A giant of the science fiction world has died. Arthur C. Clarke died at his home in Sri Lanka, at the age of 90.
Writer of over 100 books and innumerable short stories, inventor of the geosynchronous communications satellite, he's perhaps best known for his association with 2001:
Of the Asimov/Clarke/Heinlein triumvirate who arguably dominated science fiction in the 1950s and 60s, Clarke was the last survivor. Now, that era has come to a close. The closing line from one of his most famous stories, The Nine Billion Names of God, somehow seems fitting here:
Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out.
-dms