Elentarri’s Reviews > The Collected Stories > Status Update

🟢Trouble With Time ★★★★☆ An entertaining Martian art heist gone wrong. A thief tries to steal a famous statue in Meridian City, but is caught because he miscalculates the date, falling victim to a time-zone difference between his hotel and the museum. The hotel where he hides out is on a different date than the museum just a few blocks away.

I Remember Babylon ★★⯪☆☆ Clarke accurately predicted the use of mass media and satellite communications to influence society. A communist sympathizer reveals a Chinese plan to weaponize American decadence. By using a Russian satellite for direct-to-home broadcasting, they aim to broadcast pornography and propaganda, using Kinsey Reports as market research to destabilize the USA.

Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting … ★★⯪☆☆ A story that meanders too much to get to the point - the first human child born off the Earth (i.e. on the Moon).

Who’s There? ★★★★☆ Charming and funny. A Space Station Supervisor doing maintenance in space believes his suit is haunted by a ghost. While spacewalking, he feels taps on his back and hears noises.

A Slight Case of Sunstroke ★★★☆☆ Satire. Macabre. A corrupt referee in South American football is killed by intense heat generated by thousands of spectators focusing sunlight using reflective program cards.

The Songs of Distant Earth ★★★☆☆ Expanded into a novel. A melancholic tale of impossible love set on the ocean planet Thalassa, a woman from the "lost colony" falls in love with an engineer from a damaged starship in need of repair.

🟢Cosmic Casanova ★★★★☆ Hilarious! A deep space explorer with a deprived libido comes across a lost colony and starts a video chat with an attractive philologist/interpreter, with the hopes of arranging a tryst. Only... all is not as it appeared on screen. [/spoiler]

Out of the Sun ★★★★☆ A lovely but poignant story that explores the concept of life existing within extreme environments, such as the plasma of the Sun.

Let There Be Light ★★★⯪☆ A spoof on the "death ray" trope in science fiction, emphasizing how technical expertise can lead to unintended consequences. An astronomer creates a powerful "death ray" to destroy his unfaithful wife's car, with unintended consequences.

The Other Side of the Sky ★★★★☆ A fun series of linked vignettes featuring future technology and adventures in space, in this case a space station.