Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, a short story collection first published in 1950, made the author famous and was one of the first critically acclaimed science fiction works. The stories concern humans' repeated efforts to colonize Mars and underscore Bradbury's opposition to having too much scientific and technological development at the expense of humanity.

Clarke is best known for his novels, including Childhood's End (1953), one of his most popular and critically acclaimed novels. The novel details the appearance of the Overlords, aliens who help end war, poverty, hunger, and other social ills, convincing humanity to give up scientific research and space exploration in the process in order to maintain this utopia.

Clarke's second nonfiction book, The Exploration of Space (1952), was the first science book chosen as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. This highly accessible book translated then current space technology accurately into...