Folks who don't like selections, should probably avoid from buying books labelled as such. IMHO. This audio recording is the best and ACC is anything but tedious! The 2001 passages filled my waking and sleeping dreams for days afterwards and echo there still!

This is a wonderful collection of some of the best of AC Clarke's works, read by the author. Very engrossing, especially the excepts from 2001, Childhood's End, and several of the stories. Get to know this GREAT author through this excellent audio selection.

Good Book

I have to admit I bought this book by mistake, thinking it the work of Arthur C. Clarke. You see, Clarke's name is big and bold above the title, while the actual author's name is rather hidden.

In any case, the story revolves around SPARTA, a.k.a. Linda, a.k.a. Ellen Troy, a genetically altered genius. Apparently, their are bad people who want to abuse poor SPARTA, so she must escape.

The problem is, about a third of the way through the book, it briefly becomes about Nikos the shipper and his efforts to keep his father's shipping business alive.

Then it's about Sondra Sylvester and her attempts to own an antique book.

After that, it's about an accident in space and the crew of the "Star Queen."

Finally, we get back to SPARTA. In short, this book meanders all over the solar system attempting to find a consistent plot. I realize this is only volume one of a six volume series, but try a little story cohesion. If the first novel struggles with a through line, how can you expect the series to hang together?

An excellent book and an easy read that combines a good mystery with a SF setting. I have read four of the six books in the series so far, and each has been excellent. The author combines great immagery and vocabulary and a great story line. With 6 books in the series, there is plenty to keep up the interest. Although it is a light read, this is a pure SF book. There are few ,if any, fantasy components.

If you're a guy. You will love SPARTA/LINDA. She is a dream (conceived by male writers... I would love to get a female's opinion of this book). This is very good reading of the Asimov/detective/SF variety. An easy read that combines a good detective mystery with a futuristic setting. There are 6 books in the series, so there is plenty to follow. Although it is a light read, this is a pure SF book. There are few ,if any, fantasy components.

The literary equivalent of an musical b-sides and rarities compilation, this is a collection of musings on, and extracts from, early versions of the novel of '2001' - Clarke directs the reader to Jerome Agel's then-forthcoming, now-equally-out-of-print 'The Making of Kubrick's 2001' for information on the making of the film. As such, your enjoyment of this is going to depend on your opinion of Clarke's novel (which, without the film, would probably be out-of-print too), and whether you want to read disjointed chapters from early drafts. As glimpses into an alternative '2001', one that Kubrick might have filmed, it's priceless; as entertainment, it's less interesting. Like the other 'hard sci-fi' writers, Clarke is best at the science bits, and a short segment from an alternative finale, one in which the four surviving Discovery crewmembers explore a deep hole in the side of Iapetus (although, oddly, it's only referred to as 'Jupiter V' - perhaps they hadn't named it yet), is fascinating. The talky bits were never his strong point, though, and the pre-flight glimpses at Earth in the year 2001 are full of people not so much conversing, as delivering little scientific monologues at each other. As with everything else Clarke has written, none of the characters have any actual character - although it's possible that this is hyper-realism as, let's face it, most people in the real world are bland, dull and interchangeable, especially when they're at work, and Clarke's characters are always at work. Disappointingly, HAL doesn't appear at all. The other main strand personifies the monolith in the form of Clindar, a tall, noble alien who comes across as an insufferably self-righteous riff on Klaatu from 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'. One shudders to think how camp the film would have been if this had been filmed. And there are a couple of descriptions of alien landscapes and societies which are quite evocative but have a habit of repeating themselves.

There's a reprint of 'The Sentinel' as well, but if you're going to the trouble of ordering this from Amazon (it took about a month for them to find and post it to sodden, freezing, miserable London, which wasn't much slower than a normal order) you've probably read that already. In summary, then, if you're reading this you're either buzzing with curiosity or you're me, and if you're a fan of the film, the book, or Clarke it's essential. You'll probably buy it, read it once, and never read it again, though.

I highly reccommend this book to you if you enjoyed the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey (or the movie, for that matter, but read the book version of it before you read this.) It consists of chapters that were originally written for the book, but were not used. Also included are occasional musings by Clarke on the making of the book, and behind-the-scenes glimpses at the making of the movie. He kept a journal during the entire 4-year process of the making of the works, and some of them are excerpted here. It's interesting to see some of the ideas that were thought up, but abandoned. For instance, what became HAL was originally a walking robot; the initial "Dawn of Man" scenes involved an actual alien, and there are numerous alternate endings (all of them every bit as ornate as the one we're all familar with.) This is sort of the literary equivalent of the movie industry's "The Making of Kubrick's 2001" (which I also reccommend.) A highly worthy buy for the fan.

