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Arthur C. Clarke belongs to the authors who were interested in possible forms of life in our solar system. In the novel 2010 Odyssey 2 and film of the same name which of it was drawn, we learn that an underwater life exists on Europe, one from the Jupiter satellites. This planet of ice, without any atmosphere, locks up a water ocean, maintained liquid by the hot heart of planet. Inside, around the thermal springs, of forms of life push or move, pointing out the terrestrial algae and fish.

In the absence of solar radiation and of oxygen, the metabolism of these creatures is based on the chemosynthesis of sulphur, abundant element on Europe (one discovered on Earth of the worms and the marine plants which live in the abyssal pits, in the most total darkness, near the hot sources and whose metabolism precisely uses the chemosynthesis of sulphur).

Arthur C. Clarke was also interested in the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturne. The médusoïde jovien describes in the Rendez-vous news with Jellyfish, fact part of the fauna which haunts the average atmosphere of Jupiter, where the temperature reaches about fifty degrees, favorable to the life. The author deploys all his talent to make credible of the forms of life which resemble immense envelopes filled with gases, broad like football fields, grazing the ammonia clouds and expressing a form of curiosity towards an airship exploring the various layers of the atmosphere jovienne.

the Avata creature is an immense example of organization, consisted the meeting of a great number of creatures. Avata, one of the protagonists of the novel the Jesus Incident, Frank Herbert, fills the Pandore planet literally. In fact, all the kelp of the oceans of Pandora constitutes Avata, become, during its evolution, the conscience of planet.

The Calibane creature, in Star and the Whip of Frank Herbert also, is certainly one of the most extraordinary beings ever evoked in literature of science fiction. At the beginning of the novel, one feels well that this being has capacities which bring it closer to the divine one. Jorj X. Mac Kie, Extraordinary Saboteur, inquiring into the relationship between the dimensional corridors and Calibans, meet one of them, or rather its representation.

Indeed, Calibans communicate with the gifted creatures of conscience via tangible representations but to vague contours. Jorj X. Mac Kie has well the impression to visually perceive a coloured presence, but without being able to specify more. In fact, the real extent of the substance of Caliban largely exceeds this representation, which is only one practical artifact intended for the communication.


Romain Dabek

The Meliads
Oil on panel
© Romain Dabek 2007
 
Novels about this theme
Micromégas
L'Orphelin de Perdide (les Maîtres du Temps)
Oms en Série
Voyage dans la Lune (l'Autre Monde ou les Etats et Empires de la Lune)
Les Etats et Empires du Soleil
2001 : a Space Odyssey
2010 : Odyssey Two
Alien
Childhood's End
Lord Valentine's Castle
Nightwings
Rendez-vous with Rama
Starship Troopers
The Dosadi Experiment
The Jesus Incident
The Lazarus Effect
The Lovers
The Whipping Star
Valentine Pontifex
Partners

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