''The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke'', first published in 2001, is a collection of almost all
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
short stories written by
Arthur C. Clarke. It includes 114 stories, arranged in order of publication, from "
Travel by Wire!" in 1937 through to "
Improving the Neighbourhood" in 1999. The story "Improving The Neighbourhood" has the distinction of being the first
fiction published in the
journal
A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to:
*Bullet journal, a method of personal organization
*Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period
*Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
''
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
''. The titles "Venture to the Moon" and "The Other Side of the Sky" are not stories, but the titles of groups of six interconnected stories, each story with its own title. This collection is only missing a very few stories, for example "
When the Twerms Came", which appears in his other collections ''
More Than One Universe
''More Than One Universe: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in 1991.
The stories originally appeared in the periodicals ''Playboy'', ''V ...
'' and ''
The View from Serendip''. This edition contains a foreword by Clarke written in 2000, where he speculates on the science fiction genre in relation to the concept of
short stories
A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...
. Furthermore, many of the stories have a short introduction about their publication history or literary nature.
In addition to the printed edition, an audio edition was published by Fantastic Audio in 2001. The audio edition, comprising five volumes, runs nearly fifty hours. An electronic edition of the book was published in four volumes by RosettaBooks in 2012.
Contents
:* Foreword
# "
Travel by Wire!"
# "
How We Went to Mars "How We Went to Mars" is a humorous short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was first published in March 1938, in the third and final issue of '' Amateur Science Stories'' maganize. It follows a group of British rocket scientists wh ...
"
# "Retreat from Earth"
# "Reverie"
# "
The Awakening"
# "Whacky"
# "
Loophole
A loophole is an ambiguity or inadequacy in a system, such as a law or security, which can be used to circumvent or otherwise avoid the purpose, implied or explicitly stated, of the system.
Originally, the word meant an arrowslit, a narrow ver ...
"
# "
Rescue Party "Rescue Party" is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in '' Astounding Science Fiction'' in May 1946. It was the first story that he sold, though not the first one published. It was republished in Clar ...
"
# "
Technical Error"
# "Castaway"
# "The Fires Within"
# "
Inheritance
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...
"
# "Nightfall"
# "
History Lesson
"History Lesson" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1949 in the magazine '' Startling Stories''.
The two-part story speculates on the cooling of the Sun as a doomsday scenario for Eart ...
"
# "
Transience
Transience or transient may refer to:
Music
* ''Transient'' (album), a 2004 album by Gaelle
* ''Transience'' (Steven Wilson album), 2015
* Transience (Wreckless Eric album)
Science and engineering
* Transient state, when a process variable or ...
"
# "The Wall of Darkness"
# "
The Lion of Comarre"
# "
The Forgotten Enemy"
# "
Hide-and-Seek
Hide-and-seek (sometimes known as hide-and-go-seek) is a popular children's game in which at least two players (usually at least three) conceal themselves in a set environment, to be found by one or more seekers. The game is played by one chos ...
"
# "
Breaking Strain
"Breaking Strain", also known as "Thirty Seconds - Thirty Days", is a science fiction short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1949. It was adapted into a movie in 1994 under the title ''Trapped in Space''.
Plot ...
"
# "
Nemesis"
# "Guardian Angel"
# "
Time's Arrow"
# "A Walk in the Dark"
# "Silence Please"
# "
Trouble with the Natives"
# "The Road to the Sea"
# "
The Sentinel"
# "Holiday on the Moon"
# "
Earthlight
''Earthlight'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1955. It is an expansion to novel length of a novella of the same name that he had published four years earlier.
Overview
''Earthlight'' is a scie ...
"
# "Second Dawn"
# "
Superiority"
# "
If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth"
# "All the Time in the World"
# "
The Nine Billion Names of God"
# "
The Possessed"
# "The Parasite"
# "
Jupiter Five"
# "
Encounter in the Dawn"
# "The Other Tiger"
# "Publicity Campaign"
# "Armaments Race"
# "The Deep Range"
# "No Morning After"
# "Big Game Hunt"
# "
Patent Pending
"Patent pending" (sometimes abbreviated by "pat. pend." or "pat. pending") or "patent applied for" are legal designations or expressions that can be used in relation to a product or process once a patent application for the product or process ...
"
# "Refugee"
# "
The Star"
# "
What Goes Up"
# "
Venture to the Moon" (six individual connected stories)
# "The Starting Line"
# "Robin Hood, F.R.S."
# "Green Fingers"
# "All That Glitters"
# "Watch This Space"
# "A Question of Residence"
# "
The Pacifist"
# "The Reluctant Orchid"
# "
Moving Spirit
"Moving Spirit" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1957. The story within a comic story is narrated by Harry Purvis, who is called to assist a scientist relative of his in a trial. The sci ...
