Tales from Planet Earth (A Bantam Spectra book) [Paperback]

Arthur C. Clarke (Author), Michael Whelan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1990 | Series: A Bantam Spectra book

A new collection of stories selected to avoid the contents of previous collections, and including rarely published tales. The anthology spans the author's writing career and each story is introduced by the author and features an illustration. Arthur C.Clarke started writing in the forties.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you want an omnibus of short fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, a Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master, then you want The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. If you're looking for a representative sample of Clarke's short stories, or for some examples of the creative and extrapolative abilities that established Clarke as one of science fiction's greatest and most important writers, then check out Tales from Planet Earth.

Tales from Planet Earth ranges widely across time, but the stories are centered on our home world. Many SF writers confine their visions of earth to its flatlands, but Clarke is three-dimensional; his stories "Hate," "The Deep Range," and "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea" plunge into the ocean, while "The Cruel Sky" ascends the Himalayas. Some stories, like "The Other Tiger" and "'If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth...'," end on chilling twists. "The Road to the Sea" spans centuries and millennia to explore how humanity's exodus to the stars may affect the world left behind. "Hate" considers how transcendence of the Earth's atmosphere may affect ancient enmities. "The Parasite" demonstrates a scary nastiness not usually associated with Clarke. "The Wall of Darkness" is set on an alternate-universe earth so different from ours, and "The Lion of Comarre" is set in a future so far away, that both stories feel like fantasy; but both are rigorously extrapolated from scientific theory. Two lighthearted entertainments, "The Next Tenants" and "The Man Who Ploughed the Sea," are from Tales of the White Hart. All of the stories in Tales from Planet Earth are recommended.

The iBooks 2001 Anniversary Edition of Tales from Planet Earth collects 14 SF stories first published between 1950 and 1987, including the satire "On Golden Seas," which has "never before [been] collected in any Clarke book." --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

"Here...is a collection of Arthur's science fiction stories, science fiction dealing with science, extrapolated intelligently. How you will enjoy it!" ISAAC ASIMOV" --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 307 pages
• Publisher: Spectra (May 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553348833
• ISBN-13: 978-0553348835
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,901,113 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"SIR ARTHUR C. CLARKE (1917-2008) wrote the novel and co-authored the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey. He has been knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, and he is the only science-fiction writer to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His fiction and nonfiction have sold more than one hundred million copies in print worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic ACC, May 12, 2011

By 

Paul Brooks (New Hampshire) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales from Planet Earth (Paperback)

Tales From Planet Earth by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008) was an extremely talented writer. My oppinion is based upon my reading of many of his novels. In fact his novels - "Sand of Mars", "Childhood End", "Rendezvous with RAMA" and others are one of his many claims to fame. I was not aware just how talented a short stories writer he was until I read this collection. Short stories, novels you say is there is a distinction? I belief there is. The short story form, done well, is a challenge that few science fiction authors have mastered with the consistency of Mr. Clarke.

Each of the stories in this collection engages the reader within the first couple of paragraphs. Although many of the tales were written over 50 years ago they retain a timeless quality. What comes across in these stories is a writer bursting with ideas and concepts while retaining a solid grounding in our common humanity. I found many of the story themes and resolutions gripping and insightful.

If you are new to Clarke's short fiction this collection will prove to be an excellent introduction.

A few words about the book itself are in order. The 1990 trade paperback edition I read - Bantam Spectra ISBN 0-553-34883-3 is the only U.S. paperback edition. The book features a very humorous introduction by Isaac Asimov. Each of the 14 stories has an author's introduction detailing the publishing history and an interesting anecdote or observation about the story subject. If you are a fan of classic science fiction art you will be pleases to note the each story is accompanied by a full-page illustration by Michael Whelan who also created the wonderful wrap around cover for this edition.

An excellent book in a lovingly crafted edition what more could a SF fan desire.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Bottom of the barrel for Clarke, May 2, 2004

By 

Matt Hetling "Matt" (Bethel, ME USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales from Planet Earth (Hardcover)

Summary: This is a collection of short stories written by science fiction god Arthur C. Clarke. Most of them imagine a future world, and were originally published between 1950 and 1962, although a few are more recent.

In The Road to the Sea, a young man in a future earth visits a derelict city even as technologically advanced humans return from the stars to evacuate earth.

In Hate, a pearl diver with a grudge against Russia finds a recently submerged space vessel with a Russian astronaut trapped inside.

In Publicity Campaign, a peaceful alien race's visit to earth is made unpleasant by the unlucky timing of an immensely successful movie in which aliens arrive, War of the Worlds-like, to conquer earth.

In The Other Tiger, two men who are discussing the fact that in an infinite universe, all possible events must occur an infinite number of times are confronted with one of the least likely of events.

In The Deep Range, a future earth is imagined in which man's food and oil comes from culling whales, who are herded and bred in the tradition of old-style shepherding.

In If I Forget Thee Oh Earth, a young boy in a colony on the moon gets his first glimpse of a beautiful earth that he can never visit, as it is still spoiled by the effects of an atomic war.

In The Cruel Sky, two men who climb Mt. Everest using the world's first levitator packs get stolen by a storm and have to face a rough landing in the wilderness. While trying to come up with a plan for rescue, they are beset by a wild beast.

In The Parasite, a man from our time is visited by a mental parasite, a highly evolved, yet sadistic form of the human race that likes to view human suffering.

In The Next Tenants, a scientist on a remote island comes across another scientist who is grooming termites to be a competitor with humans for global dominance.

In Saturn Rising, an astronaut is approached by a hotel magnate who wants to build a hotel on one of Saturn's moons.

In The Man Who Ploughed the Sea, a trip in a homemade submarine leads the narrator to a scientist who has discovered the secret to mining gold and uranium from seawater.

In The Wall of Darkness, a very future earth (or perhaps another earthlike planet) is home to a race of humans who are prevented from exploring their planet by a mysterious wall of darkness that bifurcates the world.

In The Lion of Comarre, an intrepid genius sets out to rediscover a hidden Utopia in which machines put humans to sleep and ply them with images of their findest dreams.

In On Golden Seas, a US President decides to eradicate the deficit by mining the sea for gold.

Writing:
Of all of these stories, the best are Hate and The Man Who Ploughed the Sea, which are, ironically, the least rooted in science. They have human stories that seemed mildly interesting, and that's the best that can be said of them. Hate is particularly good. In all the rest, the sci fi has taken over, apparently eclipsing the need for realistic characters, motivation, or plot. And the sci fi itself generally seems dull, rooted as it is in the decades before computing. Unlike in 2001, the writing is, as a rule, very stilted. A few of the ideas are interesting, but many of them have been done to death (like the idea of a scientist working with insects to conquer the world-yawn). If I wanted to get more stories like Clarke's masterpiece, 2001, I probably shouldn't have picked up Clarke's oldest, and therefore least polished, work.