ASTOUNDING DAYS

I've been on a science fiction reading kick over the last month or so, specifically the science fiction of British Grand Master Arthur C. Clarke. I started this adventure by re-reading 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968). My first reading of this seminal book was in the fall of 1968. I was in the seventh grade at O. Henry Junior High School. I had seen the movie 2001 that summer with my buddy Blake Brown at the old Americana Theater (now an Austin public library). The movie had, to use the then current lexicon, "blown my mind", but the trouble was, I really didn't understand what it was all about. I bought the book and read it, then went back to the theater for a second viewing, an experience that was even more "mind blowing" since I had a much firmer grasp on what was going on.

Re-reading 2001 was like visiting an old friend. Written at the same time that Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick were working on the screenplay for the monumental film, the novel matches the film extremely well in most regards. There are scenes in the book that aren't in the movie and vice versa and even the scenes that appear in both aren't always exactly the same. Nonetheless, it's a solid novel, told in Clarke's clean, crisp prose.

THE MAKING OF 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, a trade paperback published in 2000, was next on my list. This is a collection of articles, essays, reviews and interviews that approach the film from several angles over the course of it's pre-production, production, release and place in cinematic history. All of the pieces are informative and entertaining and give a rounded perspective on the making of this landmark film. I must confess that I skipped over one of the reviews because it was written in such high falutin' "semiotic" nonsense that I couldn't begin to understand it.

Next, I re-read CHILDHOOD'S END (1953), which holds up remarkably well after more than 60 years. Arguably Clarke's greatest novel, I first read this one when I was in either junior high or high school (I forget which exactly but it was back there in my public schooling years). I loved the book then but reading it as an adult was an entirely different experience. The book starts with the appearance of immense alien star ships in the skies above several major world cities. The spacecraft belong to the Overlords, a benevolent, albeit mysterious alien race, which places the earth into a sort of protective custody. There are several surprises in store as the narrative progresses including the revelation of what the Overlords look like, their real mission, a voyage to their home planet by a human stowed away on one of their ships, cosmic vistas of unimaginable reach, power and scope and a sobering coda which provides several meanings to the words "childhood's end." CHILDHOOD'S END is a true science fiction masterpiece, a classic work of speculative fiction that should be on every one's must-read list whether you're a science fiction fan or not.

Finally, I read ASTOUNDING DAYS (1990). Sub-titled "A Science Fictional Autobiography", Clarke acts as tour guide through the history of the legendary and influential pulp sf magazine ASTOUNDING while at the same time providing us with his own abbreviated auto-biography. Clarke was a reader of ASTOUNDING from the beginning and the book details the magazine through the editorships of three key players in science fiction history: Harry Bates, F. Orlin Tremaine and the immortal John W. Campbell. Clarke will examine an issue, making note of a particular story (or stories) in each, which leads to a brief summary of that writer's career and work, the science involved in the story and how accurate or inaccurate it is and a reminiscence of when he first read the issue and where he was in his long career as a writer of science fiction and science fact. Written in a breezy, informal style, ASTOUNDING DAYS, gives a nice picture of both the man and the magazine and is full of mentions of stories and novels that I'm now anxious to track down and read.

Thumbs up on all four of these books with CHILDHOOD'S END a stand out as the must read of the group.