The Space Trilogy: @@Islands in the Sky@@@@ @@Earthlight@@@@ @@The Sands of Mars@@

Great compilation of three of Clarke's early works. It has been years since we have read them but found the same enjoyment reading them now as the first time. He was a great storyteller.

THE SPACE TRILOGY is a collection of three of Arthur C. Clarke's early novels. Long before  2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY  (1968) and  RENDEZVOUS WITH RAMA  (1972), Clarke wrote THE SANDS OF MARS (1951), ISLANDS IN THE SKY (1952) and EARTHLIGHT (1955). Apart from the publishing history of these books, the theme of this collection is the fictionalization of Earth's future space exploration (which was, of course, also a theme of virtually Clarke's entire body of work). ISLANDS IN THE SKY In the near future where Earth has several orbiting space stations, a teenager finagles a trip onto one of them by winning a TV quiz show and then demanding a very literal interpretation of the contest's rules. Once on board he experiences a variety of relatively minor adventures which serve to demonstrate Clarke's view of how space travel would work rather than existing to provide tension or drama.In his introduction Arthur C. Clarke states that he wrote this book specifically for the juvenile market but hoped that only the age of the protagonist would betray that. Unfortunately, I would disagree with Clarke's assessment, although this isn't a bad work at all. It certainly feels like something aimed at preteens and by the end of the story, it's hard to ignore the fact that very little actually happened.As something that was deliberately written as pro-space exploration propoganda, ISLANDS barely succeeds, but isn't particular interesting as a piece of fiction. It's only down to Clarke's writing skills that it comes across as something better than simply a dry, speculative lecture. The success of the space program in the decades since the original publication do rob the book of a lot of its impact.3 of 5 stars THE SANDS OF MARS In this story, Earth's Martian colonies are still in their infancy. To help maintain funding and support from an increasingly skeptical Earth, a science fiction author rockets to Mars and begins writing essays and reports for consumption at home. Naturally, during his stay on Mars he uncovers a conspiracy which has the potential to alter the balance of power in the solar system.The plot and story of this book are incredibly slow-moving. However, this would appear to be deliberate as -- once again -- Clarke is more interested in world building and speculating about future colonies than spending time on detailed and intricate plot twists. Again, in the hands of a lesser writer, this could have been a painful experience. But Clarke manages to create an engaging book where the Martian colony is an interesting focal point (if not the actual characters who make it up).3 of 5 stars EARTHLIGHT The concept of a human Federation of Planets, is something that has appeared countless times in science fiction stories. However, unlike many other such stories, here the Federation exists as a union of human colonies who form a bond as a counterweight against the much more powerful Earth. Spies and counterspies are infiltrating both parties in an attempt to uncover each side's secret attempts to gain a technological upper hand.While the first two stories were interesting curiosities which gave the reader insight into Clarke's early style, EARTHLIGHT was something that I genuinely enjoyed as a story in its own right. In this, the author was able to combine marry his speculation of future history and an intriguing, exciting plot. This was by far my favorite of the three.4 of 5 starsTHE SPACE TRILOGY is an interesting collection. While it's almost certainly aimed at the die-hard Arthur C. Clarke fans who would love to obtain some of his more obscure novels, general science fiction fans will also get something out of it. It's an fascinating look at where science fiction was in the early to mid 1950s with the usual unabashedly pro-science viewpoint and scientist, professor and researcher characters we would later come to expect from Arthur C. Clarke.

"Islands in the sky" is better ignored, the other two are excellent. Earthlight, here in the full novel version rather than the short story that clarke wrote some time earlier, is a great story. It's portrayal of the lunar environment is somewhat dated now, but when it was written they didn't know that dust pits were not real. The rest of the science is accurate and is used to produce some great plot twists. The novel chronicles the ket events of a short war between earth and some of it's planetary colonies, told from the perspective of a man sent up to the monn on a counter espionages mission, after that war is over the last chapter reveals the answer to the big mystery of who the spy was and how he was doing it."The sands of mars" is also good, primarily in it's part about the space flight from earth to mars, but it's quite good once it's on the surface too. It is clear that Clarke not only researched the science behind this story (although obviously it was written before probe exploration of mars began so the mars it describes is not excatly the mars we know) but also knew quite a few scientists, the description and portrayal of some of the characters towards the start of the novel is one of the most accurate I had ever seen, it felt like he was describing people I knew. If you just pretend that this novel is about some other world than mars then it is very enjoyable."Islands in the sky" is not very good. Although famous for containing some of clarkes very accurate predictions about things like communictions in geostationary orbit it's not a great novel at all. I believe that this story was originally serialised and it really shows here. The events jump from one thing to another, each little thing resolving itself in about a chapter before creating a cliffhanger for the next chapter. All the events are quite separate, they're a random list of situations that the key character gets caught up in on his tour of the space stations.

"Earthlight" is the highlight of the three.It's based on the idea of an interplanetary war as observed by humans in a lunar base. Some anachronisms-obviously, it was written in the 1950s-but some good plot twists and ideas about living on the moon.I didn't think much of the other two stories, but it was the only way I could get "Earthlight".

Old, old Science Fiction. My late fathers collection fascinated me from a very early age .......glorious!

Good

Great book and speedy service