Better Than The Movies

Do you remember all those “Earth gets destroyed by an asteroid (or comet)” movies in the 1990′s? I do. “Deep Impact” and “Armageddon” come to mind. Some of them were good, some not so much. This story is, to me anyway, more proof that writing is always better than cinema! Yay – go written SF!

Non-Spoiler Summary

Captain Robert Singh is part of the crew that has been sent to the asteroid Kali. Their job is to build the thrusters that will alter Kali’s course enough to avoid collision with Earth. It has taken a long time, lots of money and plenty of politics to get to this point, and now that they are ready to start the burn that will push Kali out of its current orbit, the crew is about to discover that things don’t always go as planned. What’s that saying about the true measure of a man being shown when he is under pressure? Well, Captain Singh and his crew are about to find out what they are really made of – and all the people on Earth are hoping it’s the “right stuff.”

Some Interesting Tidbits

• Word count: 4,458 (8 pages)
• Did you know that Arthur C. Clarke spent some time as chairman of the British Interplanetary Society? Yep. You can learn more about this giant of science fiction literature at Wikipedia.
• This short story was the basis for Arthur C. Clarke’s 1994 novel also titled The Hammer of God.

Where To Find The Hammer of God

• This short story first appeared in October 1992 in Time magazine.
• You can read "The Hammer of God" for free online at the web site of Lightspeed magazine.
• You can find this story in many anthologies, including the prestigious book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

Craving More SF Stories Like This One?

If you liked "The Hammer of God" then you may also enjoy another of Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s stories: “The Star” – about a Jesuit astrophysicist aboard a starship that is investigating the Phoenix Nebula.

The End Of The World… Once Again

One trend I’ve noticed among both classic and modern writers of science fiction is the tendency to write about “the end of the world” – so to speak. Here is another classic story by the great Arthur C. Clarke about that very topic – only this one is told from the aliens’ point of view.

Non-spoiler Summary in a Nutshell

Alveron is captain of the Galactic Survey Ship S9000, which has recently been ordered to save a young civilization from its exploding star. Arriving hours before the sun goes supernova, Alveron sends two teams to rescue people – but the planet seems deserted. One team finds a working (but recently abandoned) communications station, while the other team finds a bit of trouble when they stumble upon a working subway. Now the question is whether Alveron can save his crew before the end of the world – literally!

My Two Cents…

• The various races of aliens which make up the crew of the S9000 are really cool! One of the reasons I love classic science fiction like this is because of the fun and unique life forms.
• The feeling of a recently abandoned planet about to meet its doom worked very well in this story. It created both a sense of urgency to the story, as well as a cool setting.
• Like most of Arthur C. Clarke’s stories, the ending was great!

Interesting Tidbits About This Story:

• Page Count: 17
• Word Count: 10,337
• Did you know that Arthur C. Clarke built his first telescope at age thirteen? Yep. You can read his biography at the arthurcclarke.net web site.
• Guess what? This story placed 9th in the 1971 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll – very cool!

Where You Can Find Rescue Party:

• This story was originally published in the May 1946 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.
• “Rescue Party” is included in the fantastic anthology The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke – a book I highly recommend.
• You can read a very nice online version of this story at the Baen CD web site – where it is part of their awesome free book The World Turned Upside Down.

Craving More Stories?

If you enjoyed “Rescue Party” then you might also like Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick – about a group of anthropological aliens who are studying the long and brutal empire of mankind.

Arthur C. Clarke is one of the most famous science fiction authors of all time. He wrote a lot of pieces, including many short stories, but if you are looking for one great book that includes nearly all of his short stories then look no farther than The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

This amazing collection contains 104 Arthur C. Clarke stories, all arranged in order of publication, from “Travel by Wire!” in 1937 to “Improving the Neighbourhood” in 1999. It includes all his famous one (like “The Nine Billion Names of God” and “The Star”), several of the better known ones, and many of his lesser-know stories – including some that I had never heard of before.

Anyway, if you are a fan of Arthur C. Clarke, or classic SF short stories in general, then you should definitely take a look at this incredible collection.

