Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008)

Alien visitors appear in the skies over the Earth. The Overlords seem to be benevolent but firm as they guide the Earth toward peace and international harmony. Their motives are not clear, but one thing they thwart is further exploration of space by man. It turns out that the Overlords are being directed by a higher authority -- the Overminds. The Overminds are gathering the energy found in some sentient beings with paranormal attributes. Their aim is use this energy to expand the fundamental forces governing the universe. This is a sort of evolution that will advance the essence of matter, space, and time. Not all humans possess this paranormal trait and only those who possess it are gathered and focused on the Overmind's plan. As the selected humans are altered toward the Overminds aims, the rest of Earth dissolves out of existance.

This short novel, written first in the early 1950's, reads as well today as it did so long in the past.… (more)

It's taken me almost four months to get through this volume, a few stories at a time, and reading other books concurrently; but I've now read every story. I can report that the stories are readable, amiable, and imaginative in terms of science and technology.

As fiction, however, they're mostly unmemorable; and of course I'd already read the more memorable of them elsewhere. I think my favourite is "Second Dawn" (1951), which is an old friend: I first read it long ago.

Clarke generally seemed more interested and more skilled in the future of science and technology than in fiction. However, these stories are old: as he says himself in the foreword, a third of them were written "when most people believed talk of space flight was complete lunacy". So they often seem rather quaint now that we're well into the 21st century.

For me, this collection wasn't really worth buying; except that, if I ever want a Clarke story, I now know where to find them all.

It's amazing to think that Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein were once regarded as the Big Three of science fiction. They all produced some memorable work, but on the whole their writings have dated badly by now. Science fiction does tend to age more rapidly than other kinds of fiction; especially science fiction about the future.… (more)

The book was written in parallel with the film, both of them before the first man stepped on the Moon, and they’re both dated by this. They survive by being well crafted, but they’re period pieces.

The book seems ponderous by modern standards. It tells quite an exciting story, but lingers over every detail: Clarke takes a scientist’s interest in everything that’s going on, and he assumes that his readers have the same interest.

It’s a classic story, the encounter between the human and the superhuman, and Clarke tells it well enough, he deserves credit for it. Each stage of the story is told competently, and yet in the manner of a scientist, without flair. It’s all a very odd business, because it comes to us from the late 1960s, a time of hallucinations, from a man born in 1917 who was largely immune to it all, and went his own way regardless.

I saw the film in about 1972, but I’d already read the book by then; I was surprised to discover that I no longer have it. I bought the Kindle version just recently in order to reread it. I don’t seem to have read it in the last 30 or 40 years. It’s not essential reading, but it seems an interesting part of the history of science fiction.… (more)

Interesting premise, but very little story and very slow pacing. There are only 3-4 main events in the book and climax is, while unexpected, bland.

[Spoilers] Aliens land on earth, and make earth utopia. How? Not mentioned exept they have unimaginable power of enforcement, surveillance, etc. Things somehow fall in place and world is all amazing. Then after many decades, children leave earth to combine with superior race of sentient minds. The end. There is telepathy involved. A guy goes to alien's home planet and describes wonders of flying creatures. A rebel group abduts head of United Nations but he is rescued.

There are parts which move well and keep you on your toes only for story arc to end abruptly without satisfaction. Then next story arc starts. Book is not unreadable to honest, but not somethign you'd want to put on your reading list.… (more)