Mark R. Kelly
» Founder in 1997 and site-runner for 20 years of Locus Online (Hugo Award winner in 2002). Founder in 2012 and still site-runner of sfadb.com (Science Fiction Awards Database). Retired in 2012 after 30 years as a software engineer for a certain rocket engine factory.
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Category Archives: Arthur C. Clarke
Harari on the Dangers of AI
Also: reflecting on Arthur C. Clarke and John Brockman, wondering if there is a permanent limit to human cultural education. NY Times, Yuval Noah Harari, Tristan Harris, and Aza Raskin, 24 March 2023: You Can Have the Blue Pill or … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Culture, Technology
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Notes and Quotes: Arthur C. Clarke’s THE DEEP RANGE (1957)
Here’s a relatively quick take on a 1950s novel I reread this past week — not as long or as polished as my Black Gate reviews have been. (I’ll be resuming those in February.) THE DEEP RANGE was the 8th … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Book Notes, science fiction
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Arthur C. Clarke, PROFILES OF THE FUTURE (1962..1999)
This is a book first published in 1962, a nonfiction book speculating on potential technological developments and human achievements. The subtitle is “An Inquiry in the Limits of the Possible.” Clarke revised it three times, the last in 1999 (he … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Book Notes, Human Progress, Science
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Michael Benson’s SPACE ODYSSEY
This is not my usual methodical summary with comments, but rather a compilation of random bits that stood out, as I read this book, without taking notes. I was struck again and again by how key plot points, or techniques … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Book Notes
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From the Ridiculous to the Sublime: My Own Journey to 2001
Yesterday, April 2, 2018, was the 50th anniversary of the release of the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, still regarded as the best (or at least one of the best) science fiction films of all time, and as among the … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Films, Personal history, science fiction
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Arthur C. Clarke: Two Religious Explorations
Arthur C. Clarke is, of course, the British SF writer (who lived much of his life in Sri Lanka) most famous for the novel and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as several other of the most popular and … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Atheism, Religion
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Skiffy Flix: Assignment Outer Space
There was a period in the mid to late 1990s when I watched a whole bunch of 1950s and ’60s science fiction films, via a video store around the corner from my house then, back in the days when there … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Films, science fiction
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Clarke, Childhood’s End, part 3 – passages
Passages from Clarke’s Childhood’s End. The early part of the book involves a faction of the public that objects to the Overlords’ presence, on the grounds that their influence deprives them of “Freedom to control our own lives, under God’s … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Cosmology, Evolution, science fiction
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Clarke, Childhood’s End, part 2 – themes
Last week I started my discussion of re-reading several classic Arthur C. Clarke novels, and summarized the plot of Childhood’s End, in this post. Now some comments on themes. My purpose in these rereadings is not to explore the history … Continue reading
Posted in Arthur C. Clarke, Book Notes, Personal history, Reviews, science fiction
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Clarke, Childhood’s End, part 1
I have been re-reading several classic novels by Arthur C. Clarke, published in the 1950s and ‘60s, because they were books that I read in my formative years (i.e. ages 13 to 15), and so influenced my early thinking and … Continue reading
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