The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton

Mark Clifton is the greatest science fiction writer ever. After reading his collection, I pretty much gave up on sci-fi since, in comparison to his work, so much in the genre seemed contrived and devoid of substance.His background was in personel which provided him with the opportunity to interview 250,000 people in his career. This comes accross brilliantly in all the characters which populate his stories, everyone of them infused with a richness and truth that is rare in all forms of fiction. His works are perfect examples of the medium, meaning that they could not be told in any form other than sci-fi. Please give him a try. If you do pick up the collection, then I highly recommend the last two stories, "What Now, Little Man?" and "Hang Head, Vandal!" The former story impressed me with the most profound sense of the meaning(and meaninglessness) of life that I have ever encountered in literature. He is such an underated and unknown master of sci-fi, it would really be great for some of you to discover him as I did. And if you like what you see, then you might want to try one of his few novels, "When They Came from Space." Don't let the cheesy title fool you. It's a wonderful satire and contains an inspired debate on the differences between faith in science and faith in miracles.