Reach for Tomorrow – A Short Story Collection by Arthur C. Clarke (1956)

With all of my travels recently, I’ve not been able much to sit down and just read, which is why I’ve been so enjoying my return to short-stories. Little spurts here and there with a whole world from start-to-finish, encapsulated in just a few short minutes. Delightful.

I was inspired to read more stories by Arthur C. Clarke after compiling his short-story bibliography and then enjoying his very first collection, Expedition to Earth (1953). This second collection includes stories first published between 1942-1955. I’ll work through them (without spoilers) one-by-one.

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1. “Rescue Party” (1946)

Clarke opens this collection with a well-designed story of an alien federation’s rescue mission to save whatever life might remain on a future Earth before the Sun finally explodes. They find evidence that an intelligent race once lived there, but the only proof of their history is a still-running radio tower haphazardly sending a signal deep into the emptiness of space. Or is It haphazard, and is the space to which it points really empty?

This story shows man’s ingenuity, but it also ends with humanity’s telltale ruthlessness. Sometimes I get the sense that Clarke hated humanity, or at least our penchant for selfishness. He often imagines a better future where we don’t exist, or at least where we’ve evolved away from, well, “sin”—and you need only consider the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey to see this, where humans are finally replaced by the Nietzsche’s Super-Man. There’s only one Hope for that in reality, and it ain’t aliens.

Apart from the last few lines, this was a great story.

2. “A Walk in the Dark” (1950)

Many years ago, I had read Clarke’s fuller and more famous collection, The Nine Billion Names of God (1967). One of the most memorable stories from that book was this, a classic tale of one astronaut taking an unnerving walk through a planet’s darkness. It’s a story worth saving for the next time you’re in a cabin full of young campers hankering for a scary story.

3. “The Forgotten Enemy” (1949)

While this story might appear less “Sci-fi” than the rest, it’s still focused on a futuristic world—a world which Climate-Change enthusiasts would appreciate. Too bad I’m not a Climate-Change Enthusiast.

4. “Technical Error” (1946)

Clarke tends to treat his stories as long set-ups for a final clincher or sometimes even a punchline. The clincher in this one doesn’t land for me as well as his others, but I loved how he relays the intriguing concept of this other dimension. A very unique idea.

5. “The Parasite” (1953)

Clarke takes an abnormal turn with this story, more of a psychological thriller than anything. The closest he comes to this style of writing elsewhere (that I’ve seen) is in “A Walk in the Dark.” One might say that he actually gets “spiritual” in this story, though, calling the creatures that inhabit human minds a form of “possession.” I wonder if he’d read news accounts of actual demon possession and caught onto the idea, blaming timeless aliens instead of fallen angels. Any means of contradicting the Bible, I guess!

6. “The Fires Within” (1947, a.k.a. “By E.G. O’Brian”)

This story was not my favorite, as I found it slightly confusing. I probably should read it a second time and will next time it crops up in a collection. I enjoyed the concept of digging deep into the earth’s core—that we know more about the billions of miles above us than the 4 miles below us. That’s a fascinating thought! I love metal detecting and The Curse of Oak Island, so I certainly wouldn’t mind reading more about underground exploration.

7. “The Awakening” (1942)

It’s fitting to know the original dates of these publications. That Clarke wrote this in the middle of Europe’s Second World War means that he likely had someone in mind as the “protagonist.” This story is an earlier, shortened version of “Nemesis” (1950, a.k.a. “Exile of the Eons”). It lacks some of the color and tension of that longer story, but the ending is just as abrupt.

8. “Trouble with the Natives” (1951, a.k.a. “Three Men in a Flying Saucer”)

We finally arrive at a humorous story! I know Clarke had a penchant for writing satirical stories with a touch of humor, so it’s good to get a taste of it here in this story of man’s first contact with aliens on Earth.

9. “The Curse” (1947, a.k.a. “Nightfall”)

This short piece is a roughly poetic look at the global effects of nuclear war—and how they’re not quite over, even when they’re over.

10. “Time’s Arrow” (1950)

Although the “clincher” of this story was easy to predict, it was still a fun one to read. It includes archaeology plus time travel—not a new concept even in Clarke’s day, but always a good one, especially when an author as sophisticated as Clarke makes it all seem scientifically plausible.

11. “Jupiter Five” (1953)

This is perhaps the most imaginative story I’ve read from Clarke yet—aside from his unbeatable yarn, “The Wall of Darkness” (1949). It’s rich in character and texture and a delight to read, though the longer I recline in this universe of his, the more I wonder why he (and Asimov) could predict the wildest things imaginable, yet they never foresaw females as ever “evolving” into anything stronger than secretaries and sex objects! They were fantasy writers after all [ZING!], so why couldn’t they fantasize about women getting real jobs someday?

12. “The Possessed” (1953)

This story is strikingly similar in theme to “The Parasite” (also 1953), though from a different direction and with different results. I think I prefer “the swarm” to the timeless beings in the former story, even if his reference to the lemmings is scientifically inaccurate.

Conclusion

Well, so ends another run through twelve great stories by Arthur C. Clarke. Next up is Tales from the White Hart (1957), which collects a number of bar-room yarns by a fella named Harry Purvis, all originally published between 1950-1957.

©2026 E.T.