Written when landing on the moon was still a dream, and made into one of the most influential films of all time, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY remains a classic work of science fiction fifty years after its original publication.
The discovery of a black monolith on the moon leads to a manned expedition deep into the solar system, in the hope of establishing contact with an alien intelligence. Yet long before the crew can reach their destination, the voyage descends into disaster . . .
Brilliant, compulsive and prophetic, Arthur C. Clarke's timeless novel tackles the enduring theme of mankind's place in the universe.
Praise for Arthur C. Clarke:
'The king of science fiction . . . His influence continues to inform the genre' Guardian
'Arthur C. Clarke is awesomely informed about physics and astronomy, and blessed with one of the most astounding imaginations ever encountered in print' New York Times
'Arthur C. Clarke is one of the truly prophetic figures of the space age . . . The colossus of science fiction' New Yorker
'Dazzling' Time
The multi-award-winning SF masterpiece from one of the greatest SF writers of all time
Rama is a vast alien spacecraft that enters the Solar System. A perfect cylinder some fifty kilometres long, spinning rapidly, racing through space, Rama is a technological marvel, a mysterious and deeply enigmatic alien artefact.
It is Mankind's first visitor from the stars and must be investigated ...
Winner of the HUGO AWARD for best novel, 1974
Winner of the NEBULA AWARD for best novel, 1973
Winner of the JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD for best novel, 1974
Winner of the BSFA AWARD for best novel, 1973
Time is running out for the passengers and crew of the tourist cruiser Selene, incarcerated in a sea of choking lunar dust. On the surface, her rescuers find their resources stretched to the limit by the mercilessly unpredictable conditions of a totally alien environment.
A brilliantly imagined story of human ingenuity and survival, A FALL OF MOONDUST is a tour-de-force of psychological suspense and sustained dramatic tension by the field's foremost author.
Shortlisted for the Hugo Award, 1963.
By Space Possessed brings together Clarke's essays on travel to the planets and beyond in a form where they can be read individually or as a continuing narrative. It describes the history of an enthusiasm that took a Somerset farm boy to international fame, starting with the delightful, self-deprecating humour of the early days of British Interplanetary Society and proceeding to deeper concerns when at last the early daydreams, mocked by so many, began to come radiantly true. Along the way there are delights of Clarke's prediction of the Moon landing, the lecture which prompted Bernard Shaw to join the British Interplanetary Society and the birthpangs of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Humanity's future lies in space. These ever-topical essays, covering crucial years of interplanetary speculation and exploration show that one man, Arthur C. Clarke, has always been capable of foreseeing possibilities and probabilities, and opening up magnificent vistas to those willing to look with unblinkered eyes and minds. This is a testament to his vision.
Arthur C. Clarke has been one of the most influential commentators on - and prophets of - the communications technology which has created the global village. Now, drawing partly on his own sometimes very personal writings, he provides an absorbing history and survey of modern communications.
The story begins with the titanic struggles to lay transatlantic telegraph cables in the nineteenth century. Fighting against widespread scepticism, lack of funds, technical disasters and setbacks - and against the Atlantic itself, above and below the surface - the pioneers achieved the seemingly impossible and by 1858 Britain and America were linked by Telegraph.
Nearly a century later, as the first transatlantic telephone cable was being laid, the technology that would rival and perhaps even supersede it was undergoing its painful birth as scientists developed the communications satellite precisely as Clarke first described in his famous 1945 article Wireless World, 'Extra-terrestrial Relays', reprinted in this book.
The rivalry between cable and satellite continued through the decades. Communication satellites (Comsats) performed even beyond the most optimistic expectations, but cable fought back with the development of the transistor. Then, in one of the most dramatic and unexpected breakthroughs in any technology, the potential of cable systems was transformed. The development of fibre optics technology meant that once more the seabeds of the world began to be draped with the newest and most sophisticated artefacts of human engineering.
