Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead in 1917. During the Second World War he served as an RAF radar instructor, rising to the rank of Flight-Lieutenant. After the war he won a BSc in physics and mathematics with first class honours from King's College, London. One of the most respected of all science-fiction writers, he also won the KALINGA PRIZE, the AVIATION SPACE-WRITERS PRIZE,and the WESTINGHOUSE SCIENCE WRITING PRIZE. He also shared an OSCAR nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, which was based on his story, 'The Sentinel'. He lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008. To discover more about how the legacy of Sir Arthur is being honoured today, please visit http://www.clarkefoundation.org
Classic SF author Clarke ( 2001: A Space Odyssey ) walks on well-trodden ground with this entertaining but forgettable book. In the early 22nd century, an enormous asteroid is discovered to be on a collision course with the Earth. Humanity, however, is not unprepared, having become an experienced spacefaring race with outposts throughout the solar system. A spaceship, the Goliath , built decades earlier for just such an emergency, is dispatched to deflect the asteroid from its apocalyptic rendezvous. But the mission goes awry, leaving Captain Robert Singh and his crew to find a way to to save the Earth. Clarke writes with dramatic flair, cutting between past and future with dizzying frequency. Nonetheless, the book fails to convey the tension of the situation he has set up. Clarke describes the setting and background with such loving detail that the asteroid seems almost an afterthought, creating a rush of action in the last quarter of the narrative. The characterizations, save for that of Singh, are fairly thin, and Clark's wit occasionally gives the prose a jarring, unintentionally satiric flavor. While this is a fast read, it is not a particularly impressive one. (June)
As an asteroid named ``Kali'' hurtles toward earth on a collision course that spells the end to life on the planet, a lone spaceship armed with a weapon to alter the asteroid's path attempts to carry out its perilous mission--unaware that others are simultaneously working for earth's destruction. In the capable hands of science fiction veteran Clarke, a standard cosmic disaster plot becomes a lucid commentary on humanity's place in the cosmos. A good choice for science fiction collections.
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