[Mike D. aka jmiked]

The are several Clarke SF books that were published late last year that seem to be on sale at $2.99 each until 10 March. I picked up several. One I would recommend is Childhood's End, arguably his most famous novel. The City and the Stars is another I picked up, as well as a volume of collected short stories. Clarke wrote excellent short stories. His collection Tales from the White Hart (not enKindled yet) is a gem.

If you're looking for a lot of characterization, his work isn't for you. If you are looking for an imaginative, well-written plot, give it a try.

Mike

 

[Debbie Bennett]

Thanks for that. Childhood's End is awesome, though I'm not fussed on some of his novels. Will go hunting later...

 

[C.E.L. Welsh]

Low on character, high on plot... never thought of it that way, but that is an apt description!

 

[Ergodic Mage]

Thanks!! Just purchased Childhood's End and The Songs of Distant Earth. The Rama and 2001 series are still at regular prices, but I have those in paperback.

 

[charlie51923]

I think The City and the Stars is his best work with 2001 being a close second. The first Rama book was pretty good, but honestly, he didn't write much after that worth reading.

 

[James Everington]

I love the first Rama book, although the sequels (which he co-wrote with someone) are pretty dire.

Much of his short fiction is really good too - The Nine Billion [?] Name of God anyone?

 

[charlie51923]

I've only read Clarke's space stories, but from what I understand, nearly half his tales took place in the oceans of Earth. Has anybody read his sea stories? Can you recommend any?

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

I've only read Clarke's space stories, but from what I understand, nearly half his tales took place in the oceans of Earth. Has anybody read his sea stories? Can you recommend any?

From my admittedly poor memory, I don't recall any of his stories that take place in the oceans of Earth. I think I've read pretty much all his fiction over the years.

Mike

 

[charlie51923]

I found this at SF-encyclopedia:

By the 1960s most of Clarke's creative energies had been diverted into writing nonfiction books and articles, many of them - not listed here - about undersea exploration; he was an enthusiastic skin-diver himself, one reason for his residence in Sri Lanka.

So apparently it was non-fiction articles and essays about the seas.

 

[The Hooded Claw]

I don't have time to look it up, but I think I remember some underwater fiction. Maybe something called The Deep Range?

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[The Hooded Claw]

Yep, The Deep Range, available on Kindle now.

I had written a longer post, including a link, and my ipad lost all I'd typed while I shifted to a new tab to look something up. Aargh!

 

[charlie51923]

Thanks; I'll look for it!

 

[The Hooded Claw]

Typing from a computer now, what I'd wanted to post earlier was that I saw all these new Clarke books showing up, and checked again for a book Amazon hadn't had just a week or two ago....



A Fall of Moondust

I am looking forward to reading this again. The only time I've ever read it (or even seen a copy) was in the library of a junior college I attended long ago. I read it and loved it. I hope it holds up well!

The situation is that when the Moon is settled enough for tourists to visit (in the early 21st Century, sigh) a vehicle gets trapped under tons of dust and there is a a rescue effort, while the passengers try to stay alive. Think "The Poseidon Adventure" or perhaps "Airport" on the Moon, written by a science geek. I've bought it and I hope it holds up as well as it does in my memories. Nominated for a Hugo waaaay back in 1961, which gives me hope!

 

[The Hooded Claw]

And here's a link to The Deep Range...



Do you think these covers are following a fixed style?

 

[charlie51923]

Yeah, Moondust looks promising. I'm gonna try it.

I also found another sea story of his. It's called, The Ghost From The Grand Banks. It's only supposed to be so-so though.

 

[vrabinec]

The only one of his books I've read that I didn't like was Hammer of God. Bored me. I'm not saying people shouldn't read it, I'm just saying not to start with that one, because it's not indicative of his work.

 

[Mike D. aka jmiked]

And here's a link to The Deep Range...



Do you think these covers are following a fixed style?

Yeah, Rosetta doesn't do the most inspired cover art, but they make up for it by producing ebooks of good quality, in my experience. So far.

Mike

 

[jasonzc]

I've only read Clarke's space stories, but from what I understand, nearly half his tales took place in the oceans of Earth. Has anybody read his sea stories? Can you recommend any?

Ghost from the Grand Banks is about raising the Titanic. Great book.

 

[telracs]

I'm rereading Childhood's End now.  I'm enjoying it, but it suffers from a typical Rosetta problem, there are no breaks between paragraphs, and no indents, so the first chapter is confusing trying to figure out POV changes.

 

[charlie51923]

Ghost from the Grand Banks is about raising the Titanic. Great book.

Thanks.

I'm rereading Childhood's End now. I'm enjoying it, but it suffers from a typical Rosetta problem, there are no breaks between paragraphs, and no indents, so the first chapter is confusing trying to figure out POV changes.

I liked it a lot more the 1st time I read it. It didn't seem nearly as good five years later.

As to your display problem, are you saying you bought the book from rosettabooks? And it wasn't formatted correctly? That's a shame. Good books deserve a good formatter. At any rate, it's probably DRM protected, so it will be difficult for you to "fix," but if you can get it into HTML you can fix both the indent and get rid of the blank spaces with one line of CSS code placed in the head: