The Sentinel Short Story Arthur C Clarke

Written in 1948, this Arthur C. Clarke’s short story was only published in 1951 in the magazine Story Fantasy under the title Sentinel of Eternity.

The story

While a scientific team was here to chart and study the Moon, a sparkling, which seems to be unnatural, on a far escarpment draws their attention.

The Sentinel is a short story only 11 pages long by British author Arthur C. Clarke, written in 1948 and first published in 1951 as Few masters of science fiction. Sentinel Annual Short Story Competition 2015 Adjudication report by Alex Keegan At the last count I had judged more than 40 short-story competitions, including The Fish Prize and Sentinel. No judge expects every. The Sentinel Analysis - e.

Arriving on-site, their surprise is great to discover an artefact protected by a force field, which has to be leaved here by an extremely advanced civilization passing through our solar system millions or billions years ago.

But the most troubling is that barely discover, the object had begun to emit a signal. What will happen next? Will we receive some visit? Especially as the recipient seems not to be very far…

My opinion

This story is probably the most famous of Arthur C. Clarke and was published in many collection. But particularly, it serves for the Stanley Kubrick’s movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, for which he developed the original idea and published the eponymous novel in 1968.

This success, Clarke, as good astrophysicist and satellite pioneer, owes to his very precise vision – since 1951! – that he had about the composition and the structure of the Moon, giving a very realistic dimension to his story.

But that’s not all because, besides the hard science side of his stories, Arthur C. Clarke is also a brilliant writer who knows how to use words with dexterity and subtlety, scattering his stories with a poesy touch.

Shortly, an unmissable short story.

Notes

The short story in PDF: The Sentinel

The Sentinel Short Story Arthur C Clarke

Reviews(11)
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by Arthur C. Clarke

Members	Reviews	Popularity	Average rating	Mentions
978	11	15,802	(3.81)	37
Few masters of science fiction have brought us glimpses of the near future as vividly as Arthur C. Clarke. It is the startling realism of his vision that has made classics of his CHILDHOODS END and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEYand Clarke himself one of the genres most successful writers. Here is a brilliant collection of Clarkes highest caliber short fiction. Among the ten stories included in this volume are: The Sentinel: The story that inspired 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, one of the most famous SF movies of all time. Guardian Angel: The rarely-glimpsed work that gave birth to CHILDHOODS END. The Songs of Distant Earth: A fantastic tale of first contact with an alien world, which became the basis for one of Clarkes most successful novels. Breaking Strain: The inspiration for the popular book series Arthur C. Clarkes VENUS PRIME.… (more)

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Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke(Cecrow)
Cecrow: A full-length novel based upon one of the short stories in this collection.

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The Sentinel collects nine pieces of Arthur C. Clarke's short fiction, with an author's introduction. These represent earlier work, since the 1972 story 'A Meeting with Medusa' was Clarke's last, after which his fiction consisted entirely of novels (237). Each individual story is also supplied with a brief introduction by Clarke circa 1983.
Several of these stories are notable as having eventually contributed to novels by Clarke. The eponymous 'The Sentinel' was the germ of 2001: A Space Odyssey. 'Guardian Angel' was the basis of the first part of Childhood's End. 'A Meeting with Medusa' contributed premises to 2010: Odyssey Two.
Despite some later incorporation into larger works, these stories do not generally presume a shared narrative continuity or 'future history.' Clarke was distinctive for his emphasis on scientifically plausible 'hard' science fiction, to the point where composing a story could require 'twenty or thirty pages of orbital calculations' (153). As a result, his relatively near-future stories of space exploration written over four decades had to change in order to align with the real-world developments of astronautical knowledge.
Clarke tended to err on the optimistic side. It was a little sad to read him writing in 1951 about a series of manned lunar surface explorations in 1996 which most certainly did not come to pass (139). Generally he avoids specific dates in these stories, though.
The story that was most interesting to me was 'Breaking Strain,' something of a psychological sketch regarding two men on a spaceship reduced to life support resources for one. It had a passing literary reference--somewhat anomalous among these pieces--to Cabell's Jurgen. Another story where there was a curious real-world reference was 'Refugee,' which painted a rather flattering picture of the British monarchy.
My copy of the book is a Barnes & Noble reprint of the Byron Preiss Visual Publications collection. It includes attractive and apt illustrations by Lebbeus Woods in black and white--roughly one full-page drawing per story (and in one case a two-page spread).

3paradoxosalpha | Apr 12, 2021 |

A group of classic sci-fi stories told by a master storyteller. He brings us to our own world again and again, while also venturing to Jupiter, the Moon, and Jupiter again. He describes solar-powered yacht races to the Moon and back, provides us with a glimpse of ourselves millions of years hence when Sol becomes a supernova, and plant the seeds for what becomes Childhood's End and . It is a look into the 'what could be' that is the best of science fiction.
For me, and the reason I gave it a 3* rating, is the super explanation of science that is now for me only mildly interesting. I can see where science geeks took ideas like this and ran with them; I'd definitely like to see the interplanetary yacht races done by giant kites! And Clarke does give some good human viewpoints that are burgeoning for the time in which he wrote. But like some science fiction fans for whom fantasy is not their thing, I think I'm more of a fantasy fan for whom science is interesting but not an important part of the story. ( )

threadnsong | Nov 11, 2017 |

Stories I have not read since I was a teenager. Clarke is one of my favorite scifi authors. ( )

bness2 | May 23, 2017 |

A good collection of short stories, but the 'commentary' included is incredibly brief; if you've read these stories elsewhere, or own these in another collection, you'll find nothing new here.
The stories themselves, of course, are classic Clarke and well worth reading,