Islands in the Sky

By: Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: Charles Carroll

Length: 5 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

The story of Island in the Sky centers around a young man, who, after brilliantly winning a space-related competition, requests a vacation on a space station as his prize. It is written with Arthur C. Clark's obvious knowledge of science, but moves at a page turning rate throughout the entire narrative. The short novel gives a realistic possibility of work and play in future space, heightened with constant excitement and action.

©1952 Arthur C. Clarke (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Not Clarke's best work

I am a huge ACC fan, this is an interesting quick look into the future, but definitive not up near his best works.

Classic Early Science Fiction Space Novel

Arthur C. Clarke is one of the fathers of early space science fiction novels. This novel captures what the author envisioned of what it would be like to travel in space. Some things he got correct and other he did not, but it is still fun to read and helped to spark my own personal interest in space exploration as a child. It is not a space thriller like the books written today and if that is what you are looking for you may find it boring, but is an important work none-the-less. This is the first book in Clarke's Space Trilogy. I prefer his other two books Earthlight and The Sands of Mars in the trilogy over this work, but this was worth listening to. The narrator did a fine job and it fit the book. I didn't give ti 5 stars just because it does not meet my 5 star rating and if it were not a classic I probably would have given it 2 or 3 stars.

Good narration of good sci-fi

Arthur C. Clarke is a god of sci-fi. If you're looking for a good place to start with his collection then Islands in the Sky is definitely a light introduction, (as it's one of his shorter works), but still carries his writing style for sci-fi.

If you're already familiar with Arthur C Clarke's sci-fi...why are you reading this? :)

As good as ever

I read this book when it was first published in paperback in 1960 and thoroughly enjoyed it. Reading (actually listening) to it again in 2021, I enjoyed it as much as I did those so many years ago.

Fun early novel, aimed perhaps at teens

This is one that is more along the lines of the juvenal novels of Heinlein wherein there is an attempt to excite kids concerning science and space. It is well written and has just enough adventure to keep things relatively fast paced. But it is all "plausible" events given the set up. I like the SF general optimism that we would have achieved space stations and colonies if we could have put aside our petty differences. Again there are very convincing descriptions that make it see the novel was written after we had some knowledge of space flight and views of the earth etc. Revisiting early Clarke after 30+ years I expected it to be much more dated than it actually is. Visually and thematically this could be filmed very easily as is with a minimum of updating.

Life on a Space Station

This is a story about the setting, the world that the main character lives in. As many people have commented nothing happens in this book. This is not an action book. However, I still really enjoyed it!

Clarke writes about a world where humans already have many space stations, colonies on the moon, and mars, and even exploration missions to mercury. Clarke clearly understands the way things work in space even though this was published in the 50's. Clarke describes the life of an average boy as he takes a couple weeks of vacation on a space station, not a vacation station though, but a working station.

Although I knew this book was written long ago

Hard to get into story from the perspective of 2020. Narration was also found wanting.