Lower the flags.

[gridlore]

Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome for years, died at 1:30 a.m. in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

The 1968 story "2001: A Space Odyssey" — written simultaneously as a novel and screenplay with director Stanley Kubrick — was a frightening prophesy of artificial intelligence run amok.

One year after it made Clarke a household name in fiction, the scientist entered the homes of millions of Americans alongside Walter Cronkite anchoring television coverage of the Apollo mission to the moon.

Clarke also was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

His non-fiction volumes on space travel and his explorations of the Great Barrier Reef and Indian Ocean earned him respect in the world of science, and in 1976 he became an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

But it was his writing that shot him to his greatest fame and that gave him the greatest fulfillment.

"Sometimes I am asked how I would like to be remembered," Clarke said recently. "I have had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer and space promoter. Of all these I would like to be remembered as a writer."

No worries there, sir. I think that you will be remembered as one of the greatest writers of science and science fiction.

So, your favorite Clarke story? I've always loved The Fountains of Paradise myself.

Comments

First I had to figure out

[capplor.livejournal.com]

which stories were his. I first read many when I was quite young, and was only working my way through the meager science fiction section of the library. I was wondering why people were reading so much extra into "The City and the Stars" and just now read that it was totally rewritten as "Against the Fall of Night".

I owned and reread with great pleasure and multiple times "Rendezvous with Rama", and likewise "A Fall of Moondust". I never quite liked "Childhood's End" but the plot and concepts stuck with me.

[melchar.livejournal.com]

I liked 'The Nine Billion names of God' best myself. The idea really made me think - and it's a concept that still works IMO.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

"The Star".