"The Sands of Mars" by Arthur Clarke

[a425couple]

"The Sands of Mars" is the first novel written in 1952
by Arthur Clarke.
The "goodreads" rating of 3.72 is fair, perhaps even
generous. If you feel you need to read one more Clarke
novel, it is fine to read.

Even more so than in his other books, it is interesting
how he gets some things 'right', and some things far wrong,
(file cabinets & typewriters on a space ship, messages
to a passenger in a sealed envelope, garbage including paper
just jettisoned out & flying along with coasting ship, etc.)
Certainly has some precursors to his "2001" and other books.

I always find Clarke's imagination interesting as he envisions
the life of plants and animals that have developed off of earth.

Here are some citations with a variety of opinions and information:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sands_of_Mars

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/149063.The_Sands_of_Mars

https://www.amazon.com/Sands-Mars-Arthur-Clarke-Collection-ebook/dp/B00AHKJD74

or listen to a reading of it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRztotQsu84

[Anthony Nance]

In rec.arts.sf.written a425couple <a425c...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> "The Sands of Mars" is the first novel written in 1952
> by Arthur Clarke.
> The "goodreads" rating of 3.72 is fair, perhaps even
> generous. If you feel you need to read one more Clarke
> novel, it is fine to read.
>

Very interesting - thanks. The few works of Clarke that I've
read over the last few years holds up pretty well, and I'm
judiciously trying to decide what to (re)read of his next.

Speaking of Clarke, the 100th anniversary of his birth is Saturday,
and I ran across the following short article from the Guardian,
"Arthur C Clarke at 100: still the king of science fiction":
https://tinyurl.com/yd36gja4

Tony

[Phillip Helbig (undress to reply)]

In article <p0p5g...@news6.newsguy.com>, a425couple

<a425c...@hotmail.com> writes:

> Even more so than in his other books, it is interesting
> how he gets some things 'right', and some things far wrong,

That's why Fred Pohl called his autobiography "The Way the Future Was".

[a425couple]

On 12/12/2017 11:25 AM, Anthony Nance wrote:
> In rec.arts.sf.written a425couple <a425c...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "The Sands of Mars" is the first novel written in 1952
>> by Arthur Clarke.
>> The "goodreads" rating of 3.72 is fair, perhaps even
>> generous. If you feel you need to read one more Clarke
>> novel, it is fine to read.
>
> Very interesting - thanks. The few works of Clarke that I've
> read over the last few years holds up pretty well, and I'm
> judiciously trying to decide what to (re)read of his next.

Well, it is my opinion that his following are quite top notch!
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (film with Stanley Kubrick)
Rendezvous with Rama (1972) (Nebula Award winner, 1973)
Imperial Earth (1976)
The Fountains of Paradise (1979) (Nebula Award winner, 1979)
2010: Odyssey Two (1982)
The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)
The Hammer of God (1993)
and maybe - 2061: Odyssey Three (1987)

> Speaking of Clarke, the 100th anniversary of his birth is Saturday,
> and I ran across the following short article from the Guardian,
> "Arthur C Clarke at 100: still the king of science fiction":
> https://tinyurl.com/yd36gja4

Thank you for that lead.

If you like Clarke, might I suggest Eric Flint and
Ryk Spoor's "Boundry".
Plausible stuff about decent people, just over the horizon
from where we are at.
https://mixedbookbag.blogspot.com/2010/02/boundary-by-ryk-e-spoor-and-eric-flint.html?m=0

Hey Ryk,, why can I not find that book for sale on Amazon?
Uhhh, I had to really dig and go around back way to find it at:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AP9IR9M/ref=series_rw_dp_sw

[Dimensional Traveler]

Amazon lost interest in keeping a supply of older books some years ago.
They "make up" for it by allowing other companies to sell used books
thru Amazon but the result is that Amazon is no longer the place to go
for older catalog titles.

