More inexpensive ebook goodies!

You can download a number of Arthur C. Clarke's classics on the cheap!

You can get your hands on Childhood's End for 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

In the near future, enormous silver spaceships appear without warning over mankind’s largest cities. They belong to the Overlords, an alien race far superior to humanity in technological development—and their purpose is to dominate the Earth. Their demands, however, are surprisingly beneficial—end war, poverty, and cruelty. Their presence, rather than signaling the end of humanity, ushers in a golden age—or so it seems.

But it comes at a price. Without conflict, humanity ceases to work toward creative achievement, and culture stagnates. And as the years pass, it becomes more and more clear that the Overlords have a hidden agenda for the evolution of the human race—that may not be as beneficial as it seems.

Originally published in 1953, Childhood’s End is Clarke’s first successful novel—and is considered a classic of science fiction literature. Its dominating theme of transcendent evolution appears in many of Clarke’s later works, including the Space Odyssey series. In 2004, the book was nominated for the Retro Hugo Award for Best Novel.

You can also download The City and the Stars for 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

A billion years into the future, Earth’s oceans have evaporated—and humanity has all but vanished. The inhabitants of the City of Diaspar believe theirs is the last city—but there is no way to find out for sure. The city is completely closed off by a high wall, and nobody has left in millions of years.

The last child born in the city in millions of years, Alvin is insatiably curious about the outside world. He embarks on a quest that leads him to discover the truth about the city and humanity’s history—as well as its future.

The City and the Stars is a rewrite of Clarke’s first novel, Against the Fall of Night. While the author assumed that the old version would be replaced by the new version and eventually go out of print, he was surprised to find that the older version was popular enough to stay in wide circulation. Today, both stories are equally popular.

Any fan of Clarke’s would find this book a fascinating read, not just for the intriguing story and Clarke’s singular futuristic vision, but also for the purpose of comparing his approach to the same story at different points in his writing career. While The City and the Stars shares the general plot of Against the Fall of Night, many details are different—making an interesting study of Clarke’s progression as a writer.

2010: Odyssey Two is also available for 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

In 1968, Arthur C. Clarke’s best-selling 2001: A Space Odyssey captivated the world—and was adapted into a now-classic film by Stanley Kubrick. Fans had to wait fourteen years for the sequel—but when it came out, it was an instant hit, winning the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1983.

Nine years after the ill-fated Discovery One mission to Jupiter, a joint Soviet-American crew travels to the planet to investigate the mysterious monolith orbiting the planet, the cause of the earlier mission’s failure—and the disappearance of David Bowman. The crew includes Heywood Floyd, the lone survivor from the previous mission, and Dr. Chandra, the creator of HAL.

What they find is no less than an unsettling alien conspiracy—surrounding the evolutionary fate of indigenous life forms on Jupiter’s moon Europa, as well as that of the human species itself. A gripping continuation of the beloved Odyssey universe, 2010: Odyssey II is science-fiction storytelling at its best.

You can download The Songs of Distant Earth for 2.99$ here.

Here's the blurb:

More than two thousand years in the future, a small human colony thrives on the ocean paradise of Thalassa—sent there centuries ago to continue the human race before the Earth’s destruction.

Thalassa’s resources are vast—and the human colony has lived a bucolic life there. But their existence is threatened when the spaceship Magellan arrives on their world—carrying one million refugees from Earth, fleeing the dying planet.

Reputed to be Arthur C. Clarke’s favorite novel, Songs of Distant Earth addresses several fascinating scientific questions unresolved in their time—including the question of why so few neutrinos from the sun have been measured on Earth. In addition, Clarke presents an inventive depiction of the use of vacuum energy to power spacecraft—and the technical logistics of space travel near the speed of light.

You can also get your hands on The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke: History Lesson, Volume 1 for 2.99 here.

Here's the blurb:

In the title story of this collection, Earth has entered its final ice age—precipitated by the cooling of the sun. In this forbidding climate, a small tribe of nomadic human survivors travels toward the equator ahead of glaciers moving down from the North Pole, carrying with them a handful of relics from the 21st century—and racing against the ice to preserve them from annihilation.

This collection is a showcase of groundbreaking stories that wrestle with the moral, psychological, and ethical implications of scientific advancement—written by one of the foremost science fiction authors of our time.

There are more Clarke ebooks available at a discount, but that's enough for this post. . . =)