on there - so the speculation is wild: perhaps it is a governmental atomic facility, perhaps it is about a great new invention funded by private investors, ...

Until one day there is an accident. The facility vanishes. And the diggers discover what it was that the dinosaur found interesting!

See also.

1. Two similar stories, L Sprague de Camp's "A Gun for Dinosaur" & Ray Bradbury's "A Sound of Thunder", are interesting variations on this story.
   

Fact sheet.
Time's Arrow, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Science fiction
First Published: 1952
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Reach for tomorrow"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"

"Rescue Party" (short story, free): First of Clarke, also mother of all his stories

According to Clarke's opening remarks in the story collection "Reach for Tomorrow", "Rescue Party" is not only his first published story, but shares the roots with another story - "History Lesson". Also see the note on first story near end of this article.

After reading it, I am getting a feeling that this also is the mother story of all of Clarke's life. Just too many ideas in his later stories already appear here! And it must be among the most influential science fiction stories by anyone; see Influences section below.

Full text of this story is available online (link via Sf Signal & Free SF Reader). I've not read this online version.

Story summary (spoiler).
This doomsday story is set in about 2200 AD.

Sun is about to blast, & will take earth & rest of solar system with it. A kind of galactic administration of aliens not aware of the existence of humans suddenly learns two facts:

1. That our Sun will burst - less than 10 hours before the event.
2. That it contains a world inhabited by intelligent beings. It seems - these beings discovered radio 200 years back, & one of their transmissions has just been intercepted by a alien station 200 light years from earth.

There is a ship of galactic administration just about a billion miles of earth. It is entrusted with the job of rescuing what intelligent creatures it can from the doomed earth. It will have just about 4 hours on earth, after accounting for the time needed to reach it & then to escape.

Will they be able to help humans?

Influences.
I enumerate here those of Clarke's stories that carry influences from this story. Note that I haven't probably read even half of his total work - so this list will likely expand in future!

1. Expand this story a bit, & you get "The Songs of Distant Earth". Another very similar story is "The Star".
2. Alien ship in question is a cylindrical one, with kilometer scale dimensions. Its elaboration will yield "Rendezvous with Rama". Plus the ships in its 3 sequels.
3. "History Lesson" is similar in that Sun is changing in a way that dooms earth. But rather than exploding, it cools - to turn earth into an icy wasteland. But both the response of humans to the event, & story ending, are very different.
4. In "History Lesson", aliens begin drawing funny conclusions about humans by interpreting the scenes in a movie reel. Something very similar happens here; early in their search on earth, they find a portrait of a man & begin wondering how the poor bipeds managed with just 4 limbs & 2 eyes - may be they have more eyes in the back not visible in this primitive 2D portrait!
   
5. There is a brief mention of a black rectangle that gives the illusion of having infinite depth. This reminded me of the various Monoliths (TMAs) in Space Odyssey series.
6. Tentacled aliens in this story might have morphed into octospiders seen in various Rama sequels.
7. Galactic administration entrusted with their duties by powers beyond the beginning of time reminds me of the end of "Rama Revealed". The powers beyond the beginning of time also appear to be indistinguishable from Brahma, the Creator, of Hindu Trinity (other two are Vishnu - the Executive, & Shiva - the Destroyer; these two don't have any avatars here).
8. While beginning operation rescue humans on earth, these tentacled aliens carry a paralyzer because they will likely have to do forcible evacuations because of lack of time. In "Rama Revealed", octospiders actually use paralyzers when they "kidnap" a woman.
   
9. Galactic survey ship, & the survey administration, here is very similar in concept to the one in "Encounter at Down".
10. Aliens keeping a watch on development of earthlings, among other promising beings across galaxy, is found in Space Odyssey series, & in "The Sentinel".
11. Benign aliens helping intelligent beings everywhere in galaxy is an idea you also find in "2001 A Space Odyssey". Though its sequels somewhat dilute it.
12. Anti-gravity devices mentioned here are also seen in "3001 The Final Odyssey", but with a different application - to power a spaceship.
    

I am also aware of some stories by Issac Asimov that have ideas very similar to those in this story:

1. You find Issac Asimov's Gaia here, as Palador; one of his Foundation sequels - "Foundation's Edge" - introduced it; another of his novels - "Foundation & Earth" - further developed it. Another of Asimov's novels - "Nemesis" - also has a planet scale hive intelligence. Palador in this story is very similar to Gaia, not the one in Nemesis.
2. The idea of a Sun blasting, & rescue of an entire planet, is also the theme of Asimov's novel "Currents of Space".
3. Galactic administration described here could have been Asimov's Empire, though Clarke doesn't really elaborate the administration part. And Asimov's Empire was of human origin, & his stories on the subject focused mostly on the politics.
4. I recall more than one of Asimov's sequels to Foundation series that had anti-gravity devices, though in different applications - as an ordinary elevator & a spaceship.

Trivia.
You get a feeling of the age of the story when you see mentions of "vacuum tubes" (as in computers), or of cupboards full of some 5 million punched cards! But they don't hamper readability.

