Cover of Arthur C. Clarke

One of Britain’s greatest writers and thinkers, his influence will live far into the future he predicted.

As a writer, Arthur C Clarke stood alongside Robert A Heinlein and Issac Asimov as one of the fathers of the science fiction genre. Although best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, famously adpated for film by Stanley Kubrick, Clarke had the prolific output common to many science fiction writers of the era, authoring over thirty novels and thirteen collections of short fiction in a career of over five decades.

But Clarke was also the author of at least forty non-fiction publications, covering deep space exploration, the communications revolution, fractal mathematics and a host of other subjects across the sciences, demonstrating a mind that was as flexible and imaginative as it was intellectually rigorous. He is often credited as having propagated the concept of geostationary satellites, without which modern global communications would be impossible. He also became a noted deep sea researcher, widely acclaimed for his work on the Great Barrier Reef. And whilst he may never have realised his dream to journey into space himself he was present alongside Walter Cronkite as a commentator on the Apollo moonlanding.

Clarke was the writer who introduced me and many others of my generation to the wonders of science fiction. I read Rendezvous with Rama in a single night, hidden under the sheets with a torch. No other writer before or since has conveyed the truly alien nature of the universe with such power. Childhood’s End may still prove to be his most prophetic novel as we emerge into a culture where young people are absorbed to such an extent in the alternate worlds of the internet and mass media that they may as well be under the influence of an alien intelligence. And of course 2001: A Space Odyssey and the movie it inspired are packed with some of the most influential ideas and images in modern culture.

My personal favourite among all his work is The Fountains of Paradise, the story of the construction of a giant space elevator that would forever link the Earth with space, thereby changing the course of humanity’s evolution, one of Clarke’s favourite themes. But the part of the story I love the most is Clarke’s insight into the ancient civilisation of Sri Lanka, a country he adopted as his own, and the mirror it put up to our modern society. Clarke’s stories were always packed to bursting with great ideas, but never lost sight of the human emotions that gave them heart and soul.

Although ill health limited his writing coming into the 21st century, he still managed to complete a number of excellent novels, most in partnership with Stephen Baxter. But perhaps his most intriguing later story was one that showed off his crisp sense of humour. Challenged to write a six word story by Wired magazine, Clarke submitted a ten word story from which he refused to remove a single word.

“God said, ‘Cancel Program GENESIS.’ The universe ceased to exist.”

With the death of Arthur C Clarke a line of code in God’s programme may have come to an end, but it set in action many hundreds of others to continue its subroutine.

Read the full article on Guardian Unlimited 

I wrote my first professional blog post last week for Guardian Unlimited. Following the tremendous response to Sam Jordison’s look at the Hugo Award’s, I pitched a few ideas for science fiction and fantasy blog posts to the Guardian eds and they said yes. It was very exciting to go ‘above the line’ on a blog I’ve read for some time, not least because it actually pays! I’m looking forward to pitching a few more ideas over the next couple of months but have to be careful not to let the cheap thrill of reaching hundreds if not thousands of readers distract me from my career as an unknown fiction writer. You can see the problem.

Also in the world of non-fiction I’m continuing my reviewing for The Fix. I’ve recently posted a review of Farrago’s Wainscot and will be reviewing one of the ‘Big 3′ genre magainzines for the next few months – Fantasy  & Science Fiction. F&SF is my favourite of the big three (the other two being Asimov’s and Analogue) but its been interesting comparing it to the small press and online publications that I have reveiwed or read recently,  I think this might be an interesting angle to take in the review.

I have been a little undisciplined with the writing in the last two months. Foreign and domestic holidays followed by  a slew of freelance work meant I’ve had to put the novel on hold until February, although I start back in earnest in February once the Writing Industries Conference is out of the way. I have been working on a number of short stories instead so the time hasn’t been wasted. The first to be finished will be ‘The Great Western Pile’ which is a steam-punk, hard SF spy story. i’ve had great fun writing it and with luck will finish it over the weekend.

Following my ‘Week of Rejection’ between X-Mas and New Year I got right back in the saddle and got everything back out on the market. ‘Rings’ AKA ‘My Zombie Lovesick Boy Band’ is at Weird Tales, ‘Meat’ is with Strange Horizons, ‘Circes’ and ‘Momentum’ are both with audio podcasts (The Drabblecast and Escape Pod respectively) and ‘Horizon’ came back from Ideomancer with another rejection. ‘Horizon’ is my problem child at the moment, but I have faith it will find a good home eventually.

Back to ‘Great Western Pile’ anyway. If I get the first draft done over the weekend I’ll post an extract to the blog.