Book review: A. C. Clarke - Report on Planet Three

For most of my live I've been reading books. Mainly sci-fi ones. I've inherited this obsession from my mother who introduced me to some older Polish and Russian novels and since then, it only grew. As I was searching for best authors I could not miss A. C. Clarke. For those, who don't know him, he was a science fiction writer, a science writer and an inventor. He is responsible for well know novel (and later film) called 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke has quite a few solid works worth reading, however this time I went for something a little less well known: Report on Planet Three.

This books a little different. It collect various articles, essays and short stories written by A. C. Clarke on special occasions such as conferences, congresses, etc. There are five main themes: Talking of Space; Outward from Earth; The Technological Future; Frontiers of Science; and Son of Dr. Strangelove. Even though stories are not in any particular order, I'd recommend to read them as they are aligned (more on that later). In my edition of the book most articles contain a postscriptum added after a while and they contain reference remarks on other parts of the book so it's advised to read carefully.

Talking of Space are reflections on astronomy and related themes. Particularly interesting is „Report on Planet Three“. An essay that lends its name to entire book. It is basically a science article describing planet Earth from the point of view of Martian civilization evaluating possibility of life in Earth's environment. This isn't an (arbitrary) sci-fi short story. It's an intellectual stretching exercise with purpose of unlocking readers mind for later more complex ideas.

If you are a physics loving techie and you never say no to a little bit of theory of relativity Outward from Earth is something for you. This part of the books is basically where Clarke's science writer side comes in bringing science trough his own reflections in a form consumable to a very broad audience.

The Technological Future is a perfect place for a little immersion into authors ideas about artificial intelligence and utopian views of future.

Frontiers of Science is best described by my favorite quote from a part, where A. C. Clarke writes about theoretical versions of eyes, that would be a able to perceive surroundings with same level of detail as our own, but the underlying principle would be different: [when it comes to infrared eyes] „I am not saying, that an eye with diameter of 8.2 feet can't exist, but it certainly wouldn't be convenient“. This is also a stellar example of dry humour that is present throughout the entire book.

Last part, Son of Dr. Strangelove, mostly accounts for Clarke meeting his idol J. B. S. Haldane. I have to admit, at the time of reading the book I didn't know who he was. However, I was able to a get a glimpse of Haldane's persona trough a little piece of his letter written to Clarke. Remaining part of the be books is then about cooperation between Clarke and Kubrick on movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Book itself can be characterized as a rather stimulating work providing audience with much valued food for thought. Given the book was originally published in 70' every reader is able to evaluate to what extend was A. C. Clarke a visionary or dreamer. Or was he a little bit of both?

Note #1: I've read this book in Slovak translation and original review in very same language was published @ https://meetpollux.com/blog/a-c-clarke-nova-sprava-o-tretej-planete/.

Note #2: Nowadays I don't assign books a numerical rating like 5 out of 10. I am not sure it makes sense and instead of number I prefer to present my feelings about the work. You decide whether it sounds interesting or not.

Image source: goodreads.com