Book review: Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke (1952)

Not a Medium member? Read this article for free.

My copy of Islands In The Sky is one of three short novels in a collection called The Space Trilogy. In the foreword to this 1952 work, Arthur C. Clarke wrote in January 2001 that he had originally written this for the “juvenile” market and that part of his motivation in writing science fiction of this kind was “propaganda” for the then-blossoming concept of space exploration.

This description won’t come as a surprise to anyone who has read the novel. The story and the writing do indeed have a youthful flavor to it. Most of the actual passages seem more focused on describing the intricacies of traveling through space and living in zero-gravity than they do in advancing the plot. However, while the storyline may not be the most exciting or the most interesting that Clarke ever created, it’s entirely down to the strength of his writing that the book is as fun and absorbing as it is.

The story begins with a teenager, Roy Malcolm, winning a game show and (through his pedantic reading of the program’s rules) earning a free vacation in space. His trip begins on Earth, he then blasts off into space, tours through one of several orbiting space stations and finally travels back home again to Kansas City. While on the station, he meets and befriends the…