PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Born in Somerset in 1917, Arthur C. Clarke has written over fifty books, among which are the science fiction classics 2001, A Space Odyssey. He has won all the most prestigious science fiction trophies, and shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for the screenplay of the film of 2001. He lives in Sri Lanka. Stephen Baxter is the author of the highly acclaimed Xeelee Sequence of fiction and many other award-winning science fiction novels. He lives in Buckinghamshire.
Clarke remains the most celebrated of all British SF authors, and his collaboration with Stanley Kubrick on 2001: A Space Odyssey (an explanation of a Clarke short story) consolidated his already impressive reputation. His speciality has always been ideas - breathtakingly imaginative concepts that carry the reader into new realms (such as the massive enigmatic alien spacecraft in Rendezvous with Rama), more than making up for his famously rudimentary characterization. Clarke is (thankfully) still with us, but his literary endeavours these days seem to lie in the realm of ideas for other writers to work into novels. Not a problem, when the other writer is Clarke's heir apparent, the phenomenally talented Baxter. Hiram Patterson, magnate behind the massive media Corporation OurWorld, is inaugurating the most significant communications revolution in history. Utilizing wormholes in space, Patterson's WormCams can connect any point to any other, turning the walls of time and distance to glass. This is the breathtaking concept behind this collaboration which remains the finest thing Clarke's name has been associated with in years. (Kirkus UK)