Is it really the first story by Clarke?
When I originally wrote this article, I had referred to Clarke's "Reach for Tomorrow". Here is the quote: '"Rescue Party", which was written in 1945, was my first published story'. The publication actually happened a year later, in 1946.

I now (on 25 August 2007) hold in my hands "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke". And here is the quote from introduction to first story in the book - "Travel by Wire!": "'Travel by Wire!' was my first published story."

Actually, the later appears right. "Travel by Wire!" was published in 1937 in Amateur Science Fiction Stories; "Rescue Party" was first published May 1946 issue of Astounding Science-Fiction.

Based on Clarke's other remarks introducing "Travel by Wire!", he seems to think this was published in one of the fan magazines while "Rescue Party" was in a mainstream publication; also that Travel is probably of lower quality than his later works. I actually find Travel to be among his best stories.

Fact sheet.
Rescue Party, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Science fiction
First published: 1946 (in "Astounding Science Fiction")
Rating: A

Series: "Rescue Party" (A), "The Songs of Distant Earth" (A)

Collected in.

1. "Reach for tomorrow"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"
4. "The Sentinel (collection)"
5. "More Than One Universe"
6. David Drake, Jim Baen, & Eric Flint (Ed)'s "The World Turned Upside Down"
   

"The Pacifist" (short story): Tale of a naughty computer

This comedy is about a computer that rebelled. Or was made to. Or may be the programmer rebelled.

This is primarily the story of the dynamics of a software development team, with a Dilbertian flavor. But you should be able to connect with the story if you work in any kind of project team.

There are portions that are dated - like programming a computer by also tinkering with its circuits, or by adding static data to a piece of software by installing physical memory banks & loading them from a tape. But this story is from 1950s. Modern views of software were not yet in. And none of this comes in the way.

Story summary (spoiler).
A team is enlisted to build a piece of software for military operations. Team includes some very talented engineers.

Twist is in the form of a clueless, Pointy-type, manager who has got the position because of extra-curricular skills. And learns some very embarrassing lessons in managing highly technical staff.

Fact sheet.
The Pacifist, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1956
Rating: B

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Tales from the White Hart"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"

"Silence Please" (short story): The ultimate silencer

Imagine you could cancel ambient noise using a device like an ordinary audio system. Not a noise-canceling headphone. We want to make an entire hall or theater silent.

Now imagine the kind of pranks you can play.

Story summary (spoiler).
This is a comedy where a college theater show is wrecked by such a device. One moment, the actors are saying something. Next moment, it's only silence!

I wish he had chosen one of numerous & noisy political rallies or slogan-shouting protest marches in India as example! Would be so much fun.

Good story.

Fact sheet.
Silence Please, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Science fiction
First published: 1954
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "Tales from the White Hart"
2. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"

"Superiority" (short story): Dilbert in prose

Every time I begin to get bored with Clarke's stuff, he throws in a surprise. This is an outstanding & hilarious comedy - probably the best single story I have read yet of Arthur Clarke.

He anticipates Dilbert by decades. If you manage a business or a project, you will find a lot you can relate to. It also is a story about rolling out new technology in an enterprise - what the software industry calls deployment. A 1951 story still totally relevant today, wow!

Story summary (spoiler).
The plot is about a war. One side has vastly superior technology & financial resources - too superior for its own good! Other side wins by shear tenaciousness, & ruthless focus. Hare vs tortoise.

Comic situations are all on the superior side. They begin with vastly larger number of war machines, their machines are more efficient too, & they have been the winning side till now. And then they get a new technology head - a true geek.

Now this geek looks at deployed war machines, & wonders why we are still using 100 year old technology - only innovations, of late, in weapons have been minor tinkering. Cannot we change the paradigm, & quickly end the war?

He convinces the generals to instead use his new weapon, the "Sphere of Annihilation". When activated, it makes all matter within several hundred meters of it vanish. Demonstrations are very convincing. Deployment begins. Ouch - it annihilates its own ship! OK - so then need to be mounted on missiles. But existing missiles cannot carry its heavy load - need minor improvements, etc. You get the idea.

On the battlefront, war situation has been changing. Enemy is not only sticking to old technology, they have been producing those weapons in great numbers.

No problem, the geek says. He has yet another weapon that can compensate for loss of advantage in conventional weaponry, while the Sphere is undergoing teething troubles. It's "Battle Analyzer" - a computerized system that can double the effectiveness of a conventional warship.

When the Analyzer deployment begins, we begin seeing little issues. This machine needs some 500 odd technicians to operate. We need to both train the technicians, & make space for them on the warship. Of course, fewer numbers are actually trained than planned. And to house the additional technicians not on duty, an unarmed liner will accompany the equipped warships. Of course, the enemy quickly figures out the simple way to win - destroy the liner.

Battlefront situation has become grim for the superior side; enemy is knocking on their own door.

Ever an optimist, our geek produces yet another wonderful weapon - "The Exponential Field". It is both defensive & tactical. On the press of a button, it distorts the space around its location in a way that you effectively move far away along a fourth spatial dimension - relative to your physical neighborhood when field was not active.

