Neutron Tide

Last updated
"Neutron Tide"
Short story by Arthur C. Clarke
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre(s) Science fiction
Publication
Published in Galaxy Science Fiction
Publication dateMay, 1970

"Neutron Tide" is a short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1970 in Galaxy Science Fiction . [1] It is among his shortest pieces of writing, consisting solely of a 2-page, detailed description of a futuristic scenario in order to use a pun as a punch-line, a play on the title of "The Star-Spangled Banner", the United States' national anthem. The story was reprinted later in the 1978 Starlord summer special.

Contents

Plot summary

Clarke describes a space battleship flying too close to the gravitational field of a neutron star, and it subsequently being torn to bits by the high tidal forces. A military commander revealing this in a meeting says the only identifiable piece of debris was from an engineer's toolkit, a star-mangled spanner.

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Dying Earth</i> Series of fantasy novels by Jack Vance

Dying Earth is a fantasy series by the American author Jack Vance, comprising four books originally published from 1950 to 1984. Some have been called picaresque. They vary from short story collections to a fix-up, perhaps all the way to novel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eric Frank Russell</span> English science fiction writer

Eric Frank Russell was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. Up to 1955 several of his stories were published under pseudonyms, at least Duncan H. Munro and Niall(e) Wilde.

Paul Preuss is an American writer of science fiction and science articles, who also works as a science consultant for film companies. He is the author of numerous stand-alone novels as well as novels in Arthur C. Clarke's Venus Prime series, based upon incidents, characters, and places from Clarke's short stories.

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. As of April 2022, the site had catalogued 2,002,324 story titles from 232,816 authors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dave Wolverton</span> American speculative fiction writer (1957–2022)

John David Wolverton, better known by his pen names Dave Wolverton and David Farland, was an American author, editor, and instructor of online writing workshops and groups. He wrote in several genres but was known best for his science fiction and fantasy works. Books in his Runelords series hit the New York Times bestsellers list.

<i>The Wind from the Sun</i> 1972 collection of short stories by Arthur C. Clarke

The Wind from the Sun (ISBN 0-15-196810-1) is a 1972 collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Arthur C. Clarke. Some of the stories originally appeared in a number of different publications. A part of the book was included in CD on board the Planetary Society's solar sail, Cosmos 1.

<i>The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke</i> Book by Arthur C. Clarke

The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 2001, is a collection of almost all science fiction short stories written by Arthur C. Clarke. It includes 114 stories, arranged in order of publication, from "Travel by Wire!" in 1937 through to "Improving the Neighbourhood" in 1999. The story "Improving The Neighbourhood" has the distinction of being the first fiction published in the journal Nature. The titles "Venture to the Moon" and "The Other Side of the Sky" are not stories, but the titles of groups of six interconnected stories, each story with its own title. This collection is only missing a very few stories, for example "When the Twerms Came", which appears in his other collections More Than One Universe and The View from Serendip. This edition contains a foreword by Clarke written in 2000, where he speculates on the science fiction genre in relation to the concept of short stories. Furthermore, many of the stories have a short introduction about their publication history or literary nature.

<i>Of Time and Stars</i> 1972 collection of short stories by Arthur C. Clarke

Of Time and Stars is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, containing an introduction by J. B. Priestley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David H. Keller</span> American writer (1880–1966)

David Henry Keller was an American writer who worked for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century, in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. He was also a psychiatrist and physician to shell-shocked soldiers during World War I and World War II, and his experience treating mentally ill people is evident in some of his writing, which contains references to mental disorders. He initially wrote short stories as a hobby and published his first science fiction story in Amazing Stories in 1928. He continued to work as a psychiatrist while publishing over sixty short stories in science fiction and horror genres. Technically, his stories were not well-written, but focused on the emotional aspects of imaginative situations, which was unusual for stories at the time.

<i>The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall</i>

The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall is a 1993 collection of short fiction by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. All five stories are set on the fictional planet Pern; First Fall is one of two collections in the science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Ashton Smith bibliography</span>

The following is a list of works by Clark Ashton Smith.

"Inheritance" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, which was first published in 1947 in New Worlds, no. 3, as by 'Charles Willis'. It was subsequently published in the British edition of Astounding Science Fiction in 1949, and as part of a short story collection in Expedition to Earth in 1953.

<i>The Sentinel</i> (anthology) 1983 English-language short story collection by Arthur C. Clarke

The Sentinel is a collection of science fiction short stories by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, originally published in 1983.

<i>Tales from Planet Earth</i> 1989 collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke

Tales From Planet Earth is a collection of science fiction short stories by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, originally published in 1989.

<i>More Than One Universe</i> 1991 collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke

More Than One Universe: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke is a collection of science fiction short stories by Arthur C. Clarke originally published in 1991.

The following is a list of works by Arthur C. Clarke.

<i>Songs of the Dying Earth</i> 2009 collection of fiction and essays edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance is a collection of short fiction and shorter essays composed in appreciation of the science fiction and fantasy author Jack Vance, especially his Dying Earth series. Edited by George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, it was published in 2009 by Subterranean Press.

<i>Neutron Star</i> (short story collection) Collection of short stories by Larry Niven

Neutron Star is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Larry Niven, published in April 1968. The individual stories were published in If and Galaxy Science Fiction in 1966–1967, under Frederik Pohl as editor.

"Armaments Race" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1954, and later anthologized in Tales from the White Hart. Like the rest of the collection, it is a frame story set in the pub "White Hart", where the fictional Harry Purvis narrates the secondary tale.

Anne Charnock is a British author of science fiction novels. In 2018, she won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in science fiction, for her novel Dreams Before the Start of Time.

References

  1. "Neutron Tide". isfdb.org; Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Al von Ruff and the ISFDB team.