Here are the stories included in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke: (I’ve linked to the ones that I have read and reviewed)

1. “Travel by Wire!”
2. “How We Went to Mars”
3. “Retreat from Earth”
4. “Reverie”
5. “The Awakening”
6. “Whacky”
7. “Loophole”
8. “Rescue Party”
9. “Technical Error”
10. “Castaway”
11. “The Fires Within”
12. “Inheritance”
13. “Nightfall”
14. “History Lesson”
15. “Transience”
16. “The Wall of Darkness”
17. “The Lion of Comarre”
18. “The Forgotten Enemy”
19. “Hide-and-Seek”
20. “Breaking Strain”
21. “Nemesis”
22. “Guardian Angel”
23. “Time’s Arrow”
24. “A Walk in the Dark”
25. “Silence Please”
26. “Trouble with the Natives”
27. “The Road to the Sea”
28. “The Sentinel”
29. “Holiday On the Moon”
30. “Earthlight”
31. “Second Dawn”
32. “Superiority”
33. “If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth”
34. “All The Time in the World”
35. “The Nine Billion Names of God”
36. “The Possessed”
37. “The Parasite”
38. “Jupiter Five”
39. “Encounter in the Dawn”
40. “The Other Tiger”
41. “Publicity Campaign”
42. “Armaments Race”
43. “The Deep Range”
44. “No Morning After”
45. “Big Game Hunt”
46. “Patent Pending”
47. “Refugee”
48. “The Star”
49. “What Goes Up”
50. “Venture to the Moon”
51. “The Pacifist”
52. “The Reluctant Orchid”
53. “Moving Spirit”
54. “The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch”
55. “The Ultimate Melody”
56. “The Next Tenants”
57. “Cold War”
58. “Sleeping Beauty”
59. “Security Check”
60. “The Man Who Ploughed the Sea”
61. “Critical Mass”
62. “The Other Side of the Sky”
63. “Let There Be Light”
64. “Out of the Sun”
65. “Cosmic Casanova”
66. “The Songs of Distant Earth”
67. “A Slight Case of Sunstroke”
68. “Who’s There?”
69. “Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting…”
70. “I Remember Babylon”
71. “Trouble with Time”
72. “Into the Comet”
73. “Summertime on Icarus”
74. “Saturn Rising”
75. “Death and the Senator”
76. “Before Eden”
77. “Hate”
78. “Love That Universe”
79. “Dog Star”
80. “Maelstrom II”
81. “An Ape About the House”
82. “The Shining Ones”
83. “The Secret”
84. “Dial F for Frankenstein”
85. “The Wind from the Sun”
86. “The Food of the Gods”
87. “The Last Command”
88. “Light of Darkness”
89. “The Longest Science-fiction Story Ever Told”
90. “Playback”
91. “The Cruel Sky”
92. “Herbert George Morley Roberts Wells, Esq.”
93. “Crusade”
94. “Neutron Tide”
95. “Reunion”
96. “Transit of Earth”
97. “A Meeting with Medusa”
98. “Quarantine”
99. “siseneG”: “Genesis” spelled backwards.
100. “The Steam-powered Word Processor”
101. “On Golden Seas”
102. “The Hammer of God”
103. “The Wire Continuum” (with Stephen Baxter)
104. “Improving the Neighbourhood”

If this book looks like something that you might be interested in you can find out more about it at Amazon.com, or see if there are any used copies on eBay.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

The admiral telling this story is doing so from his prison cell. After the war has ended he decides to make a request and also tell the true reason why his side was defeated. According to him that reason is plain and simple: they got too caught up in trying to develop superior technology and lost touch with the basics. He then relates the story in its hilarious and all too life-like details. Along the way the reader is treated to some good battle tactics, a bit of juicy political bickering and a few very cool scientific weapons.

The situation was now both serious and infuriating. With stubborn conservatism and complete lack of imagination the enemy continued to advance with his old-fashioned and inefficient but now vastly more numerous ships. It was galling to realise that if we had only continued building, without seeking new weapons, we would have been in a far more advantageous position.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• The “Exponential Field” was a very cool idea, and not one that I had come across before.
• C’mon, don’t most people like to root for the underdog? It *was* fun seeing the cocky, more advanced side get their butts kicked!
• The very end of “Superiority” was justifiably funny!

• The bad:

• The style used to tell this story makes it feel as if you are reading a military briefing – which you are, but it makes the story slightly less interesting.
• Remember – “Superiority” was written in 1951, so there are some outdated ideas. Like the million vacuum tubes needed to run the Analyzer – Ha! No wonder they lost the war!

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 7

Where you can find “Superiority”:

• This short story first appeared in the August 1951 issue of The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy.
• “Superiority” is included in the amazing collection entitled The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.
• You can read a free online version of this story at the Google Book Preview for The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.

