"Arthur C Clarke - Pruess, Paul - Venus Prime Vol1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Clarke Arthur C)

Both films were rewarding experiences, and I found
myself both surprised and delighted by some of the results.
Now I find myself once again involved in an intriguing
collaborative venture that has evolved from my original
story, Breaking Strain.
The novella (horrid word!) Breaking Strain was written
in the summer of 1948, while I was taking my belated
degree at KingТs College, London. My agent, Scott Meredith,
then in his early twenties, promptly sold it to Thrilling
Wonder Stories; it can be more conveniently located
in my first collection of stories, Expedition to Earth (1954).
Soon after Breaking Strain appeared, some perceptive
critic remarked that I apparently aspired to be the Kipling
of the Spaceways. Even if I was not conscious of it, that
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was certainly a noble ambitionЧespecially as I never
imagined that the dawn of the Space Age was only nine
years ahead.
And if I may be allowed to continue the immodest
comparison, Kipling made two excellent attempts to being
the Clarke of the Air Age; see ССWith the Night MailТТ and
ССAs Easy As ABC.ТТ The ABC, incidentally, stands for Aerial
Board of Control.
Oh, yes, Breaking Strain. The original story is of course
now slightly dated, though not as much as I had expected.
In any case, that doesnТt matter; the kind of situation it
describes is one which must have occurred countless times
in the past and will be with usЧin ever more sophisticated
formsЧas long as the human race endures.
Indeed, the near-catastrophe of the 1970 Apollo 13
mission presents some very close parallels. I still have
hanging up on my wall the first page of the mission summary,
on which NASA Administrator Tom Paine has written:
ССJust as you always said it would be, Arthur.ТТ
But the planet Venus, alas, has gone; my friend Brian
Aldiss neatly summed up our sense of loss in the title of
his anthology Farewell, Fantastic Venus . . .
Where are the great rivers and seas, home of gigantic
monsters that could provide a worthy challenge to heroes
in the Edgar Rice Burroughs mold? (Yes, ERB made several
visits there, when Mars got boring.) Gone with the
thousand-degree-Farenheit wind of sulphuric acid vapor
. . .
Yet all is not lost. Though no human beings may ever
walk the surface of Venus as it is today, in a few centuries
Чor millenniaЧwe may refashion the planet nearer to
the heartТs desire. The beautiful Evening Star may become
the twin of Earth that we once thought it to be, and the
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