You should be warned however that you will be subjected to a portrayal of passionless sexual relationships with essentially no rules within a population of bland characters who lack not only faults like jealousy but also interesting qualities like enthusiasm and ambition. If you want to know what an atheist thinks mankind could or would be if he could just rid himself of all that cumbersome superstition (aka religion and morality) and also shed all his violent tendencies including the will to power, then you should read 'Songs of Distant Earth' because that is the main theme of the work. When Clarke dealt with sociology and the nature of man as he did in this work, he did not shine so brightly. When Clarke dealt with science, he was brilliant. Clarke also won the Nebula Award of the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 19, the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 19, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. Campbell Award for his novel Rendezvous With Rama. He is past Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of the Academy of Astronautics, the Royal Astronomical Society, and many other scientific organizations.Īuthor of over fifty books, his numerous awards include the 1961 Kalinga Prize, the AAAS-Westinghouse science writing prize, the Bradford Washburn Award, and the John W. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.Ĭlarke was a graduate of King's College, London where he obtained First Class Honours in Physics and Mathematics. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction.

The songs of distant earth book