A Science Fictional Autobiography. By Arthur C. Clarke.
Science fiction is sometimes closer to and often farther ahead of the truth than hard, cold reality.
Mr. Clarke gives a chatty, anecdotal account of science fiction, his career and his famous friends through the years. Parenthetical reminiscences and asides are included with references to and quotes from the author's works. Science fiction in the early days, he writes, was neither science nor fantasy, but a world of action, adventure, romance - a realm of the imagination. If the pulp magazine covers featured lurid monsters and damsels in distress, much of the old science fiction writing presaged today's hard science. In this world of curiosity and wonder, even the creators of imaginary worlds don't know in advance what the endings in real life will be.