The G-Sphere Sounding Booth: Arthur C. Clarke

Sunday, September 13, 2020

Arthur C. Clarke

The Book List 1970-2020

My GoodReads stats has Arthur C. Clarke on the list with 11 books of his that I've read. Actually there should be more.

We all associate Arthur C. Clarke with the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey which he co-wrote the screenplay for in 1968 which became one of the most influential films of all time. He was already known as the Prophet of the Space Age. He wrote a companion novel based on the screenplay of the film and also on an earlier short story. The novel expanded on the screenplay and he would go on to write several more books on what would be a Space Odyssey series based on 2001.

I've read this book several times. The first was in late 1968 just after the movie came out. I read it again in August 1974. Then another time in the mid 1990's and then again last year.

Later when the sequels came out I read the next two in the series. I see now that I missed the fourth book in the series 3001: The Final Odyssey that came out in 1997 and I need to add that to my to read list.

I saw the movie at a large downtown theater when it was released in 1968.The movie was awesome and something one would never forget. I was glad to have read the book soon after seeing the film because it answered many questions I had about what had happened. The movie was somewhat cryptic but the book explained it all.

In 1984 I saw the sequel movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact. It was good but not a great film like it's predecessor.