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with Medusa" (1971), and two years later he won another Nebula along with the Hugo Award for Rendezvous with Rama (1973). Other novels of this period include Imperial Earth (1975) and The Fountains of Paradise (1979). |
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Clarke has continued writing up to the present day. Among his more recent works are two sequels to 2001 (2010: Odyssey Two, 1982; 2061: Odyssey Three, 1987) along with four collaborations with NASA scientist Gentry Lee: Cradle (1988) and a trilogy based upon Rendezvous with Rama (Rama II, 1989; The Garden of Rama, 1991; Rama Revealed, 1993). Several of these novels have not been well received and appear largely the work of Lee. Clarke has also compiled a collection of his scientific papers, Ascent to Orbit (1984), and an autobiography of his life as a science fiction writer, Astounding Days (1989), which supplements an earlier autobiography, The View from Serendip (1977). |
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Clarke married Marilyn Mayfield in 1953; they divorced in 1964. Clarke continues to live in Sri Lanka. |
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Arthur C. Clarke has been for some years chairman of the British Interplanetary Society and has written high quality straight works such as The Exploration of Space. He may therefore be expected to have the necessary knowledge of natural science for writing space fiction. The four volumes of space fiction he has so far written justify this expectation. |
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Of these volumes, this reviewer finds The Sands of Mars easiest to recommend for the general reader. The construction there put on facts is, except for the part dealing with the discovery of life on Mars, highly convincing. The storytelling, when covering actual space-journeys, daily living on Mars, and the attitude of Earth's government to its colony on Mars, is effective. Handling of human characterization and personal relationships is less happy. |
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Childhood's End is a more ambitious book. It flies higher and falls farther. To many, as to this reviewer, its final conclusion will be unacceptable. Its value lies in the new possibilities which it opens for space fiction. (. . .) |
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