Showing results by author "Arthur C. Clarke" in All Categories

It has taken a long time, but humankind has won its battle against the sea. Now Professionals like Walter Franklin patrol the infinite savannahs of the oceans, harvesting from the plankton prairies. But like that other great frontier, space, the sea has not yet yielded up all its secrets. And men like Franklin will never rest until its every fathomless mystery has been challenged....

In the year 2130 a mysterious spaceship, Rama, arrived in the solar system. It was huge, but empty - apparently abandoned. By the time Rama departed for its next unknown destination many wonders had been uncovered, but few mysteries solved. Only one thing was clear: everything the enigmatic builders of Rama did, they did in threes. Eighty years later the second alien craft arrived in the solar system. This time, Earth had been waiting. Now Rama II is on its way out of the solar system.

Diaspar is Earth's last city - surrounded by deserts, on a world where the oceans have long since dried up. It is a domed, isolated, technological marvel, run by the Central Computer. Diaspar has conquered death. People are called forth; they live for a thousand years and then are recalled, to be born thousands of years later, over and over again. No child has been born for at least 10 million years. Until Alvin....

Set in 2276, Imperial Earth is the fascinating odyssey of Duncan Makenzie, travelling from Titan, a moon of Saturn, to Earth, as a diplomatic guest of the United States. Duncan’s initial challenge is to prepare for the 500-million-mile trip to Earth. Once there, he is caught up in a sweep of new experiences - including the social whirl of Washington, a strange visit to a carefully preserved ancient city, and a search for the woman he loves.

Aus den Tiefen des Alls taucht ein rätselhaftes Objekt auf, das die Wissenschaftler zunächst für einen Asteroiden halten. Allein seine Größe – es wird gesichtet, als es noch außerhalb der Jupiterbahn ist – ist beeindruckend, und so wird Captain Norton mit dem Raumschiff Endeavour losgeschickt, um es zu untersuchen. Schnell entpuppt sich der Asteroid als perfekter Zylinder – eindeutig nicht natürlichen Ursprungs. Norton und seiner Crew gelingt es, ins Innere des Raumschiffes vorzudringen. Was sie dort entdecken, übersteigt jede Vorstellungskraft...

Watch out - the Earth just fell into a dark sun's orbit! Or maybe you'd rather visit a theme park called Hell? These are just two of the strange and unnerving tales you'll find in this collection of great science fiction and fantasy stories.

Nove anni dopo il disastro, il relitto della Discovery vaga abbandonato nello spazio interplanetario, portando con sé i misteri del fallimento di quella missione. Ora, una spedizione congiunta di astronauti russi e americani ha il compito di raggiungere la nave spaziale alla deriva e scandagliare la memoria di Hal 9000, l'intelligenza artificiale deviata che ha portato la Discovery alla rovina. Perché il computer si è ammutinato? Che fine ha fatto l'equipaggio? Cosa ne è stato del comandante Bowman?

Who better to narrate today's best science-fiction stories than today's favorite science-fiction stars? This exciting collection features many.

Año 2130. Después del impacto de un enorme asteroide que destruye Padua y Verona, se crea en un sofisticado sistema de detectar la trayectoria de cualquier objeto que se detecte desde la Tierra De esta forma los astrónomos detectan un misterioso asteroide, al que bautizan como «Rama», que está a punto de cruzar el sistema solar. Se trata de un cilindro perfecto de unos cincuenta kilómetros de largo, que gira a una velocidad fuera de lo normal y viaja por el espacio en línea recta.

The sun is about to implode, destroying Earth and the rest of the solar system when it happens. A species of aliens not previously aware of the existence of humans suddenly learns two facts: that the sun will implode in less than 10 hours and that Earth is inhabited by intelligent beings.

