1917 - 2008
One of the world's most famous science fiction writers. Responsible for works such as
Childhoods End, the
2001: A Space Odyssey series,
Rendezvous With Rama and
The Songs Of Distant Earth. Has influenced almost all the science fiction that has arrived in his wake, from
Stargate to
Neon Genesis Evangelion. Much of his fiction features
O. Henry style
twist endings at the end of each story or chapter. He is considered one of the "Big Three" of
Science Fiction along with
Isaac Asimov and
Robert A. Heinlein. He was the last of the Big Three to leave us, after Heinlein and Asimov, in that order.
He is often credited with inventing the geostationary communications satellite, although in fact he did not originate the idea.
Formulated "Clarke's three laws", the third being the most famous and oft cited:
- When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
- The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
- Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
He wrote the
Space Odyssey sequels himself, without the input of
Stanley Kubrick — each installment gets increasingly more literal and with less left to the imagination, up till
3001 which retcons all the fantastical elements out of the original story (and only has its actual
plot start two-thirds of the way through the book, the preceding chapters consisting entirely of the literary equivalent of
Scenery Porn). The
Time Odyssey series was likewise "co-written with" Stephen Baxter. It shows there, too.
Has
an award named after him.
A 1981 episode of
The Goodies spoofed him as "the inventor of the digital lawnmower".
This author's works with their own trope pages include:
His other works provide examples of:
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