The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke The Grand Master who taught us the meaning of 2001 presents a monolith of timeless short stories. Matter transmission causes lawsuits, wins an interplanetary war, and changes the course of civilization. Astronauts deal with the harsh realities of survival in space.
Undersea exploration proves to be just as challenging.
Experiments on the cutting edge of various sciences result in explosions and other disasters. Alien life is discovered in the Earth's core, on the sun, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and just about anywhere Clarke can focus his imagination. The human race is observed through non-human eyes. Telescopes and mirrors are used as deadly weapons. Many of these stories provided the germs of what later became the novels Childhood's End and The City and the Stars .