Tag Archives: Arthur C. Clarke

Thoughts on Classic and Contemporary SF vs. Fantasy Hugo Best Novel Award Winners while Failing to Write a Review of a Great Book that was not Nominated

Posted on December 14, 2022 by Brenton Dickieson

Tamsyn Muir’s Locked Tomb Series is a discovery from my stint as a Hugo Award panellist in 2020 and 2021–the years that Gideon the Ninth (book 1) and Harrow the Ninth (book 2) were nominated. As much as I loved these books–and … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogging the Hugos, Fictional Worlds, News & Links, Reviews | Tagged A Canticle for Leibowitz, Alix E. Harrow, allegory, apocalyptic literature, Arthur C. Clarke, Dune, Ender's Game, Gene Wolfe, Gideon the Ninth, Harrow The Ninth, Hugo Awards, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Mary Doria Russell, N.K. Jemisin, Nona the Ninth, Science Fiction, speculative fiction, Tamsyn Muir, Ursula K. Le Guin | 9 Comments

A Weekend of Reading to Change Your Literary Life

Posted on May 15, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

If you are like me, you have spent much of your adult life as a reader catching up on a severe lack of education. It is common that I am out with friends and when the topic of books comes … Continue reading →

Posted in Reflections | Tagged Arthur C. Clarke, Charles Williams, Charlotte Brontë, Goethe, H.P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, Kurt Vonnegut, L.M. Montgomery, Margaret Atwood, Reading, Shakespeare, Stephen King, Terry Pratchett, Virginia Woolf, William Morris | 40 Comments

C.S. Lewis’ Pretty Awful and Peculiarly Interesting Letter on Writing

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Brenton Dickieson

How many times have you heard of the struggling writer providentially bumping into an established author or writing a letter? And then that writer on the edge of hopelessness becomes the recipient of a little piece of advice or encouragement … Continue reading →

Posted in Lewis Biography, Memorable Quotes, On Writing | Tagged Arthur C. Clarke, books, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Joy Davidman, letters, Letters to an America Lady, Letters to Children, On Writing, Perelandra, Roger Lancelyn Green, Surprised by Joy, writing | 18 Comments

The Words C.S. Lewis Made Up: Aristocratophobia and Lowerarchy

Posted on December 20, 2017 by Brenton Dickieson

This is the 10th in the series on words that C.S. Lewis made up. In his tinkering with ideas, and in his letters and essays, Lewis would sometimes create new turns of phrase when it was needed. Today we go low … Continue reading →

Posted in Studies in Words, Thoughtful Essays | Tagged Aristocratophobia, Arthur C. Clarke, bureaucracy, C.S. Lewis, H.G. Wells, hierarchy, Lowerarchy, On Other Worlds, On Stories, Perelandra, Ray Bradbury, Studies in Words, The Screwtape Letters, Theology of Culture, writing | 10 Comments

A Final Letter from Arthur C. Clarke to C.S. Lewis

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Brenton Dickieson

I am roaming the stacks at the Marion E. Wade Center in Wheaton, IL. This is the premium North American archive for C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and others in the 20th c. Christian literary movement in and around Oxford. There … Continue reading →