Some Interesting Links:

• Special thanks to Tinkoo at Variety SF, who told me that he had recommended this story to many of his friends.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like Chance Encounter, about two men who accept dangerous but lucrative assignments as crewmen on an exploration ship to the edge of the galaxy, by A. Bertram Chandler.

Tinkoo’s Answer:

No favorite, but one I liked so much that I shared it with many friends – Arthur Clarke’s “Superiority” (F&SF, August 1951). Unfortunately, it’s not online. (Added by Rusty: Yes it is, see link below.)

It’s a generally hilarious story about how *not* to go about deploying new technology in a production environment. I see variations of it in action all the time.

It’s a military story, narrated by the captured commander of the “superior” side that lost the war. Because their enthusiasm to deploy vastly superior but untested technology to *quickly* end the war made them neglect the currently working technology.

Rusty’s Two Cents:

Thanks Tinkoo – being a computer programmer I can certainly understand the premise of this story, even though I’ve not read it. It sounds like it could be the biography of my former manager! Anyway, I’m sure it is a great story, just like most pieces I’ve read from Arthur C. Clarke.

If you would like to read Tinkoo’s own review of “Superiority” you can check it out at his web site.

“Superiority” is included in the outstanding book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. You can read the story for free online at Google’s Book Search preview.

Don’t forget to check out Tinkoo’s website, Variety SF, where you can find loads of great science fiction reviews.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:

“The Sentinel” follows Wilson, a geologist that is part of a team exploring the Sea of Crisis on the moon. As they are traveling along the southern mountains Wilson notices something gleaming high up in the range. He and his assistant make the trek up the mountain and make an amazing – and scary – discovery.

I was turning away when my eye caught a metallic glitter high on the ridge of a great promontory thrusting out into the sea thirty miles to the west. It was a dimensionless point of light, as if a star had been clawed from the sky by one of those cruel peaks, and I imagined that some smooth rock surface was catching the sunlight and heliographing it straight into my eyes. Such things were not uncommon. When the Moon is in her second quarter, observers on Earth can sometimes see the great ranges in the Oceanus Procellarum burning with a blue-white iridescence as the sunlight flashes from their slopes and leaps again from world to world. But I was curious to know what kind of rock could be shining so brightly up there, and I climbed into the observation turret and swung our four inch telescope round to the west.

My Two Cents:

• The good:

• A classic piece by one of the most famous SciFi authors of all time!
• The idea of a monument set up by an ancient civilization is pretty darn cool. Although I’ve seen this theme in other stories, I would wager that “The Sentinel” was one of the first to employ it.

• The bad:

• Wow – there is so much talk of geology and mountains! The whole first half of “The Sentinel” is a description of the moon’s landscape!
• The pdf version I read contained a few annoying grammatical mistakes – but nothing too big.

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 6
• Word Count: 3,816
• “The Sentinel” garnered the following awards:

• It placed 17th in the 1971 Astounding / Analog All-Time Poll for best short fiction.

Where you can find “The Sentinel”:

• This short story first appeared in the Spring 1951 issue of 10 Story Fantasy.
• “The Sentinel” is included in the amazing The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.
• You can read a nice PDF version at the eContent web site.

Some Interesting Links:

• Did you know that this story was the “seed” for Arthur C. Clarke’s book 2001: A Space Odyssey? Yep. And that eventually spawned the famous movie of the same name.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might also like The Hunted Heroes, about a team of uranium miners who are captured by a madman on Mars, by Robert Silverberg.

In memory of this great science fiction writer I present “The Nine Billion Names of God”, the 1953 science fiction short story that was so good it won a retrospective Hugo award. It is about a company that sells a computer to a Tibetan monestary so they can quickly finish listing all the possible names of God and fulfill their destinies.

Non-Spoiler Summary In A Nutshell:
“The Nine Billion Names of God” follows three employees of a computer company as they sell, deliver and maintain a relatively large and fast computer to a group of Tibetan monks. The monks want the computer to help them print out all the possible names of God, of which they believe there are about nine billion. They figured it would take fifteen thousand years to do it by hand, but with a computer the task can be reduced to a thousand days. (Even that number seems ridiculously slow by today’s standards!)

The story is divided into two parts: the first describes Dr. Wagner as he makes the initial sale to a lama from the monastery, and the second part describes George and Chuck, the two men who delivered the computer to Tibet and are helping maintain it while it performs its duty. It is when the computer is almost finished with its task that George and Chuck discover why the monks want to print out all nine billion names – and it isn’t a cheerful reason either!

