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jeriendhalBoth of these short novels are by Arthur C. Clarke, collected in the omnibus "Prelude to Mars" which also features his Tales of the White Hart short stories and a few minor serious shorts (none of which, thankfully, are "The Sentinel")
Prelude to Space
Science Guys: "We're going to go to the Moon!"
Historian Guy: "Cool! I'll take notes. When do we leave?"
Science Guys: "Oh, no. The book is about planning to go to the moon. Here, watch this filmstrip about all the cool exposition the author wants to insert."
Historian Guy: "Okay."
Strawman Luddite: "Hah! I'm going to sabotage the rocket the night before the launch! Watch as I cleverly sneak into atomic rocket nozzle....
"Oh, wait." Dies
Rocket: "3-2-1, Blastoff"
The End
The Sands of Mars
Authorial self-insert plays tourist on growing Mars colony. Discovers a race of Martians. Despite this the scientists go ahead with the idea of blowing up Phobos to provide a second sun. But that's okay because the Martians are too dumb to mind, and by the end the science guys are figuring out how to put their new found Wogs to work helping Terraform the place.
Headdesk
There's also a subplot about the self-insert discovering a crewman on the Mars ship who has to be his son, because of course there was only one woman attending the same engineering college as he did thirty years back. (the book is set in the far flung future of the year 2000 or so.)
Prelude to Space
Science Guys: "We're going to go to the Moon!"
Historian Guy: "Cool! I'll take notes. When do we leave?"
Science Guys: "Oh, no. The book is about planning to go to the moon. Here, watch this filmstrip about all the cool exposition the author wants to insert."
Historian Guy: "Okay."
Strawman Luddite: "Hah! I'm going to sabotage the rocket the night before the launch! Watch as I cleverly sneak into atomic rocket nozzle....
"Oh, wait." Dies
Rocket: "3-2-1, Blastoff"
The End
The Sands of Mars
Authorial self-insert plays tourist on growing Mars colony. Discovers a race of Martians. Despite this the scientists go ahead with the idea of blowing up Phobos to provide a second sun. But that's okay because the Martians are too dumb to mind, and by the end the science guys are figuring out how to put their new found Wogs to work helping Terraform the place.
Headdesk
There's also a subplot about the self-insert discovering a crewman on the Mars ship who has to be his son, because of course there was only one woman attending the same engineering college as he did thirty years back. (the book is set in the far flung future of the year 2000 or so.)