It is an enthralling story, filled with extraordinary events and people, and Arthur C. Clarke brings all his storytelling flair and scientific expertise to bear on it. The result is a superb combination of history, comment and challenging speculation.
Arthur C. Clarke acquired his first science fiction magazine - a copy of Astounding Stories - in 1930, when he was 13. Immediately he became an avid reader and collector: and, soon enough, a would-be-writer. The rest is history. Now, in Astounding Days, he looks back over those impressed by him, discussing their scientific howlers, and their remarkable proportion of predictive bulls-eyes - and writing of his early life and career. Written with relaxed good humour, Astounding Days is full of fascinating comment and anecdote.
In addition to being one of Science Fiction's greatest writers, Sir Arthur C. Clarke was also one of our foremost thinkers and visionaries, producing a number of highly readable and important non-fiction works. Report of Planet Three is a collection of 23 essays on the future of Man and his technology, including essays on space, satellite communications, the internet, alien contact, UFO debunking and relativity.
First published in 1965, this brilliant, prescient book is divided into three sections:
The first concerns space travel and other aspects of the new space age: how our concept of time must be modified when we travel long distances, the space seas of tomorrow, uses of the moon, how lower gravity will affect the sports of space colonists and other fascinating ideas.
The second part is about communications satellites, a field in which the author has already played the role of true prophet.
The third section ranges widely over the side implications of the space age - scientific meddling, the lunatic fringe and the moral obligations of scientists.
A fast-moving mystery adventure by one of the world's greatest ever SF writers
It is 2010. In two years' time it will be the centennial of the sinking of the Titanic. Two of the world's most powerful corporations race to raise the vessel but there are other powers at work, and chaos theory comes into play as plans progress - and six preserved bodies are found.
This novel incorporates two of Arthur C.Clarke's passions - deep sea exploration and future technology - in a fast-moving tale of mysetry and adventure. As operations proceed, the perfectly preserved body of a beautiful girl is found. She was not on the ship's passenger lists.
The quest to uncover the secrets of the wreck and reclaim her becomes an obsession ... and for some, a fatal one.
Arthur C. Clarke's classic in which he ponders humanity's future and possible evolution
When the silent spacecraft arrived and took the light from the world, no one knew what to expect. But, although the Overlords kept themselves hidden from man, they had come to unite a warring world and to offer an end to poverty and crime. When they finally showed themselves it was a shock, but one that humankind could now cope with, and an era of peace, prosperity and endless leisure began.
But the children of this utopia dream strange dreams of distant suns and alien planets, and begin to evolve into something incomprehensible to their parents, and soon they will be ready to join the Overmind ... and, in a grand and thrilling metaphysical climax, leave the Earth behind.
Two of the biggest names in SF together again; the sequel to the acclaimed TIME'S EYE
The observatory on the moon has the proof. Life on earth will be incinerated in April 2037 by a massive solar flare. It is building down and it is unstoppable. With only 18 months until doomsday mankind must unite and embark on the most ambitious engineering project ever: the construction, at the La Grange point between the sun and the earth, of a deflecting mirror the diameter of our home planet. The price of failure? Extinction.
One scientist, an expert on the sun, predicted the flare. One person who knew nothing about the sun nevertheless knew the exact date that life on earth would come to an end. She had witnessed the bizarre time dislocations brought by the 'eyes'. She knows who is responsible.
This is hard SF in the grand tradition of the genre.
Two of the biggest names in SF together again, with the third of the acclaimed Time's Odyssey sequence
With this epic tale of altered histories and different earths, a universe where Alexander's empire prompted a different past, a world where strange alien 'eyes' gaze upon a fractured reality, a time when man is looking to colonise the red planet, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter scale new heights of ambition and sheer story telling brio.
This is classic SF adventure from two of the biggest names in the genre. A heady combination of high concept SF, big engineering projects and human drama.
The definitive collection of short stories from the century's greatest science fiction writer
All of Arthur C. Clarke's short stories collected in one volume, beginning with TRAVEL BY WIRE - Clarke's first ever published short story.
