Sci-Fi

>>8247646
the nine billion names of god is probably the best sci fi short story ever

>>8247652
wow that was a great read, thanks anon

>>8247646
I've read City And The Stars, and Rendezvous With Rama. The former was much more enjoyable with all of the exotic scenery, unusual robots, the intriguing aspects of a past being revealed, including its religions.

While Rama turned out to be an anticlimactic bore-fest; too dry, too uneventful, not profound, just a series of problems being solved prosaically. So my ultimate feelings about Clarke are of ambivalence. If I approach anything else from him it will be his short stories.

>>8247723
I honestly enjoyed the ending of Rendezvous with Rama, you were expecting this very climactic and exciting ending but instead you find out that the aliens didn't give a shit about what was going on at all.
It beautifully illustrates the importance human beings assign to themselves, while in reality they don't mean shit.

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>>8247646
Is there a dystopic/pessimistic answer to AC Clark?

>>8247740
It seems to me that HP Lovecraft's short story The
Shadow Out Of Time is a more pessimistic counterpart of Clarke's visions of intelligent extraterrestrials. Like in Rama, the narrator seeks knowledge of an intelligent alien race. However, Lovecraft's aliens are interfering, and using humans for their own ends. This is also the case in his Whisperer In The Dark. Man is less self-assured in these stories.