Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

I admit, though I had heard of Arthur C. Clarke and of course the 2001: A Space Odyssey, I was born a generation after his heydey, and had neither seen the film nor actually read any of his books. Until now. His most famous book seemed a good place to start, so I did so.

I was amazed by how many of the modernly commonplace sci-fi concepts seem to have come from this man's brain!

Here's a link to my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Much as I admired some of Clarke's books, I never really loved them as much as I did Asimov's.

Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein are typically called "the big three" - and certainly wrote sci-fi of quality (and quantity!).........but are they still the "big three"? Or were they of their time, and have now being overtaken?

We've got a lot of sci-fi fans in the group - who are YOUR big three?

The only one I remember seriously engaging with was Heinlein. I keep both his Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love on my Science Fiction favorites shelf.

I also have enjoyed the Asimov books I have read. I guess I will need to add Heinlein to my list now! (Regardless of how quickly I read, I'm never going to shrink my TBR list.)

Also please note, I did edit post #2 to add a link to my review now that it is complete.

Mark wrote: "The only one I remember seriously engaging with was Heinlein. I keep both his Stranger in a Strange Land and Time Enough for Love on my Science Fiction favorites shelf."

I like the idea of a "Science Fiction favourites shelf" Mark....who else do you have on that shelf?

I have Dune and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. I also have three of Ben Bova’s old Science Fiction Hall of Fame series: the two volumes of short stories and the one of novellas. In the other spots I keep the Tolkien books: I realize they’re not Science Fiction, I have them catalogued as fantasy.

Mark and John (and anyone else who wants to jump in):

Which Clarke books did you think were the best of the bunch?

Which one would you recommend for a Clarke newbie- now that I have finished 2001 a Space Odyssey?

Sorry, ForestGardenGal, if I’ve read any Clark it was so long ago I don’t remember.

I'd recommend Rendezvous with Rama, ForestGardenGal - but if you particularly enjoyed 2001, you might want to think about the next book in that series - 2010: Odyssey Two

Mark wrote: "I have Dune and H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness. I also have three of Ben Bova’s old Science Fiction Hall of Fame series: the two volumes of short stories and the one of novellas. In t..."

I love Dune, too, but I don't think I've read any Lovecraft Sci-fi - I must look into that. When I was in my teens I read a lot of "Horror", and I've always tended to associate Lovecraft with that.

Oops. Apparently I accidentally duplicated a thread.
Please kindly put all future replies and comments in the archived post for this Author:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Sorry everyone for any confusion I caused. I wasn't trying to overstep

No worries!

All good!