This was entertaining but not as creative as I had envisioned. Maybe I built myself up to much for it. ( )

I'm really impressed with this anthology. While some stories are definitely weaker than others, I didn't feel like there were any 'clunkers' in the collection. There's a thoughtfulness to the work. I can't pin down the emotion half the stories make me feel - the closest I can come to quiet contemplation, such as with The Sentinel,

* The Nine Billion Names of God - Absolutely fantastic, with a gallows humor flair and foreboding tone. I know some people complain that fossil radiation means that the stars wouldn't wink out like that, but I think it adds to the otherworldly horror of the story.
* I Remember Babylon - One of the weaker ones, but its about porn, so, hey, balances out.
* Summertime on Icarus - Very tense, heavy horror elements.
* The Possessed - Swarming mental parasite aliens attempt to find an intelligent host on ancient earth.
* Death and the Senator - Memento mori in short story form.
* Superiority - Loved it and its warning about adopting technology too fast.
* The Reluctant Orchid - Unexpectedly hilarious!
* The Star - One of my favorites. ( )

[The Nine Billion Names of God](https://urbigenous.net/library/nine_billion_names_of_god.html) is a short story fairly typical of the Arthur C. Clarke times of scifi. Doesn't hurt to read, but by now it's fairly predictable, and the premise was new then, but is kind of ehhh today. ( )

That's doing it old-school! ( )

This is a selection of some of Clarke's short stories. Most of the stories are quite short, only a few pages. I find it difficult to read short story collections straight through, so this took me a while.

I liked some of the stories a lot (e.g. "Superiority"), while others didn't age so well (e.g. the gender stereotypes in "Reluctant Orchid"). Many end with a clever twist (also making them stand better on their own than in a collection where there's a clever twist ending every 3 pages). ( )