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Previously uncollected tales range from How We Went to Mars (1938) to The Wire Continuum (1997), cowritten by Stephen Baxter with whom Clarke collaborated on The Light of Other Days (2000). There are ingenious jokes such as Quarantine, displaying a sense of humour which will surprise those who think of Clarke only as the sober visionary behind 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Here too are The Sentinel and Breaking Strain, both of which provided inspiration for that film, together with such unforgettably haunting classics as The Nine Billion Names of God, Transience and The Star. Indeed, for a man considered the prophet of the modern technological age, coupled with all the scientific ingenuity and adventure there is a deep thread of essentially English melancholy, a love of nature and a lucid sense of cosmic sadness to Clarke's finest interplanetary tales. This is not just a perfect companion to the author's massive collection of non-fiction, Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds!, but an essential addition to every reader's library. Clarke's best stories are among the finest ever written in any genre, now collected in an anthology as definitive as it is possible to get.--Gary S Dalkin
