[.ca] The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (ISBN 0312878605)

From Amazon.com:
Ancient Rome had its famed Five Good Emperors--Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, for those keeping track. And while science fiction might not have Edward Gibbons around to dole out similar, agreed-upon honors, everyone pretty much accepts the canonization of a few founding fathers: Asimov, Heinlein, Wells, and Bradbury all make the short list, as does--always--the venerable and venerated Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master and the winner of just about every SF award you care to mention. So whether you're already familiar with his works or not (most notably Childhood's End and the Rama series), you certainly can't go wrong picking up this veritable brick of a collection--912 pages in all--as either primer or essential reference. Within you'll find virtually every short piece of fiction that Clarke has ever published, from 1937's endearingly twee (in retrospect) "Travel by Wire" to 1999's "Improving the Neighbourhood," the first sci-fi Nature ever published. The Collected Stories is all short works (as short as 31 words in one case) and includes some of Clarke's best stories, including the lighthearted "Tales of the White Hart" and the momentous "The Star" and "The Nine Billion Names of God." --Paul Hughes

What could be better?:
All of Clarkes short stories in one volume? What could better? I checked this out of the library and then bought my own copy after about a week. There are a few spelling errors, but who cares, really? All books have a few. This book is definetely worth having.

The Seminal Arthur C. Clarke Collection:
Sir Clarke himself gathered his own pithy "Golden Age" sci-fi short stories for the reader to peruse, and (unforgiveably numerous typesetting errors aside) what a selection here. In chronological order, he begins with his fine early work ("Rescue Party", "The Sentinel") and propels the reader into vignettes of lost space missions, time travel, and apocalyptic warnings from lunar monolith-depositing super beings. This anthology makes a convincing case for Clarke, who is the most commercially successful writer of the genre but hasn't received the critical acclaim given Heinlein, Bradbury, or Asimov. It's really not fair. Clarke so cleverly buries social commentary into his best work ("Imperial Earth") that the reader is lured into wondering whether the technical surroundings of his characters was a bi-product of his physics degree from the Royal Academy of Science or a result of early mentor/editor John W. Campbell's demand for commercial success in a post-WWII war-weary literary world. At any rate, Clarke is pleading with earthers to stop pointing those nasty lasers at each other and just get along. Or else.

Great content but terrible proof-reading:
The number of typos and other errors in this book is astounding. I love all of these stories and am happy to have them all in one volume, but the incredibly bad editing is unforgivable -- Clarke deserves better.

Great Sci Fi Compilation:
This is a really cool collection of stories. Apparantly, Clarke's older stuff was much better than the newer stories, such as 2061 which was horrible. I can't imagine any sci fi lover not enjoying this book.

An enjoyable read:
They've brought out another edition and they seem to have proofread it this time; I only noticed a small handful of errors in nearly 1000 pages. (At least, the edition I got in the UK was fine.) So don't be put off by tales of dreadful misspellings, the danger has passed. It's a nice little collection of stories, although not quite as good as I expected from his reputation. This is partly personal preference: I'm not terribly interested in space travel, which is the subject of the majority of stories, I prefer sociologically/philosophically based science fiction, and it's very difficult to write science fiction that doesn't date somewhat (aliens sporting tentacles and names consisting only of consonants, bless them). His style slightly reminded me of John Wyndham (I find both rather sweet and extraordinarily oblivious of feminism), and shared Wyndham's concern that we're going to do a great job of sending ourselves to a variety of hells if we don't watch out, satirising human prejudices and wars. The humourous stories were a lovely surprise and frequently had a clever sting in the tail, for instance the one about the man who tries to train a giant carnivorous orchid to munch up his irritating aunt, or the chap who designs the sets and equipment for a trashy space opera and ends up being picked up by aliens for accidentally revealing their state secrets. He also provided a new take on old cliches, such as suggesting that if aliens were to try to contact us, it wouldn't be all that straightforward: we'd either not take them seriously, or get the planet demolished by the rudeness of our reception, or they'd take one look and not believe their eyes. Well, he could have a point.