Elentarri > Recent Status Updates

Improving the Neighbourhood ★★★☆☆ A monologue by a "germanium-based consciousness" tells of the development of a civilization and a disaster which destroys them. The reaction of the alien is: good riddance (i.e. improving the neighbourhood). Who cares for creatures that have recorded "countless episodes of violence, against their own species and the numerous others that occupied their planet".

🟢The Wire Continuum (with Stephen Baxter) ★★⯪☆☆ A disjointed narrative that explores the implications of a technology that allows for teleportation, focusing on the technical challenges, the "guinea pig" tests, and the subsequent "war" or conflict caused by the technology's unexpected results.

🟢The Wire Continuum (with Stephen Baxter) ★★⯪☆☆ A disjointed narrative that explores the implications of a technology that allows for teleportation, focusing on the technical challenges, the "guinea pig" tests, and the subsequent "war" or conflict caused by the technology's unexpected results.

🟢The Hammer of God ★★★⯪☆ The captain of the space-ship Goliath leads a mission to destroy "Kali," a massive asteroid on an imminent collision course with Earth in 2109... things do not go as planned. Clarke invents a new blended religion of Chrislam.

On Golden Seas ★★⯪☆☆ Silly. The plot revolves around a failed attempt to extract gold from seawater, highlighting folly of making massive economic plans based on flawed, optimistic scientific research. Rooted in historical fact—the efforts of chemist Fritz Haber to extract gold from the ocean to pay German debt after World War I, which failed due to a drastic miscalculation of gold concentration in seawater.

The Steam-Powered Word Processor ★★★☆☆ A light-hearted, historical science-fiction tale that humorously imagines an alternate 19th-century Britain where Charles Babbage ("Reverend Charles Cabbage") successfully completes his Analytical Engine, leading to early, steam-powered word processing (to write sermons) and the unintended technological consequences.

🟢siseneG ★★★★☆ A brief, satirical take on the creation myth from Genesis, reframing it as a computer simulation.

Quarantine ★★★⯪☆ Humorous doomsday story, describing the reason for Earth's destruction was to protect the galaxy from an unsolvable problem with six operators whose permutations and combinations were so great that they threatened to overwhelm all available computational resources for magnitudes of time far greater than the history of the universe. The six operators: King, Queen, Bishop, Rook, Knight, Pawn.

A Meeting With Medusa 💖★★★★★ Feeling alienated from humanity, cyborg Captain Falcon volunteers for a dangerous mission to explore the atmosphere of Jupiter using a advanced hot-hydrogen balloon, where he discovers a complex, aerial ecosystem populated by massive, gelatinous "medusae" creatures. Falcon reflects on his role as a bridge between humanity and the future of creatures,both biological and robotic.

Transit of Earth ★★★★☆ A reflection of the acceptance of death, the indifference of the universe, and the awe of astronomical phenomena. An astronaut is stranded on Mars with less than 24 hours of oxygen. While awaiting death, he calmly records the rare transit of Earth across the Sun, reflecting on his lost crew and the ultimate, lonely beauty of the cosmic event.

Reunion ★★★★☆ Told as a radio message from advanced space-faring humans returning to Earth after 10 million years. The original colony divided into two groups due to a "disfiguring disease" caused by climate changes 2 million years ago. The returning humans offer to help Earth rejoin the galactic society, concluding with the condescending offer: "If any of you are still white, we can cure you".

Neutron Tide 💖 ★★★★☆ Hilarious punch line! This educational disaster tale is narrated by a military commander delivering a report on the fate of a space cruiser that got caught in the tidal forces of a neutron star. Due to extreme gravity, the ship is torn apart. The story serves as a setup for a final pun about a "star-mangled spanner".

Crusade ★★★⯪☆ The narrative centers on a long-lived intelligence originating from a frozen rogue planet drifting between galaxies, which deploys probes to explore the universe and, disturbed by its discoveries—particularly humanity's development of artificial minds—initiates an intervention against Earth, projected to arrive around 2050.

Herbert George Morley Roberts Wells, Esq. ★★☆☆☆ Didn't appeal to me. A short autobiographical essay/anecdote regarding plagiarism and mistaken identity. Clarke explains his mistaken belief that the story "The Anticipator" was written by H.G. Wells, only to realize it was by Morley Roberts, highlighting the irony of a story about literary theft.

The Cruel Sky ★★★⯪☆ A fun story that focuses on scientific achievement, overcoming physical limitations, and humanity's relationship with the environment. A wheel-chair bound scientist and his assistant attempt to climb Mount Everest using a levitation device the scientist developed, which allows him to bypass the traditional physical challenges of mountaineering. A trip to Mount Everest doesn't go as planned.

Playback ★★★⯪☆ A more modern sounding 'mind dump /retrieval' story. A master pilot of the Galactic Survey had an accident somewhere in deep space. His ship blown away, vaporizing him along with it. The story is narrated by a simulation ("playback") of the pilot's mind dump record, found by aliens, who managed to create a body, only they have no idea what kind of body he had... and the recording is corrupted...

The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told ★☆☆☆☆ Silly. Did not appeal to me. A satirical piece focused on the absurdity of a seemingly endless tale, rather than a space story.

The Light of Darkness ★★★☆☆ Fairly grisly ending. This story predicts lasers and heat rays reflecting from angles. A ruthless dictator commissions a special lens to see in total darkness, only to discover the terrifying, absolute void that awaits him. It doesn't pay to tick off your engineers and scientists.