Wednesday 19 March 2008

A tragic loss...

The wonderfully gifted Arthur C Clarke has died. As an SF fan, I enjoyed Clarke's work, and also appreciated many of the younger authors who cited him as an influence, such as Stephen Baxter (who is in many ways the spiritual successor to Clarke and worked with him on the Time's Odyssey sequence), Alastair Reynolds, and Charles Stross. His direct and indirect contribution to science fiction is incalculable.

I'd like to quote the final few words of my personal favourite Clarke novel, The Songs of Distant Earth:
His grief, though piercing, would slowly pass. The light of a new sun filled the sky ahead; and soon there would be another birth, on the world that was already drawing the starship Magellan into its final orbit.

One day the pain would be gone; but never the memory.

Goodbye, and thank you for the wonderful stories you brought us.

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