"
# "
The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch"
# "The Ultimate Melody"
# "The Next Tenants"
# "Cold War"
# "Sleeping Beauty"
# "Security Check"
# "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea"
# "Critical Mass"
# "The Other Side of the Sky" (six individual connected stories)
# "Special Delivery"
# "Feathered Friends"
# "Take a Deep Breath"
# "Freedom of Space"
# "Passer-by"
# "The Call of the Stars"
# "Let There Be Light"
# "Out of the Sun"
# "Cosmic Casanova"
# "
The Songs of Distant Earth
''The Songs of Distant Earth'' is a 1986 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, based upon his 1958 short story of the same title. He stated that it was his favourite of all his novels. Clarke also wrote a short step ...
"
# "A Slight Case of Sunstroke"
A Slight Case of Sunstroke
# "Who's There?"
# "Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting..."
# "I Remember Babylon
"I Remember Babylon" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was first published in ''Playboy'' in May 1960, and reprinted in the 1962 collection ''Tales of Ten Worlds''.
Plot summary
The story takes the form of a ...
"
# "Trouble with Time"
# " Into the Comet"
# " Summertime on Icarus"
# "Saturn Rising
"Saturn Rising" is a short story by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was first published in March 1961 in ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction''. It was included in '' Tales of Ten Worlds'', a collection of stories by Clarke first pu ...
"
# " Death and the Senator"
# " Before Eden"
# "Hate
Hatred is an intense negative emotional response towards certain people, things or ideas, usually related to opposition or revulsion toward something. Hatred is often associated with intense feelings of anger, contempt, and disgust. Hatred is ...
"
# "Love That Universe"
# " Dog Star"
# "Maelstrom II"
# "An Ape About the House"
# "The Shining Ones"
# " The Secret"
# "Dial F for Frankenstein"
# "The Wind from the Sun
''The Wind from the Sun'' () is a 1972 collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Some of the stories originally appeared in a number of different publications. A part of the book was included in CD on bo ...
"
# " The Food of the Gods"
# "The Last Command"
# "Light of Darkness"
# "The Longest Science-fiction Story Ever Told"
# "Playback"
# "The Cruel Sky"
# "Herbert George Morley Roberts Wells, Esq."
# " Crusade"
# " Neutron Tide"
# "Reunion"
# "Transit of Earth"
# "A Meeting with Medusa
''A Meeting with Medusa'' is a science fiction novella by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. It was originally published in 1971 and has since been included in the anthology '' Nebula Award Stories Eight'' as well as several collections of C ...
"
# "Quarantine"
# siseneG': 'Genesis' Spelled Backwards"
# "The Steam-powered Word Processor"
# "On Golden Seas"
# "The Hammer of God"
# "The Wire Continuum" (with Stephen Baxter)
# " Improving the Neighbourhood"
Previous appearances in book form
Of the above 114 pieces, 95 were published in six major short story collections during Clarke's lifetime. They are distributed as follows (all cross-references with the above list are noted):
* "Expedition to Earth" (1953, 11 stories: nos. 7, 12, 14, 19–21, 28, 31, 32–33, 39)
* "Reach for Tomorrow" (1956, 12: nos. 5, 8–9, 11, 13, 18, 23–24, 26, 36–38)
* "Tales from the White Hart" (1957, 15: nos. 25, 42, 45–46, 49, 57–64, 66–67)
* "The Other Side of the Sky" (1958, 24: nos. 15–16, 34–35, 41, 44, 47–48, 51–56, 65, 69–74, 76–78)
* "Tales of Ten Worlds" (1962, 15: nos. 27, 75, 79–89, 91, 93)
* "The Wind from the Sun" (1972, 18: nos. 90, 92, 94–109)
Note that nos. 50 and 68 above are not short stories but two cycles of six pieces each.
Later collections consist mostly of previously collected material, with the following exceptions (all cross-references with the above list are noted):
* ''The Best of Arthur C. Clarke: 1937–1971'' (1973, four "new" stories: nos. 1, 3, 6, 10)
* ''The Sentinel'' (1983, 2: no. 22)
* ''The Wind from the Sun'' (1987 edition, 3: nos. 110, 111)
* ''Tales from Planet Earth'' (1989, 3: nos. 40, 43, 113)
As can be seen, of these 12 "new stories", 10 are reprinted in ''The Collected Stories''. The missing ones are a movie outline of ''The Songs of Distant Earth'' (from "The Sentinel"; this is not the short story of the same name) and a short sketch titled "When the Twerms Came", which originally appeared in Clarke's non-fiction book ''The View from Serendip'' (1978) and was later reprinted in the 1987 edition of ''The Wind from the Sun''.
For the remaining nine pieces (2, 4, 17, 29, 30, 112, 114–116) this is either their first appearance in book form at all or first appearance in a book by Arthur C. Clarke. There are, however, two exceptions. "The Lion of Comarre" (no. 17), although published in magazine form as early as 1949, first appeared in book form in 1968, in an omnibus edition together with Clarke's early novel ''Against the Fall of the Night'' (1953). "The Steam-powered Word-Processor" (no. 112) had previously appeared in Clarke's "science-fictional autobiography" ''Astounding Days'' (1989).
See also
* Arthur C. Clarke bibliography
References
*
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, The
2001 short story collections
Short story collections by Arthur C. Clarke
Victor Gollancz Ltd books
Science fiction short story collections