Book review: The Space Trilogy by Arthur C. Clarke

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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 (full review)

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…