Clarke's SF books

[M Holmes]

Denis Regenbrecht writes:

> Hi,
>
> M Holmes wrote:
>
> >Yep. I used to be a big enough Clarke fan (particularly his short
> >stories) that I took the risk of doing my English Higher section based
> >on him rather than the "literary" stuff (I did OK). However he seemed to
> >lose interest in writing good SF after "Imperial Earth" with maybe
> >"Songs of Distant Earth" as a minor exception. I'd always expected
> >"Rendezvous With Rama" to become an SF film once the tech was up to
> >doing it (about now) but I figure that the sequels are so purely awful
> >that this won't ever happen.
>
> I totally agree with you. (Although "Fountains of Paradise" wasn't bad)

I thought the tech was interesting but the backplot was very plodding.
However, OK, it wasn't a complete turkey in the way the Rama sequels were.

> The last books he (co-)wrote were really dire. The problem IMHO is, that
> nowadays he only writes the online of the plot and lets other people (that
> Gentry Lee for example, who should have stayed with NASA and not become a
> SF-author) add the flesh around the bones. If he wants to do it that way,
> he should at least collaborate with authors who can write interesting.

Some scientists do write good SF. Just look at Robert Forward's stuff
for example.

>
> >FoFP [Recommendation: Ken MacLeod's SF books, though I'll declare
> >       the interest that he buys me pints regularly]
>
> I'll give them a try. "The Cassini Division" will be released as paperback
> in August.

Best read "The Star Fraction" before that one since some of the
characters reappear, and their android replicas really are playing up
again.

FoFP