His first
short-story appearing 15 years before his first novel, much of Arthur C.
Clarke’s oeuvre is to be found in short fiction. In fact, despite the success of the novels
that were to come—Childhood’s End, Rendezvous with Rama, and The City & the Stars among them,
Clarke produced as much short fiction in the middle and end of his career as
the beginning. Thinking he had reached
the point so many other successful writers do, i.e that which the author has
honed their skills to the point they can focus on novel-length works, in 1973
Sphere decided to publish Clarke’s best-of short fiction. Little did they know he would nearly double
the number of short stories that would come.
The Best of Arthur C. Clarke:
1937-1971 must therefore be taken with a caveat: everything hereafter is in
reference to the first half of Clarke’s writing career.
From the
first story Clarke ever had published to his most recent novella as of 1971, The Best of Arthur C. Clarke: 1937-1971
is a retrospective that loosely covers Clarke’s evolution as a writer. There
are some gaps. From the ridiculously
simplistic to the more complex, the collection also reveals the transition of
the genre. The six pages of “Travel by
Wire!” is a brief, minimalistic glimpse of transferring matter via electrical
cable while A Meeting with Medusa is
a hard-science adventure of the first manned flight in Jupiter’s
atmosphere. Several of Clarke’s other
collections more organic in form (i.e. collections resulting from the natural
rather than forced accumulation of material), The Best of Arthur C. Clarke: 1937-1971 may not be the best place
to jump in, but does contain a handful of quality stories.
The appeal
of the collection to modern readers of science fiction depends largely on what
expectations they bring to the table. If
the reader is looking for retro science puzzles of one or two dimensions, then
it’s highly possible The Best of Arthur
C. Clarke: 1937-1971 will be enjoyable; it’s difficult to go wrong with
Clarke if Earth’s knowledge extrapolated into unassuming tales of space are
your cup of tea. Mars’ moon an
interesting hunting ground, “Hide and Seek” is the story of a space ship seeking
a secret agent on Phobos. “Into the
Comet”, with its abacus computing; “Summertime on Icarus”, with its tale of an
astronaut stranded on a planetoid whose horizon line is about to sizzle him
whole; and “Sunjammer” and its solar sailing—all utilize physics and astrology
in easy-to-read, (semi-)thrilling stories.
And there
are more conventional stories. “Refugee”
draws British royalty into the wonder of space; “Venture the Moon”, actually a
mini-collection of linked vignettes, light-heartedly looks at humanity’s first
trip to the moon; “Second Dawn” is one of Clarke’s first alien stories (if not
the first) that tells of a highly intelligent species with little technology of
their own and how they go about getting additional technology; “Retreat from
Earth” is a one-off pulp era/B-movie look at insects; “Castaway” and “The
Awakening” are early pieces that would go on to have influence on later Clarke
works, their protean forms incomplete; “Hate”, is the story of a pearl diver
whose enmity against Russians meets a big surprise; and “Death and the
Senator”, despite its atypical structure, tells a familiar tale but in a
science fiction story of medical proportion.
The best
of the collection, however, are certain.
“The Sentinel”, precursor to 2001:
A Space Odyssey, describes a scientist’s discovery of a strange artifact on
the moon; “History Lesson”, a story about an ice age that engulfs a planet
later discovered by aliens; and “The Star”, the story of a species fighting against
a fate which dooms their race are the highlights. These stories most effectively express
Clarke’s innate humanism in the context of space, and despite all of the
intelligent speculation on science, are what make him the writer of regard he
is.
Interestingly,
the collection excludes “The Nine Billion Names of God”, “The Forgotten Enemy”,
“The Wall of Darkness”, “The Lion of Comarre”, “Before Eden”, “The Food of the
Gods”—all of which are among Clarke’s better known stories, leaving me to
conclude one of the following scenarios was in place: the editor’s view of
‘best-of’ was not along lines of popularity, rights were not available to
certain stories, or there were space limitations. Anyway you look at it, however, some of the
significant pieces from Clarke’s early oeuvre are missing.
In the
end, The Best of Arthur C. Clarke 1937
-1971 is a dated collection in more ways than one. Gollancz’s 2000 The Collected Short Stories of Arthur C. Clarke makes apparent the
30 additional years of success Clarke would have publishing, while presentation
in the stories which are included is literally of another era. Possessing a mid-20th century style and
approach, the majority of the stories are simple, and do not extend themselves
beyond basic scientific puzzles or quandaries.
This is not to say Clarke uses what is today common knowledge or lacks
the skills to present the puzzles in interesting fashion, rather that his type
of story has been usurped by higher expectations for sophistication, i.e.
realistic characterization and desire for less-than-standard endings. That being said, Clarke’s culture and
intelligence can’t help but leak through, and at times take over the
stage. “The Sentinel” and “The Star” are
as powerful statements about the human race and space as can be in sci-fi, and
for this may be worth the collection alone.
The
collection’s contents:
“1933: A
Science-Fiction Odyssey” [essay by Clarke]
“Travel By
Wire!”
“Retreat from
Earth”
“The
Awakening”
“Whacky”
“Castaway”
“History
Lesson”
“Hide and
Seek”
“Second
Dawn”
“The
Sentinel”
“The Star”
“Refugee”
“Venture
to the Moon”
“Into the
Comet”
“Summertime
on Icarus”
“Death and
the Senator”
“Hate”
“Sunjammer”
(aka “The Wind from the Sun”)
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