En el año 2013 una misteriosa nave espacial llega al sistema solar.Se trata de Rama, un aparato colosal de cincuenta kilómetros de diámetro, capaz de acoger en su interior una ciudad y un mar. Desierta y aparentemente abandonada, Rama parte hacia su siguiente y desconocido destino. Los humanos han descubierto muchas de sus maravillas, pero no han resuelto los muchos misterios que alberga esa nave. Sólo tienen una cosa clara: los constructores de ese mastodonte lo hacían todo por triplicado.

Words have power. Some words have more power than others. So when a group of monks seek to enlist modern technology in their quest to list all nine billion names of god, there is no telling what may happen.

En 2130, una nave extraterrestre, Rama, entró en nuestro sistema solar. El primer producto de una civilización extraterrestre que encontró el ser humano reveló muchas maravillas, pero con su partida, la mayoría de sus misterios permanecieron sin resolver. Sesenta y seis años después de que la primera nave Rama atravesara el sistema solar, se avista una segunda nave. Pero esta vez, la Tierra está lista para ella: sabiendo qué esperar, los habitantes del planeta se preparan para montar una expedición que pueda resolver, por fin, algunas de las preguntas que la primera Rama dejó en el aire.

Arthur C Clarke is the world's foremost writer of science fiction and accessible science; his predictions have been coming true since he invented the idea of communications satellites in the 1940s. In Holiday on the Moon, teen Daphne Martin travels to the moon to visit her astronomer father.

A distinguished scientist suspects that one of the Jovian moons, Jupiter V, is not quite what it seems. His expedition arrives at the moon and discovers it is actually a huge spacecraft. The craft is explored and it is soon discovered that the original inhabitants were reptilian aliens...

Rama est revenu ! Rama, ou plutôt son double, son clone, son jumeau : Rama II. Soixante-dix ans plus tôt, un mystérieux engin extraterrestre traversait brièvement le système solaire, donnant corps à cette fabuleuse révélation : l'homme n'était pas seul dans l'Univers. Et voilà qu'en cette année 2196, le scénario se répète ! Un deuxième vaisseau interstellaire, exactement semblable au précédent, se matérialise dans l'espace... l'humanité, pour la seconde fois de son histoire, envoie une équipe de savants à la rencontre du visiteur.

A spaceship crew from an advanced alien civilization notices that Earth faces imminent destruction as its sun begins to explode. With time rapidly ticking down, the crew desperately searches a now-desolate planet for any possible human survivors.

2130. Un objet spatial non identifié est localisé dans le système solaire : c'est un cylindre aux proportions extraordinaires - 30 km de long -, et qui se déplace au tiers de la vitesse de la lumière - 100.000 km/h. Il sera baptisé Rama. La curiosité cède cependant le pas à l'effarement quand l'équipage du vaisseau spatial "Endeavour" parvient à pénétrer dans son habitacle. Car cet "artefact", qui semble n'avoir jamais subi la moindre altération du temps, contient en son sein un véritable monde miniature.

Años después de la aparición en el sistema solar de las misteriosas naves Rama, una tercera nave espacial dotada de un hábitat terrestre casi perfecto arribó a la órbita de Marte para convertirse en el hogar de dos mil colonos humanos. Aunque bautizada originalmente como Nuevo Edén, esa colonia interestelar fue degenerando con el tiempo y se ha convertido en una brutal dictadura que asesina a sus pacíficos vecinos y aterroriza a sus propios habitantes.

Sono trascorsi mille anni dal viaggio dell'astronave Discovery verso Saturno e dalla drammatica conclusione della sua missione. Marte, la Luna e il satellite Ganimede sono ormai da tempo luoghi colonizzati e completamente abitati. Il progresso scientifico e tecnologico ha raggiunto un tale livello di sviluppo da rendere obsoleti persino alcuni tipi di lanci spaziali. Da un gigantesco anello attorno all'equatore terrestre partono quattro torri, lunghe diecimila piani e che funzionano come ascensori spaziali, rendendo di fatto inutili i lanci di razzi dalla superficie terrestre.