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This morning the news reached me that author Arthur C. Clarke has passed away. He was known as the author of 2001 as well as the father of satellites.

What is not so widely know is that Arthur C. Clarke was the most influential writer of my youth. In my childhood I lived in the countryside. Every saturday a library bus laoded full of books would stop by our house and I would loan a big bunch of comics, Asterix, Lucky Luke, Valerian (there was even one album signed by Mézières himself) and pretty much everything I could find. I think tv had already made me a scifi geek so I eventually started reading trough all the scifi books the book mobile would carry. I think I started with John Carter of Mars but soon I found myself reading Arthur C. Clarkes 2010. It blew my mind. After that I bugged the driver to bring everything Clarke had written and I think I’ve read pretty much every single book of his that the local library had at least three times. Well, with the exception of 2001 that I still haven’t read - the shadow of the movie is just too heavy.

Of all the books I’ve read my all-time favourite is Clarkes The Songs of Distant Earth. I remember one summer night, we we’re returning from a family road trip to Lapland and it was late, the sun had set but there was enough light to read. In the distance there was lightning and I was reading The Songs of Distant Earth. That is the most perfect literary moment I’ve ever had.

So, rest in peace mr. Clarke. You’ve earned it.

His last message:

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 11:26 and is filed under General, Scifi. You're welcome to comment below, or link to this post. The comments are not moderated, but behave or Santa will smack you with a shovel.