A volume which showcases his range and variety, each story a classic example of the unique mixture of speculation and fiction which has made Clarke a household name.
When the US Navy's new, state-of-the-art missile disappears after its test launch, panic ensues - if it ends up anywhere near civilians, the consequences could be massive. Where has it gone? What has happened?
Seemingly unconnected, journalist Carol Dawson is investigating the unusual sightings of whales in Miami, which may or may not be linked to the missing rocket. Armed with Oceanographic research equipment, Carol charters a boat skippered by Nick Williams and Jefferson Troy and heads to the Gulf of Mexico.
What they find can barely be explained but could be worth untold riches.
While Carol, Nick and Jefferson attempt to uncover the origin of the mysterious artefact they have discovered, they must dodge treasure hunters, the government, and consider the origin of humanity itself. Is this the First Contact? Or is it the last?
Since the beginning of time it had worked its will on humanity, and for as long as man could remember, he had struggled against its power. But in the 21st century the battle was won: the sea, mankind's age-old enemy, had finally been conquered.
Professionals like Walter Franklin now patrolled the infinite savannahs of the oceans, harvesting from the plankton prairies as crop which kept the world fed. But like that other great frontier, space, the sea had not yet yielded up all its secrets. And men like Franklin would never rest until its every fathomless mystery had been challenged . . .
A Story of the People of the Sea
The adventure begins when Johnny, who has run away from home and hidden aboard an intercontinental hovership, is shipwrecked in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean. Stranded on a raft, and in an apparently hopeless situation, he is propelled by a pack of dolphins towards an island in the Great Barrier Reef, a famous centre for Dolphin Research.
Professor Kazan, the director of research, shares Johnny's bewilderment as to the reason for the dolphin rescue operation and arranges for Johnny to stay on the island to assist in unravelling the mystery. In the chapters that follow, Johnny learns how to communicate with dolphins, explores the coral reef, goes skin-diving at night, survives a fearful hurricane, unearths a horrifying underwater conspiracy, and, in an intensely exciting final episode, makes a dangerous 100 mile tip on surfboard towed, turn and turn about, by his two closest dolphin friends.
A stunning new companion series to 2001 A SPACE ODYSSEY from the world's most important SF writer and his acknowledged heir
1885, the North West Frontier. Rudyard Kipling is witness to a bizarre encounter between the British army and what appears to be an impossibly advanced piece of Russian technology. And then to a terrifying intervention by a helicopter from 2037. Before the full impact of this extraordinary event has even begun to sink in, Kipling, his friends and the helicopter crew stumble across Alexander the Great's army. Mankind's time odyssey has begun.
It is a journey that will see Alexander avoid his premature death and carve out an Empire that expands from Carthage to China, beating the time-slipped army of Ghenghis Khan in a battle outside the ruins of Babylon in the process. And it will present mankind with two devastating truths. Aliens are amongst us and have been manipulating our past and our future. And that future extends only as far as 2037, for that is the date Earth will be destroyed.
This is SF that spans countless centuries and carries cutting edge ideas on time travel and alien intervention. It shows two of the genre's masters at their groundbreaking best.
The sequel to the only SF novel to sweep all SF awards and one of the bestsellers of all time
In 2130, an alien spaceship, Rama, entered our solar system. The first product of an alien civilisation to be encountered by man, it revealed many wonders to mankind - but most of its mysteries remained
unsolved ...
Sixty-six years later, a second approaching spacecraft was detected; four years on, the Ramans are definitely returning. But this time, Earth is ready.
And maybe now, with the arrival of Rama II, some of the questions posed by Rama will at last be answered.
Colonists from the entire solar system converge on the mother planet for the 2276 celebrations.
Among the influx of humanity is Duncan Makenzie, scientist-administrator from the underground colony of Titan, one of the outer moons of Saturn. Makenzie is not just on Earth for the celebrations, though; he has a delicate mission to perform - for his world, his family and himself . . .