I have been looking for this out of print gem for almost 15 years! I placed my first order with Amazon.com eight weeks ago, and, as a lark, placed an order. And here it is in my hot little hands!

This is a great service -- I'm *sorry* about the mom and pop bookshopes, but survival of the fittest and all that!

I first read this series when it came out in the late 1980's. They are highly entertaining and among my favorite books, it is high time they got a second printing. This third installment which takes us to Mars is as enjoyable as the rest, though my favorite is the second installment, "Maelstrom".

Over the years I've had a lot of fun with Sparta and "The Free Spirit". I just wish I knew how to get my hands on one of those "Snark" attack helicopters. Ellen Troy and Blake Redfield are captivating heros, who like the rest of us, have their flaws. Any Clarke faithful who doesn't enjoy this series might want to think about going one size larger the next time they buy new skivvies.

Anyone who enjoys this and other "Venus Prime" novels should look for "Core", another enjoyable work by Preuss. (For anyone who's curious, the origional names for the Venus Prime books are "The Breaking Strain", "Maelstrom", "Hide and Seek", "The Medusa Encounter", "The Diamond Moon", and "The Shining Ones" respectively.)

I don't think Paul Preuss is attemting to take Clark's place in science fiction history. The three installments thus far of Venus Prime are clever and enjoyable mysteries. The books are well written (if not carefully edited - Clark's intro in the second book refers to the first manned orbit of the moon by Apollo 8 Christmas 1969 - AFTER the first moon landing) and fun to read. Enjoy them for what they are, and leave the comparisons to 2001 out of the experience.

preuss captures clarke's tone and complexity--a nice entry in a superior series

The story of a third generation Jovian colonist and his first and only visit he could make to earth.

As usual Clarke is a master at the tech side of Science Fiction. Very imagative when it comes to technology but kind of slow sometimes boring when it comes to an interesting story. The title is decieving and has very little to do with any Empire. Worth reading mostly because of the future innovations Clark imagines.

A very well written novel about a 3rd generation colonist from Titan. He attends the Quincitennial in Washington. While there he finds a lost love and reveales her secrets. He also decides to carry on the family line.

Clarke does an excellent job depicting the future in this brilliant novel. Personally I loved it.

The Ghost from the Grand Banks: I'd never heard of this novel before finding it at the library, and I quickly found out why. It's a rather self-indulgent outing by the master, spending more time demonstrating his erudition than furthering the rather thin plot, which involves raising the Titanic. He has some successful predictions in here (the Y2K problem, though he misjudges both its impact and solutions), and some unsuccessful ones (the Mandelbrot set as a fashion object). All in all, this is an uncharacteristically forgettable outing.

The Deep Range: Now this is more like it. The first sentence - "There was a killer loose on the range" - grabbed me, bringing me back to the days when I first read this book as I was just getting into science fiction. Here we have a future world where food is becoming scarcer, and whales and plankton must be harvested to feed the teeming millions. Into this comes Franklin, a traumatized astronaut looking for a new career. We cover the problems he encounters, both personally and professionally, concluding with the moral one of eating whales at all.

Still something of a rambling tale, but it's out of the classic days of sf, and it brought back fond memories for me, and I enjoyed it, regardless.

THE GHOST FROM THE GRAND BANKS was written more than a decade ago, telling a tale of an attempt to raise the Titanic in the early 21st century. It was only a few years later that James Cameron's TITANIC caused enough stir in interest for the old ship's future fate that such attempts to raise the old tin pot now don't seem so outlandish at all. This novel, written in typical Clarkean style, is filled with science and technology fitted to a spare and efficient fromework of a plot. Diversions into the world of mathematics via the 'Mandelbrot set' makes for a fascinating counterpoint to the main story.

In 1957, the year the Space Age began, ACC penned THE DEEP RANGE--about near-future undersea farming and exploration of Earth's "inner space." The author's love of the sea and it's creatures was prominently shown in this evocative novel. In the decades since it was published, the world has undergone a true revolution in attitude toward marine mammals and their habitats. Whale song has been studied, protective covenants established to preserve endangered species, and exploration of the seas continues. A classic tale that sometimes rankles the contemporary mindset, but exposing all kinds of future possibilities.

This is a fairly entertaining book that established Clarke as "the inventor of the communications satellite."

