Arthur C. Clarke
The word is spreading that Arthur C. Clarke has died.
He was never among my favorite authors; I only have two of his novels in my collection - Childhood's End and (of course) 2001: A Space Odyssey. But his The City and the Stars was one of the first SF stories I ever read, about forty years ago, and it left a deep impression on me. One of the final scenes, as Alvin speculates on Vanamonde's final fate, gave me the feel of deep time unforgettably: the image of Vanamonde and the Mad Mind grappling in a universe where even the stars have gone out, in a battle which might "ring the curtain down on creation itself" (or something like that). Wooo....
Hail and farewell, Sir Arthur.
He was never among my favorite authors; I only have two of his novels in my collection - Childhood's End and (of course) 2001: A Space Odyssey. But his The City and the Stars was one of the first SF stories I ever read, about forty years ago, and it left a deep impression on me. One of the final scenes, as Alvin speculates on Vanamonde's final fate, gave me the feel of deep time unforgettably: the image of Vanamonde and the Mad Mind grappling in a universe where even the stars have gone out, in a battle which might "ring the curtain down on creation itself" (or something like that). Wooo....
Hail and farewell, Sir Arthur.