How do you use it? When cornered, you activate the field, & vanish! When attacking, you suddenly appear in the midst of the enemy & surprise them. Wonderful. Only there is a little glitch. After a couple of uses, deactivation leaves you a little away from target, & the various precision systems on board have been failing - including intership communications.

Some debugging sessions later, we are told the deactivation doesn't move all matter displaced to exactly the original location; there are computational errors. Original particles of matter have moved very slightly around relative their immediate neighborhood. This, of course, kills all electronics. We are not told why it doesn't kill the humans on board, but why do nit picking?

I am not complaining. Fantastic story.

Trivia.
When introducing this story in "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke", Clarke mentions the inspiration rooted in World War II: "German V2 rocket program" - an inter-continental ballistic missile program, too late to influence war & sapped resources - made Germans as the superior side; Allies were the inferior side that won.

Fact sheet.
Superiority, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Humor
First published: Magazine of Science Fiction & Fantasy, August 1951
Rating: A

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Expedition to Earth"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"
4. "More Than One Universe"

See also.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Allamagoosa" (A), & James P Hogan's "Making Light" (A): Other lovely Dilbertian tales, but about organizational bureaucracy. Similar tone.
   
2. A device that lets you move along a fourth spacial dimension also features in Arthur Clarke's "Technical Error".
   

"Breaking Strain" (short story): Very readable, though dated plot

This 60 year old thriller should properly be called a long story rather than a short one - it's much longer than many of the Clarke's short stories.

While introducing this story in "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke", there is a mention that this "was one of the stories incorporated into the film and novel, 2001".

Story summary (spoiler).
This is a shipwreck & survival story with a very dated theme: Of the two travelers in the ship, there is food enough (till rescue) only for one. Should both die, or one lives? If later, who lives?

Since it is a space travel story - a freighter on earth/Venus route is the one affected - what runs out is not food but oxygen. A little meteor has hit the ship at a vital place, blasting away a major portion of onboard oxygen. And there is nothing onboard to break the carbon dioxide being produced by passengers back to breathable oxygen.

I occasionally found the narrative too long & suspense too obvious, but it is still a good story.

Good reading.

Some technicalities.
This story also describes a spaceship shape different from that common in Clarke's other stories: a dumbbell shape rather than a rotating cylinder or spherical. Only other story I recall with dumbell shape is in "2010 Odyssey 2": the wreck left by "2001 A Space Odeyssy" is described as a craft with this shape; I do not recall if 2001 elaborated on this shape.

And Clarke is more specific on dumbbell design here: a 50 meter diameter sphere at one end; 20 meter sphere at the other end; connected with a 100 meter long cylinder of undescribed diameter. Bigger sphere is living & operational quarters; smaller sphere houses atomic motors that are off bound to all organic matter; what the cylinder contains in not described.

Fact sheet.
Breaking strain, short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
Genre: Thriller
First published: Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1949 under the title "Thirty Seconds - Thirty -Days".
Rating: A

This story has also been published under these titles.

1. "Thirty Seconds Thirty Days"

The story appears in the following collections.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Expedition to Earth"
3. "Across the Sea of Stars"
4. "The Sentinel (collection)"

See also.

1. Eric Frank Russell's "Jay Score": Published 8 years before this story by Clarke, it is a very similar plot but different tension - meteor hit on earth to Venus run kills propulsion system, making the ship head for the Sun! Very good ending.
   
2. "Arthur C Clarke's Venus Prime, Volume 1" of 6: An expanded version of this story as a novel. This novel is by Paul Preuss, apparently with Clarke's blessings.
3. Larry Niven's "How the Heroes Die": Similar in that only one of the two men can live - because there is oxygen enough for only one to reach back to safety. But rest of the plot is very different.
   

"The Reluctant Orchid" (short story): A murder gone wrong

This engaging little tale relies for its science fiction part on the unusual murder weapon.

Story summary (spoiler).

A loner with low self esteem is living in isolation, feels bullied by his dog-trainer aunt, & decides to kill her.

This loner also has a well-respected-by-peers hobby - he is a very good orchid grower. On one of his visits to the dealer, he bargains a little unfamiliar orchid that looks dead. And plants it in his nursery.

After a while, he has more than he bargained for! This orchid is carnivorous - has grown large tendrils, has a well developed nervous system, can produce intriguing sounds, & eats meat.

Our villain decides to use this orchid as a murder weapon. So he trains the orchid - kind of preparing it for the big event.

On D-day, he brings his aunt within easy reach of the orchid. And something amazing happens!

Very good story.

See also.

1. Tom Williams' "Florescence" from Antipodean SF, #111 (August/Sseptember 2007): Generally similar theme, but a far less interesting story compared to Clarke's.

Fact sheet.

"The Reluctant Orchid", short story, review
Author: Arthur C Clarke
First published: 1956
Rating: A

Collected in.

1. "The Collected Stories of Arthur C Clarke"
2. "Tales from the White Hart"
3. "Of Time and Stars"
4. "Across the Sea of Stars"
5. "More Than One Universe"