Sci-Fi Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies

**Tyrael** · 3rd-June-2008

Sci-Fi Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies

Updated:00:00, Wednesday March 19, 2008

The science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote more than 100 books including 2001: A Space Odyssey, has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90, according to an aide.

Clarke, who had suffered since the 1960s from debilitating post-polio syndrome and sometimes used a wheelchair, died after suffering breathing problems, said the aide, Rohan De Silva.

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka, where he moved in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef.

He was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

Space expert Robin Scagell told Sky News: "He was very much a scientist and science was at the heart of his work.

"As well as predicting satellites, he saw that rockets would go into space."

Astronomer Sir Patrick Moore paid tribute to his friend.

"He was a great visionary, a brilliant science fiction writer and a great forecaster," he said.

"He foresaw communications satellites, a nationwide network of computers, interplanetary travel - he said there would be a man on the moon by 1970, while I said 1980 - and he was right."

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