The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke

🤎🤎🤎💕 This isn’t one of Clarke’s masterpieces, but it was gripping and fun to read. I really enjoyed the plot: a writer travelling to Mars, what he learns on the journey to the Red Planet, and what he discovers once he gets there. I found the characters human and believable, capable of developing relationships and empathy—up to a certain extent, obviously. There is science and technology, which are fun to read about. Like using Typewriter and paper on the spaceship. This isn’t a novel of big ideas. Actually, I didn’t find the big reveal, mindblowing or a "big reveal" at all. It was an enjoyable and engaging read. Recommend.

Odyssey Two by Arthur C Clarke.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ A really good sequel to 2001. Obviously, it takes place 9 years after the first novel. The mission now is to find out what went wrong with the Discovery and Hal. A Russian led expedition (with some American guests) is sent to recover it and investigate. The story starts with the planning of the mission, which is followed by the trip. The writing is entertaining and interesting. Some hard science here and there, some exploration of the characters (not too much, this is not a strength of the book), but what is really interesting is the crew's discussions and speculations about what they expect to find and their thoughts when they actually find something. And they find many other things than the Discovery, which are connected to a bigger truth so interesting it is worth 10 stars. The story was so exciting to read, I was sent back to 2001 (book and movie) on many occasions, remembering Dave Bowman and Hal 9000, and that final epic scene with the space monolith. In this novel, we learn a bit more about the monolith, but we don't get all the answers. We are left wanting for more, and there are 2 more books left in the saga.

Childhood's End by Arthur C Clarke

My favourite Clarke so far. Compelling story, and characters. Thought provoking. Whenever you go out at night and see the sky, do you think about what's there? The cosmos is so vast and complex. It's beyond our comprehension. This book is about an alien invasion. But the aliens are not evil or hostile. They come with a purpose. A purpose they don't understand themselves. At the end Clarke reveals the mystery. The revelation is fulfilling I guess but left me with so many questions, wondering how life would be if the ending was real. 🤔 There are 2 or 3 instances in which I got shocked by Clarke's prodigious imagination. Descriptions of the fictitious 21st century society which resemble our reality of the 21st century. And the book was written 70 years ago. 🤔 That's it. Read the book.

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke (4🌟)

This is science fiction at its best. The novel relies on the strength of Ideas, all of which could be possible. Ideas about aliens and our evolution. About space travel and exploration. And about Artificial Intelligence, consciousness and sentience.

The story stars with ape men and a huge monolith. Aliens teaching apes how to use tools. Fast forward hundreds of thousands of years and we have humanity exploring the solar system and finding a monolith hidden in the moon. Who built it and why did they leave it there? More happens and then there is evidence of another monolith in one of saturn moons. Now, a small crew is sent to explore in a state of the art spaceship guided by an artificial intelligence called HAL.

My beautiful edition is from the Folio Society with 209 pages.

Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (4🌟)

Rendezvous with Rama is a science fiction novel written in 1973. It deals with first contact with an alien race.

When an immense object near the asteroid belt is detected by space telescopes, astronomers and scientists across the United Planets set their minds to investigate it. The investigators name the unidentified object Rama (a hindu god) and try to find out everything they can through their radars and space telescopes. As Rama comes near earth and flies beyond, they identify its shape as a perfect cylinder which seems to be rotating around its long axis at considerable speed. Not much else is learned from a distance. Now that Rama flies towards Mercury's orbit a decision is made to send a party to intercept and investigate the object.

Bill Norton in charge of Solar Survey Research Vessel  Rendezvous and his crew have to land on Rama and find a way to get inside the gigantic object. As they carry out their mission we learn about the nature of Rama and the mentality of the beings who built it.

Opinion: this is a short, fast read. An excellent premise for a first contact story. Excellent plot, including scientific elements and a bit of mystery but with flat non relatable characters. I have to say that I didn't mind about this last issue that much as I was immersed into discovering Rama as a reader. Every chapter something new happened, revealing in small doses the mysteries of Rama. The characters seemed to me like ants working their way through the object, all of them undistinguishable between them. However the actual object, Rama, felt to me a much better character.  It came to live with a little bit of personality and history of its own. It lead to some interesting scientific and philosophical questions. (Who built it? Why did they come? How many years has it been travelling? How does it work?) I liked the open ended finale, leaving quite a few unanswered questions, as this way the story felt more realistic.

My edition is a SF Masterworks published in 2006 by Gollancz. It has 252 pages.