Transreal Fiction

I still have my 1970 paperback edition of The City and the Stars on my shelves at home. When I bought the book I just knew it would be special - it had a wonderful cover that intrigued me every time I looked at it - and I wasn’t mistaken. I re-read it again fairly recently* and the sense of wonder was definitely still there!

Since that first encounter (although I may well have read some stories from the library without knowing they were his) I’ve read most of his major works - and some of his others - although I’ve not read much of his more recent output. And I’ll get around to Fountains of Paradise yet!

He was a huge figure in sf and a key figure in making it more ‘respectable’ with idea-driven books which appealed to more than the sf crowd, and, of course, the hip recognition he gained from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Along with Heinlein and Asimov, he was regarded as one of the ‘big three’ sf authors, and, while I’ve enjoyed work by all three of them, Clarke is the one I’ve enjoyed the most - and the only one I still own any books by!

And when I heard of his death last night I put on VDGG’s anthemic (Childlike Faith in) Childhood’s End and cranked it up…

My copy from 1970, published by Corgi in the UK

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edit:

my comments from September 2006:

I’m currently re-reading The City and the Stars, which was one of my favourite books when I was discovering sf&f. I’m pretty sure I read it in 1970 - quite some time ago, now!

I checked the copyright date and realised it’s 50 years old this year! It still stands up well (so far; Alvin’s only just reached Lys) and the immersive multi-player adventures, the databases, the constant tracking of everybody (for no particular purpose; they just can, so the computers do), the personal e-mail addresses, the screen art, all combine to make it feel very prescient of Clarke, although the story is set in the extremely far future… Other ideas are still to be achieved; the peristaltic roads and paths, the instant furniture, etc. but, hey, it is science fiction!
Anyway, definitely recommended if you’ve not read it, and maybe worth a re-read if you have!
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I’ve just discovered that Ken Slater died recently.

I didn’t know him well, but he was an early source for various aging pulp magazines I used to try to track down. I’d send him a list of what I was after, and in due course we’d both be at the same convention and I’d get a small pile of Startling Stories, or Astounding, etc.

And then I’d be reading one of them and find it had a letter from him in the letters column!

He dated back way before me - he had just turned 91 - and was a link to the early days of sf in the UK… He ran Fantast (Medway) Ltd for decades, importing and selling books and magazines right up until his death; his daughter helped him latterly; maybe she’ll carry on the business…

Terry’s just announced that he’s been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s http://www.paulkidby.com/news/index.html

That’s bad news.

Here’s hoping he was diagnosed early enough that the drugs stave it off for a good long while…

The hardback of Winterbirth is now out of print and I am out of stock, so the only edition I can now supply is the ‘b’ format paperback.

So, the wheel of time has ground to a stop.

Robert Jordan died yesterday, having lost his fight against amyloidosis.

Back in 1990 his UK publishers rep came in to the shop I was running to go through the new titles for the next couple of months.
One of them was a big new fantasy hardback, nice dj, map printed on the inside covers - looked very nice, but it was an almost completely unknown author. I ordered one copy! There was no mention of a sequel.
The next year the rep came in to sell me the sequel saying that it was going to be a trilogy.
The year after that he came in to sell me volume three of a series…

Around about then I started winding people up by claiming that a ‘wheel of time’ was obviously like a clock face and that therefore there would be 12 volumes - this seemed really unlikely back then and people assumed I was joking but now it seems like time really has been called an hour early.

My supplier is temporarily out of the hardback edition; I’ll know early next week whether they are still able to supply them.

In the meantime, I won’t be taking firm orders…

edited on 22.8.o7 to add that further stock has just arrived here….

It wasn’t too much of a shock to find out that another of the old guard has passed on - I had the impression he’s been ill or frail for some time…
The first book of his I remember reading was The Golden People, which was half of an old Ace Double back in the 60s and, I see now, was his first novel! I re-read it several times back then. The other early highlight for me was the trilogy of The Empire of the East; I borrowed them to read as they came out in paperback and bought the big omnibus when it came out years later.
I read a few other stories by him over the years but the only one I still have is The Veils of Azlaroc, which was pretty strange! I have to admit I didn’t really take to much of his work - Berserkers, Swords or Dracula spin-offs - but his single novels appealed more…

I see that his final novel is listed as an Empire of the East book, rather than a Swords or Lost Swords book, so I may try that - or I’ll pull Azlaroc off the shelf at home and read that…

edited to add:

Actually, rather than re-read anything, I noticed that he has a story (co-written with Jane Lindskold and quite possibly his last) in an anthology I had just received - Man vs Machine edited by John Helfers and Martin Greenberg.
It’s called Servant of Death and is a coda, I suppose, to Berserker Man and is about Vivian Travers (whom I assume was in Berserker Man).

I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone, but it did seem an appropriate end to his career.
May he rest in peace.