Odd, I actually have this book checked out from the library right now (this story, with others, was bound into a collection sharing the same title). Clarke's br

Odd, I actually have this book checked out from the library right now (this story, with others, was bound into a collection sharing the same title). Clarke's brand of science-fiction struck me as much more principled and technically interesting than most of his contemporaries. Most of them have the unique property among science fiction stories of actually being possible given our knowledge of astrophysics. The speed of light is a minor plot element in many, especially the fact that it can't be broken (no 'warp drives'). I don't know if it was Clarke himself who said this, but I recall someone stating that many stories break so many fundamental physical laws that they are more accurately classified as "science fantasy," not science fiction.