--
Inquiring minds want to know while minds with a self-preservation
instinct are running screaming.

[Lynn McGuire]

Amazon wants to convert all dead tree books into POD (print on demand)
books. Inventory costs money to keep around. As I have purchased about
40 or 50 POD books now, they are usually very good printing (text and
covers) and paper with a couple of minor exceptions.

I am reading this POD book right now:
https://www.amazon.com/Breakers-Book-Edward-W-Robertson/dp/1479395226/

Lynn

[Michael R N Dolbear]

"Dimensional Traveler" wrote

> If you like Clarke, might I suggest Eric Flint and
> Ryk Spoor's "Boundry".
> Plausible stuff about decent people, just over the horizon
> from where we are at.
> https://mixedbookbag.blogspot.com/2010/02/boundary-by-ryk-e-spoor-and-eric-flint.html?m=0
>
> Hey Ryk,, why can I not find that book for sale on Amazon?
> Uhhh, I had to really dig and go around back way to find it at:
>
> https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AP9IR9M/

>Amazon lost interest in keeping a supply of older books some years ago.
They "make up" for it by allowing other companies to sell used books
thru Amazon but the result is that Amazon is no longer the place to go
for older catalog titles.

That URL is for the Kindle ebook with links to the rest.

Here's the new mmpb (2008) page

Advanced Search title=boundary author=spoor works fine

https://www.amazon.com/Boundary-Eric-Flint/dp/1416555250/
Only 8 left in stock (more on the way).


--
Mike D

[J. Clarke]

It's surprising that they've actually got the POD cost down to a
reasonable level.

[Lynn McGuire]

Do you know how much ? I am guessing $3 to $6 for each copy of a book.

Lynn

[J. Clarke]

On Thu, 14 Dec 2017 19:05:35 -0600, Lynn McGuire

US Black & White pricing is a flat rate of $2.15 for up to 101 pages.
Above 101 pages it's 85 cents plus 1.2 cents per page.

Color pricing is different, as are prices in other locales where POD
is offered.

That's printing cost only, author's royalty etc are on top of that.

https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US/help/topic/G201834340

[Alrescha]

a425couple <a425c...@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hey Ryk,, why can I not find that book for sale on Amazon?
> Uhhh, I had to really dig and go around back way to find it at:

Another factor which may influence amazon’s lack of interest is that the
book is free from the publisher in ebook form:

http://www.baen.com/boundary.html

--
A.

[Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)]

Odd, I didn't find it hard to find, here's the link:

https://www.amazon.com/Boundary-Book-1-Eric-Flint-ebook/dp/B00AP9IR9M

The ebook of the original is free, either from Amazon. MMPB and even HC
are still available either direct from Amazon or from third-party
sellers through Amazon (which in practical terms generally amounts to
the same thing). The SECOND edition is here:
https://www.amazon.com/Boundary-Second-Book-1-ebook/dp/B01MQ3VK4X ; it
includes supplemental material that was not in the first.

The reason for the "Second Edition" is that by the terms of Baen's
contract with Amazon, Baen can't put anything in the Baen Free Library
and still have Amazon charge for it. So everything that goes into the
Free Library has to have a Second Edition made that gives something more
for the money and justifies saying the two are separate books.

So there are currently "second editions" of Boundary and Grand Central
Arena, and the originals, plus _Digital Knight_ (which was re-issued in
much expanded form as _Paradigms Lost_) are in the Free Library and
their original versions are free on Amazon.


--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Website: http://www.grandcentralarena.com Blog:
http://seawasp.dreamwidth.org

[a425couple]

Thank you to both of you.

I have sent your information on to a fellow who was interested
in "Boundary", and we talked about it while we were in China.
He expressed dislike of 'used' books, so I had figured it
would result in a new book sale for you, but the beat goes on----.

[Lynn McGuire]

Thanks for explaining the second edition label ! I had been seeing that
and getting confused.

Lynn