Islands In The Sky is certainly not on par with such later Clarke masterpieces as 2001 or Rendezvous With Rama, nor is it intended to be. This very, very early Clarke novel is just about the only work in his entire canon that seems to have been written with the teen audience in mind. The protagonist is of the "coming of age" age that is commonly featured in such stories, and Clarke uses this to narrarate the story in a slightly condescending, naive tone that is appropriate for such a character. It's quite different for Clarke, who usually writes in such a philosophical, poetic style. It reminds a lot of Robert A. Heinlein's many excellent juvenile novels. As such, this book, while far from being Clarke's best work, this book serves as an excellent introduction to Arthur C. Clarke's incomparable canon, or to the wonderful world of science fiction.

My first sci-fi book. Embedded in my memory. Bought by a parent at a rummage sale some time around the early 70's. Lost it. Now I've ordered it for my 8-year old son (who reads more than I do).

againandagainandagain. it gets almost interesting. lovecraft's scientific story ending up with nothing much of a climax, Poe drowning in nautical technical information and fragmentary style. taine's is the most interesting one. first too little happens, then too much. could have been good, but is first too boring then too much in the overwhelming action-genre. glasby has good descriptions, but his story doesn't go anywhere. some of the other stories could have been good too. but always, something destroys. too boring, not going anywhere, lacks suspence. truly sad since many of the stories shows potential.

An excellent collection of short to medium length stories, all dealing with Antarctic expeditions and what the adventurers found (but wish they hadn't).

I only gave this book three stars because of the horrible proof-reading. It appeared as if the original documents had been scanned in and run through OCR software without a human bothering to check the results. Some examples: in one story, Tekeli-li is printed T>k>li-li; in one story all instances of "he" are printed as "be".

Other than that, I would recommend this collection to anyone interested in weird fiction set in Antarctica.

From the ends of the Earth come stories of adventure and really BAD things. Start off with a sonnet by Lovecraft himself, called, 'Antarktos', then on to the first course with 'The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket' by Edgar Allan Poe, with a follw-up of excerpts by Jules Vern's called 'The Sphinx of the Ice Fields'. This is followed by the not-so-well-known 'The Greatest Adventure' by John Taine. 'At The Mountains of Maddness' by H.P. Lovecraft is served next, the main course, followed by 'The Tomb of the Old Ones' by Colin Wilson. Arthur C. Clarke cooks up a fine story in 'At the Mountains of Murkiness' and what meal would be complete without 'The Thing From Another World' by John W. Campbell Jr.? We finish off our fine dining with 'The Brooding City' by John S. Glasby and 'The Dreaming City' by Roger Johnson. Full yet?

...but the short-story "The Nine Billion Names of God" is my favorite of all time.

11 pages, five minutes. Well worth the price of the entire book.

Arthur C. Clarke, though known primarily for his novels, started out as a writer of short stories, and his best (the title short, The Star, The Sentinel, etc.) are regarded as some of the best in the field. This now out of print collection gathers together many of his greatest short works, and is a worthy addition to your collection if you don't own them already in some other form. There are a lot of Clarke short story collections out there (including the newer and more comprehensive Collected Stories), so if you already have a number of them then you don't really have any incentive to get this (if you can find it), but if you are lacking in Arthur's short stories this book, if handy, is a good place to start.

Arthur C. Clarke really shines in this collection of short stories... It makes you want to read more; I would also suggest Tales from the White hart, Expedition to Earth, and many more!

Duncan Steel is one of the best known advocates for a near Earth observation system, and he and others like him should be listened to. Unfortunately the book is not too great. It didn't hold my attention, partly because of the intrusion of some of his opinions. If nothing else is available on the topic, this could be an okay choice. See instead "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis

Related titles include "Night Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell and "T Rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez.

I liked the book, but do not rate it as highly as "Rain of Iron and Ice" by John S. Lewis and "Impact" by Gerrit L Verschuur. However, it is much better than "Fire on Earth" by John and Mary Gribben.
My chief reservation about Steel's work is that he seems easily drawn to flights of whimsy such as Clube's and Napier's contentions regarding Beta Taurid cometary impacts that have affected history on a mammoth scale. While these are captivating proposals, perhaps, there isn't enough hard scientific evidence for them clutter up what was otherwise a hitherto fine scientific presentation of a real problem by Steel. Up to the author's dalliance into the speculative, the book is a good read about a serious, overlooked, preventable threat. His admonitions should be taken seriously.

To the publisher I would appreciate it if the publisher could produce an audio adaptation of this book. I would love to listen to this while I drive to work and to let my 16 month old son listen to it as a bedtime story. My goal is to expose him to some of my favorite passions, maths, sciences, physics, geophysics, paleontology, astronomy, electronics, photonics, new science and discoveries etc. The more audio books you can produce of the above genre the more I will support you. Arnold D Veness