Arthur C. Clarke & Isaac Asimov

Masters of Science Fiction

My earliest recollection of being exposed to science fiction was in grade school (perhaps the 3rd or 4th grade), when we were assigned to write a report on a short story we had read. My report was on Isaac Asimov's story "Marooned Off Vesta," which was originally written in 1939. I remember being completely intrigued by the perils of the space heroes in their crippled craft. Needless to say, as I grew older, I continued to look for other stories and novels by Asimov. Today, I can safely say that I have all of his science fiction novels and most of his short story collections (excluding a few that have many previously published stories) in my personal library.

My association with Arthur C. Clarke came a lot later in life and was based on my fascination with the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel." Shortly after the movie was released, I had to have major surgery and my then-fiance (now-wife), Helena, brought the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey and the earlier Clarke novel Earthlight to the hospital to help me pass the recovery time. I was instantly hooked on Clarke's detailed descriptions of life in space and subsequently began buying every book by Arthur C. Clarke that I could find, while still searching out Isaac Asimov's massive library of science fiction. My personal library today includes every novel and almost every short story collection (again excluding a few that have previously published stories) by Clarke.

While I read other science fiction and enjoy many science fiction TV series and movies, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke hold a special place in my heart as the two "Masters of Science Fiction." In my mind, absolutely no one, before or since, holds a candle to Clarke and Asimov for their ability to construct thought-provoking, mysterious, and often humorous and surprising science fiction. Interestingly, these two authors had, throughout their careers, a fierce but friendly rivalry as to which was the better. Eventually they (tongue in cheek) entered into the "Treaty of Park Avenue" by which Arthur C. Clarke conceded that Isaac Asimov was "first in science and second in science fiction" and Isaac Asimov conceded that Arthur C. Clarke was "first in science fiction and second in science." I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.

Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. Interested in science from childhood, Clarke mapped the Moon with the aid of a telescope of his own construction. When growing up, he lacked the financial resources to go to college and worked as a government auditor. He also joined a small, advanced group that called itself the British Interplanetary Society. In 1941, Clarke enlisted in the Royal Air Force and became a radar instructor. While he was in the service, he published his first science fiction stories and wrote an article called "Extra-Terrestrial Relays" for the magazine Wireless World. In this article, he predicted in detail how man-made satelittes could be placed in orbits of the Earth that would allow them to be used to broadcast radio and television signals around the world. Although his idea was met with much skepticism by the scientific community, twenty years later the Early Bird synchronous satellite was launched, bringing his fantastic idea into the realm of reality. Clarke continued to write, becoming a distinguished science fiction author with dozens of collections of short stories and novels that described in detail the possibilities of human exploration of space. He also wrote a large number of scientific essays, many of which have been published in collections. In the 1950s, Clarke developed an interest in undersea exploration and moved to Sri Lanka, where he began a second career in undersea photography. As a consequence, he undertook a number of books on this topic. In the 1960s, Clarke collaborated with movie director Stanley Kubrick to produce the highly-acclaimed film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was based on Clarke's short story "The Sentinel." A sequel film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact was produced in 1984 based on Clarke's novel 2010: Odyssey Two. Clarke's most famous works are the four novels in the "Space Odyssey" series and the four novels in the "Rama" series, the last three of which were cowritten with former NASA scientist Gentry Lee. Clarke had pledged to be alive in the year 2001 to "see what really happens." He made it to that landmark year -- the start of the 21st Century and the new millennium -- but sadly, his remarkable predictions of human exploration of space are still many years (if not decades) in our future reality. Most recently, Clarke had been sufferring from complications from a bout with polio during his youth and from back problems. He died at his home in Sri Lanka on March 19, 2008, just a few months after celebrating his 90th birthday. Along with the death of Clarke's friendly rival, Isaac Asimov, in 1992, the world has lost the two most important and prophetic authors of science fiction and science fact. They will both be sorely missed.

Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia on January 2, 1920. He was brought to the United States by his parents at the age of three and grew up in Booklyn, New York. He graduated from Columbia University in 1939 and received a PhD from the same school in 1947. He then joined the staff of Boston University, where he was an associate professor of biochemistry. Asimov began to write science fiction in 1939, and in 1950 published his first book, Pebble in the Sky. His "Foundation Trilogy" is perhaps his most famous work and the series won him a Hugo Award in Science Fiction. Later in his career, he wrote additional novels in the "Foundation" series. Asimov is also well-known for forming the "Three Laws of Robotics," which are used to this day by many science fiction authors as the guiding rules by which robots behave. The "Three Laws of Robotics" are:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Laws.

Asimov was a prolific writer and, at the time of his death on April 6, 1992, he had published more than 500 volumes, including science fiction and mystery short story collections and novels, science textbooks and collections of essays, collections of limericks, and even two volumes explaining the books of the Bible.

In his later years, Asimov began to tie together his three main groups of stories about the world of robots, the Galactic Empire, and the Foundation. Although stories and novels in these three series were written at widely separated intervals, there is a more-or-less consistent chronology into which they can be arranged. According to a FAQ found on the internet a couple years ago, if you read the books in the following sequence, you'll better appreciate the flow of Asimov's intended timeline and the connection between the characters and events in the three series.

1. The Complete Robot (1982): This is a collection of 31 robot short stories published between 1940 and 1976. A few additional robot short stories appeared in the collections Robot Dreams (1986) and Robot Visions (1990).

2. The Caves of Steel (1954): The first robot novel.

3. The Naked Sun (1957): The second robot novel.

4. The Robots of Dawn (1984): The third robot novel.

5. Robots and Empire (1985): The fourth robot novel.

6. The Currents of Space (1952): The first Empire novel.

7. The Stars, Like Dust (1951): The second Empire novel.

8. Pebble in the Sky (1950): The third Empire novel.

9. Prelude to Foundation (1988): The first Foundation novel.

10. Forward the Foundation (1993): The second Foundation novel, made up of four novellas and an epilog.

11. Foundation (1951): The third Foundation novel, made up of four stories originally published between 1942 and 1944, plus an introductory section written for the book in 1949.

12. Foundation and Empire (1952): The fourth Foundation novel, made up of two stories originally published in 1945.

13. Second Foundation (1953): The fifth Foundation novel, made up of two stories originally published in 1948 and 1949.

14. Foundation's Edge (1982): The sixth Foundation novel.

15. Foundation and Earth (1983): The seventh Foundation novel.