My favorite author has passed away :(

Arthur C. Clarke. Age 90

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7304004.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2358011.stm

I've always loved sci-fi. There were some authors, however, that were too "out there" for me. Other times they were too technical. Clarke was like the last bowl of the three bear's porridge from Goldilocks.

Just right.

He mixed technology with just enough humanity that it made his stories seem more realistic. His characters were the "every man" almost like I was sitting right next to them.

His most famous book, 2001: A Space Odyssey. My personal favorite: Rendezvous With Rama. I even have a quote from him in my novel, Xerofall.

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is quite clearly Ocean.”

Here's a snip-it of his obituary...

"Visionary science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, author of more than 100 books, has died at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision of the future, and its technology - popularised in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey - captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur's vivid - and detailed - descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.
His writings gave science fiction - a genre often accused of veering towards the fantastical - a refreshingly human and practical face.

His ideas and gadgets engaged his readers because of, not despite, their plausibility. Quite often, his fictional musings formed the basis of what we now see as science fact.

Passion for science

Arthur Charles Clarke was born in Minehead, a town in Somerset in the south-west of England, on 16 December 1917.

A farmer's son, he was educated at Huish's Grammar School in Taunton before joining the civil service.

A youthful interest in dinosaurs and Morse code blossomed into a fascination with all things scientific.

During World War II, Sir Arthur volunteered for the Royal Air Force, where he worked in the, then highly-secretive, development of radar.

Sir Arthur predicted the advent of communications satellites.

Demobbed at the war's end, he went to King's College, London, where he took a First in maths and physics, before becoming a full-time writer in the late 1940s.

He wrote story-lines for the comic-book hero, Dan Dare, inspired Gene Roddenberry to create Star Trek and posited Clarke's Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Beyond this, during the war, he published a paper in which he predicted that, at 22,000 miles above the Earth's surface, communications satellites would sit in geo-stationary orbit, allowing electronic signals to be bounced off them around the globe.

2001

His vision, soon proved, revolutionised the communications and broadcasting industry.
No wonder, then, that Sir Arthur counted both Rupert Murdoch and CNN founder Ted Turner among his friends and acolytes.

But it was his creation, with the legendary film director Stanley Kubrick, of 2001: A Space Odyssey, that brought Sir Arthur world-wide fame.

Based in part on his short story, Sentinel, the film quickly established itself as a cult classic.
Its mysterious monoliths, the psychopathic Hal 9000 computer and a final sequence which baffled many cinema-goers have become frequently-referenced icons of cinema.

He lectured, was feted by everyone from the astronaut Buzz Aldrin to R Buckminster Fuller, inventor of the geodesic dome, and appeared on television, most notably in Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World.

A seer of the modern age, Sir Arthur was an original thinker, a scientific expert whose tales combined technology and good old-fashioned storytelling and whose influence went far beyond the written page.

Marking his 90th birthday last year, he told fans: "I want to be remembered most as a writer. I want to entertain readers and hopefully stretch their imaginations as well."

God speed, Sir Arthur... I only hope to write a tenth as well as you did. You've been my sci-fi inspiration... you have entertained and stretched my imagination.

-Jeff