Alien Encounters
Alien Encounters
While fascinated by aliens, this chapter explains, Clarke only occasionally depicts alien encounters, which are unlikely due to the universe’s size and age. Instead, science fiction stories involve humans discovering evidence of ancient aliens or signs of emerging alien intelligences. Clarke avoids engaging in world building, preferring planets investigated by scientists as settings, and his aliens typically are genuinely alien in both their physiology and psychology. In Clarke’s major novels about aliens they remain unseen. In
Keywords: Clarke, Arthur C., science fiction, aliens, ancient aliens, world building, planets, space habitat, 2001: A Space Odyssey
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