The Nine Billion Names of God

Nine Billion Names of God (1952) - 4/5: Nepalese monks hire an IBM computer to print all possible nine letter words in a special language which could be the name of their god. 7 pages I Remember Babylon (1959) - 3/5: Non-fictional story from Clarke about his conversation with a telecommunications traitor to the USSR and their plans for the unrestricted American airwaves. 11 pages Trouble with Time (1959) - 3/5: Upon reaching your Mars destination, please reset your watch to the local Martian Standard Time. 6 pages Rescue Party (1945) - 5/5: Menagerie of aliens on a solar system exploration ship stumbles upon a sun about to go nova- Earth's sun. They whisk away to Earth to rescue anyone they can, only to realize that no one is there except the intact structures and subway system. Being that the humans have only had radio for 200 years, where could those humans have gone? 25 pages The Curse (1946) - 3/5: Narrator in post-nuclear Europe describes the scene in a quaint town where a tombstone lays facing an approaching river. Who is buried there? 3 pages Summertime on Icarus (1960) - 3/5: `Advice at the front of the Spaceman's Manual- "When you don't know what to do, do nothing."' 11 pages Dog Star (1961) - 3/5: Man's best-friend remains faithful beyond death in the memory of a scientist in a moon base. 6 pages Hide and Seek (1948) - 3/5: Hunter recalls tale of a spy in pursuit towards Mars and the spy's clever survival on the moon on Phobos. 11 pages Out of the Sun (1957) - 4/5: Solar observation center on Mercury views a solar energy phenomenon. 7 pages Wall of Darkness (1946) - 5/5: Be sure to approach the dark unknown with enough tools, instruments and money to throw at the problem. Can the village philosophers untangle the mystery and tape the pieces together? 18 pages No Morning After (1953) - 4/5: A drunk receives dire message from the stars. Does he shrug it off and hit the bottle or does he warn the populous? Ask yourself which would make a better story. 6 pages The Possessed (1951) - 3/5: A Swarm of alien energy-like intelligences falls to Earth after escaping their stars destruction. One part of the Swarm begins to evolve a lizard while the rest sweep across the sea of stars to find a suitable intelligent host. What will become to the lizard's evolution and the rest of the Swarm's quest? 5 pages Death and the Senator (1960) - 3/5: Senator confronts his eventual death in a myriad of ways, comes to peace with it but is interrupted by a doctor who says he may be able to be saved. 20 pages Who's There (1958) - 3/5: Why cats make bad pets on earth or in space. 5 pages Before Eden (1960) - 4/5: Alien life on polar Venus proves to be resourceful. 11 pages Superiority (1948) - 4/5: War-torn aliens find themselves eager for new weapons, which they develop and try to implement, only to be defeated little by little by the persistent human force. 11 pages A Walk in the Dark (1945) - 4/5: A man confronts his imagination during a 4-mile w

This is a selection of work chosen by the author himself as being the stories he prefers, or at least a book full of them, anyway. It does, of course, lead off with the outstanding and famous title story. There's a range here from cool scientific observation, to space adventure like Hide and Seek and funny stuff like The Reluctant Orchid. There's even the dogmatically not so good story I Remember Babylon. Mostly of the short story variety, except for the considerably longer Rescue Party. Still, most definitely a good collection of Clarke stories, averaging just a touch under 3.50. Nine Billion Names of God : The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : I Remember Babylon - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Trouble with Time - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Rescue Party - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Curse - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Summertime on Icarus - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Dog Star - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Hide and Seek - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Out of the Sun - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Wall of Darkness - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : No Morning After - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Possessed - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Death and the Senator - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Who's There? - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Before Eden - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Superiority - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : A Walk in the Dark - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Call of the Stars - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Reluctant Orchid - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Encounter at Dawn - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : If I Forget Thee Oh Earth - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Patent Pending - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Sentinel - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : Transcience - Arthur C. Clarke Nine Billion Names of God : The Star - Arthur C. Clarke Ubergeek monks finish a cataloguing project, and with it comes some serious consequences. 5 out of 5 Satellite broadcast instruction propaganda. 3 out of 5 Siren Goddess nicked. 3.5 out of 5 An alien survey ship is surprised to find that the Earth system sun is going nova well ahead of schedule, and gets in trouble itself when it goes to look for people to save and can't find signs of life, until much later. 3.5 out of 5 Rocket dust rain epitaph. 3.5 out of 5 Hot stuck time doesn't bear repeating. 4 out of 5 Pooch love warning. 4 out of 5 Military Intelligence Phobos evasion story. 3.5 out of 5 Equatorial prominence being blowout. 3.5 out of 5 Shadow Land crossing engineering loop one-sided discovery. 3 out of 5 Telepathic brain's thirty-seventy dimensional warp bridge eart

An excellent book, easy to read in one full day if you don't pull yourself away from it. I purchased this book from a local used bookstore I originally entered looking for 3001 (to complete the series...I mean, I MUST have some closure here no matter how poor the reviews are of the finale). They didn't have 3001 so I looked through his other titles, and stubled along 9 Billion Names. I figured it would keep me occupied until I was able to find another book I would enjoy for an extended period of time. I now have to go back to the store and find another book because I'm nearly finished with this one because it is so reader-friendly. Brings back memories of grade-school with short-stories...ahh...good-times.

Arthur C. Clarke is best known for his novels, especially "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Rendezvous with Rama," which each spawned three sequels. But throughout his early career in the 1950s and 1960s, the tail end of science fiction's "golden age," Clarke was more successful as a writer of short fiction. This book collects his best stories, or at least his own favorites. As Clarke himself acknowledges in his introduction, "Every author must have his favorite stories, though he would often be hard put to give reasons for his preferences. Sometimes these may be completely illogical--or at least unliterary. A story written at a time and place associated with pleasant memories may be more highly rated, in retrospect, than a much better tale provoked by unhappiness or penury--the two great sponsors of art."But Clarke's choices largely jibe with mine. They are drawn from five earlier collections: "Expedition to Earth" (1953), "Reach for Tomorrow" (1956), "The Other Side of the Sky" (1959), "Tales of Ten Worlds" (1962), and "The Wind from the Sun" (1972). Here you will find "The Sentinel," which Clarke and director Stanley Kubrick expanded into the epic "2001." And the often anthologized "The Star," in which an astronomical discovery challenges a believer's faith. And "Superiority," a parable about too much reliance on technological innovation. And "Death and the Senator," which is perhaps not quite science fiction, about power coming to terms with mortality. And the title story, a whimsical yet disturbing speculation about humankind's purpose in the divine plan. And . . . twenty more gems of short fiction. (The only omission that I regret is "Hate," which appears only in "Tales of Ten Worlds.")Despite a hardcover re-release in 1996, this excellent collection is still hard to find. But I still recommend it over "The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke" (2001) because, while that collection contains all the stories in this collection, "Nine Billion Names" presents the stories in their original form while "Collected Stories" is rife with editorial and typographical errors and omissions.

It is 15 years since I read this book. The short story referred to in the title has been replaying itself in my mind, intiated by talk of the Human Genome project, and also by our proximity to the new Millenium. I have searched extensively for a copy of this book (I think my Mum threw out the old one!) without success. A great thought provoking read.