Not many people talk about Clarke any more these days, it seems. Has he fallen out of fashion? Hopefully, this will change if and when the Rama movie gets made (I'm assuming director David Fincher and actor Morgan Freeman are still developing the project).
I love Clarke's writing. Ever since I first read 2001: A Space Odyssey years ago, I've admired his concise style. Even though the novel 2001 was a hybrid creation of sorts (both an adaptation of the movie screenplay and a re-working of his own original short story that inspired the movie), it stood well on its own as a literary work, in my view. My username is the name given by Clarke in the novel to the man-ape who rises to greatness, as it were.
I've read only a meagre selection of Clarke's entire output, but so far my favorite single novel of his remains Rendezvous With Rama. I love the sense of awe and mystery about alien technology that is represented by Rama, and the way Clarke portrays human beings' reactions to it. Clarke puts us in our place in the cosmic scheme of things: humbled, but capable of wonder, which inspires us to surpass ourselves.
I also liked the "sequel" Rama novels in general, though I found the writing to be uncharacteristically turgid (and even inchoherent in places) for a Clarke work. This inconsistency I blame (mostly) on Clarke's collaborator for the sequels, Gentry Lee. However, both redeem themselves in the final book, Rama Revealed, which I think is an amazing, mind-blowing conclusion to the whole saga.
<i>Edited by: Moonwatcher at: 8/26/05 11:11 am
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Don't worry about having given anything away.
