Arthur C Clark Dies, Age 90

[pallandrome]

I hate to be the one to bear bad news, but this community would want to know asap.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23697230

 

[zen_hydra]

Nooo!!! Why are the good always taken so young?

Someone should make a good movie adaption of Childhood's End.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I heard this last night, and to be honest I was surprised because I thought he had died a couple of years back.

 

[sckeener]

very sad news.

I've never read any of his novels, but I have admired him. I liked how much a proponent for the future and for science he was.

I'm sad to see him go.

Anyone care to recommend some books of his? I've got some trips planned and think I'd enjoy reading something of his while on vacation.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I preferred his short stories to his novels, so I would suggest any of his collections of short stories for good reads.

I seem to recall that Clarke was credited with inventing the concept of geostationary orbits - a real thinker as well as a good writer.

Cheers

 

[trancejeremy]

He was an enormous influence on me growing up. His works, both fiction and non-fiction, were one of the big reasons I majored in Space Science in college (and went to college where I did, where I could see the rockets and shuttle go off).

He wrote a lot of non-fiction about space travel and such. A lot of which was originally written in the 50s and 60s, but reprinted in the late 70s in paperback form.

 

[Fast Learner]

Anyone care to recommend some books of his? I've got some trips planned and think I'd enjoy reading something of his while on vacation.

I liked 2001, 2010, and Rendezvous with Rama. Never read Childhood's End, but I will now.

 

[jonesy]

I seem to recall that Clarke was credited with inventing the concept of geostationary orbits...

Nope, that would be Herman Potočnik 20 years before Clarke. And the original idea came from Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 30 years before that. What Clarke proposed was placing telecommunications gear up there.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Nope, that would be Herman Potočnik 20 years before Clarke. And the original idea came from Konstantin Tsiolkovsky 30 years before that. What Clarke proposed was placing telecommunications gear up there.

Oops, thanks for the correction!

I blame sloppy journalism in the 80's uh, yeah, something like that

Cheers

 

[jonesy]

I blame sloppy journalism in the 80's

Oh, I wish. Sloppy journalism in the '08 too. I was watching the french TV5 and they had an in-memory-of segment where they called him the creator of geostationary orbits. As if they hadn't even existed before him.