Arthur C. Clarke died today at the age of ninety in his beloved island of Sri Lanka. All three of the Grandmasters of Science Fiction (Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke) have now passed on.
Thanks, Arthur, for all the tales. It was nice to have you here with us Earthlings.
never heard of him, wat books did he write?
Wow. I grew up on Arthur. I still remember 2001: Space Odyssey as a wee young-un in the theatre, and it was mind-bending. Probably influenced my whole life and career and fascination with Science. One man, what a lifetime of accomplishment!
Two of the most familiar are 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama, but he is also well-known for a number of short stories, such as “The Nine Billion Names of God.”
Childhoods End was another of his classics… but he impacted all of us even more than that…
As a Royal Air Force officer during World War II, Clarke took part in the early development of radar. In a paper written for the radio journal “Wireless World” in 1945, he suggested that artificial satellites hovering in a fixed spot above Earth could be used to relay telecommunications signals across the globe.
He is widely credited with introducing the idea of the communications satellite, the first of which were launched in the early 1960s. But he never patented the idea, prompting a 1965 essay that he subtitled, “How I Lost a Billion Dollars in My Spare Time.”
in fact, Geosynchronous orbits are called Clarke orbits
I guess Ray Bradbury is the only one left from the golden era of Science Fiction. Childhood’s End had such an impact. Clarke was a good writer, but more than that, the man could think. His ideas made his work shine.
sad sad day. I’m currently reading his classics. I read all the space odyssey (2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001) in the past 2 months, and I just read rendezvous with rama, rama II and the garden of Rama rencently and just started on Rama Revealed.
That guy had some imagination and was genius. I love his books.
Rest in peace.
My Condolences.
I literally could not believe it when i first came across this news. He really influenced my life. 
he was a creative genius.
i’m going to pretend i believe in reincarnation, and tell myself he’s coming back (along w/ asimov of course)
yup. Ive heard of 2001 before 
Anthony Minghella also died today. He directed “The English Patient” among others.
Very sad. Arthur C. Clarke was a rare man. While I didn’t enjoy all of this books…I always found him in his works to be an intelligent and hopeful man. He will be remembered.
Childhood’s End is an absolute classic.
And there is a nice scene from EARTHLIGHT that I’d like to do in Blender. A Lunar fort is under attack from three advanced spacecraft. The fort has a mirror force field, but most of the ground has been turned into lava by enemy laser beams and nuclear warheads. There is so much vaporized rock that the laser beams can be seen, like spotlight in the mist. And the fort has a secret weapon: a sort of mass driver that can throw a hypervelocity bolt of molten metal.
Clarke is among my very favorite sci fi authors since his books always contained a “scientific background” or at least a somewhat believable foundation. And that fascinated me the most. (To quote him: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” - his books reflected that thought, if you ask me).
The spinner of wonderful vast epics has departed on his own final voyage.
Everybody dies…
At least he left something more behind than just his bones (referring to his sci-fi work).
Not that it matters much to him now…because he’s dead.
Kinda makes you wonder if there is really anything worth doing anymore, because in the end, does any of it really matter?
Yea, I know, it’s delving into the philosophical. 