A Grand Master is gone
Arthur C. Clark has died.
Childhood's End
The Fountains of Paradise
I could go on, and on. Clarke is the writer who really expanded my horizons, who made me think big impossible things. Who made me understand, finally, that we are living on this tiny little ball in a backwater section of the galaxy in a small corner of a vast universe. He realized the importance of satellites in communication before there were satellites.
There is apparently one more Clark book forthcoming, a collaboration between him and Fred Pohl. What a gift.
Ad Astra, dear sir.