Re-read this Clarke classic this week. What a great space tale. More questions than answers. I’d read this and the three following books that Clarke wrote with Gentry Lee in the early 90’s when they were just hitting the shelves and they were, in total, very influential on my young mind. The sequels are complicated and deep with character development, not something Clarke bothers with here in the original tale. I much prefer his sparse style to that of almost any other author.