“This is a project on which we have been working for the last three centuries — since the lamasery was founded, in fact. It is somewhat alien to your way of thought, so I hope you will listen with an open mind while I explain it.”

“Naturally.”

“It is really quite simple. We have been compiling a list which shall contain all the possible names of God.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“We have reason to believe,” continued the lama imperturbably, “that all such names can be written with not more than nine letters in an alphabet we have devised.”

“And you have been doing this for three centuries?”

“Yes. We expected it would take us about fifteen thousand years to complete the task.”

My Two Cents:
The good:

• A nice surprise ending!
• Short and easy to read.
• Its an Arthur C. Clarke story!

The bad:

• It’s too short! Dang it – I wanted it to be longer!

I haven’t read much of Arthur C. Clarke’s stuff, only this story and another of his famous short stories, “The Star” both of which are incredible, especially given his non-religious nature. I did, however, quite enjoy the movies “2001: A Space Odyssey” and “2010: The Year We Make Contact” – though I haven’t read the books they were based on.

It is sad when one of the giants of my favorite genre passes away. I feel a twinge of melancholy, and believe that we will genuinely miss him – which is exactly how I felt when I learned of Isaac Asimov’s death back in 1992. However, he left us with a great collection of stories and novels, and he definitely left the science fiction genre better than he found it. Here’s to a great writer whom we will all dearly miss.

Arthur C. Clarke: 16 December 1917 – 19 March 2008

Fact Sheet:
• Page Count: 8
• Word Count: 2549

• “The Nine Billion Names of God” garnered the following awards:

• Winner of the 2004 Retro Hugo Award for Best Short Story
• Placed seventh in the 1971 Astounding/Analog All-Time Poll for short fiction
• Placed eighth in the 1999 Locus All-Time Poll

Where you can find “The Nine Billion Names of God”:

• This story first appeared in Star Science Fiction Stories in 1953.
• “The Nine Billion Names of God” also appears in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke – the massive book containing nearly all of his short stories.
• You can read a free online version of this short story at downlode.org.

Find The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke at Amazon.com

Related Yet Still Interesting Links:

• Did you know that Arthur C. Clarke was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America? Yep. A very small and select group to be in. You can learn more about this prolific and amazing science fiction author at Wikipedia.
• My good friend Tinkoo has reviewed loads of Arthur C. Clarke’s stories and novels on his Arthur C. Clarke Fansite – be sure to check it out for more great stories from this amazing science fiction author.
• Yahoo.com has a nice online obituary.

Craving More Stories?
If you enjoyed this story then you might like The Star, another famous and award winning short story by Arthur C. Clarke.

by Arthur C. Clarke

• Word count: 2475
• Page count: 6

The Star is a classic science fiction short story by one of the genre’s most famous authors: Arthur C. Clarke. It is a story told from the point of view of a Jesuit astrophysicist aboard a starship that is investigating the Phoenix Nebula. The site of a supernova some 6,000 years earlier, the nebula has yielded knowledge that shakes his faith to its very core.

If you are a fan of classic science fiction stories, or you enjoy the writings of Arthur C. Clarke (such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama), then you owe it to yourself to read this amazing short story of how space exploration can affect a person’s deepest beliefs.

The Star won the Hugo award for Best Short Story in 1956.

I do not know who gave the nebula its name, which seems to me a very bad one. If it contains a prophecy, it is one that cannot be verified for several billion years. Even the word nebula is misleading: this is a far smaller object than those stupendous clouds of mist–the stuff of unborn stars–that are scattered throughout the length of the Milky Way. On the cosmic scale, indeed, the Phoenix Nebula is a tiny thing–a tenuous shell of gas surrounding a single star.
Or what is left of a star . . .

Where you can find The Star:
• The Star first appeared in 1955 in the science fiction magazine Infinity Science Fiction.
• The Star also appears in The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke – the definitive collection of nearly every short story by Arthur C. Clarke. This massive book spans his stories from 1937 – 1999 and includes such favorites as Tales of the White Hart and The Nine Billion Names of God.
• You can read a nice HTML version of The Star for free at the internet archive.

If, by some chance, you don’t know about Sir Arthur C. Clarke, check out the biography on his website.

Be sure to check out my review of another famous Arthur C. Clarke short story: “The Nine Billion Names of God”.