Preliminary report on “The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke” published in 2001 by Tor
https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?301215

There are 104 stories here, and they take up 966 pages. I recently
finished the first 26 stories, which seems like a good time to post a preliminary report. If you look at the table of contents I linked to
above, “Trouble with the Natives” = story #26.

There’s a nice little two-page forward to the whole volume by Clarke.
The stories are arranged in publication order. The vast majority of
stories (so far?) come with an intro/blurb written by him as well, and
they definitely add value, at least for me.

No surprise to anyone, but there's a lot of great stuff here, and I'm
really enjoying it.

Some of his very early stories are very short, and joke-y, ending with a one-liner of some sort.

He mentions that both “Rescue Party” and “History Lesson” were inspired
by the same long-lost story he had written some years before, although
the two of them have very different endings.

Also no surprise, there are some true classics in these first 26.
(“Rescue Party” and “History Lesson”, “The Lion of Comarre”, “Hide-and-Seek”, “Guardian Angel” (which later became part of Childhood’s End).)

“Silence Please” is the first published White Hart story, and it comes with a built-in introduction to that setting.

I’m not sure when I’ll read the next 26 (#52 would be ”The Reluctant Orchid”) - 104 straight stories by one author is asking a lot. I will
likely move to another collection before coming back to this one.

Tony

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