Sir Arthur C. Clarke has passed away
He will be missed.
It is the end of an era. Clarke was one of the Big Three (Asimov, Heinlein, Clarke) who defined serious science fiction. Before these three, science fiction consisted of a few serious European writers (H.G. Wells and Jules Verne) and a plethora of forgotten American pulp writers who wrote in cheap magazines called things like “Amazing Space Wonder Stories” and had titles like “Invasion of the
Atom Monster of Mercury!”
The first Clarke book I read was CITY AND THE STARS, and if you see parallels between it and my own works, they may not be coincidence. Ironically, he is most famous for his works set in the shallows of the near future rather than the deep sea of the far future. He famously predicted (in the 1940’s) that we would reach the moon by the year 2000. No one predicted that we would reach the moon, and give up on the moon, by 2000.
May he rest in peace.
ADDENDUM: The author Susan Schwartz says this of Arthur C. Clarke, and it sums my sentiments so exactly, I must repeat it here:
There were giants in the Earth in those days.
About John C Wright
John C. Wright is a practicing philosopher, a retired attorney, newspaperman, and newspaper editor, and a published author of science fiction. Once a Houyhnhnm, he was expelled from the august ranks of purely rational beings when he fell in love; but retains an honorary title.
