“Hate”
“Hate” offers a very atypical brand of irony within the Clarke canon. Politically charged within the backdrop of the Soviet invasion of Hungary, it is a the tale of a Russian space capsule crash landing near a Hungarian named Tibor. The cosmonaut trapped inside can hear Tibor talking, but is only able to respond by tapping on the wall of the craft. Seeking revenge in the person against the collective, Tibor allows the oxygen to run out, thereby killing the trapped cosmonaut, by delaying rescue efforts. Only upon salvaging the craft is it revealed the cosmonaut was not just a beautiful girl, but had also recorded Tibor’s incriminating words.
“Who’s There?”
“Who’s There” builds up the dramatic tension to create a little story that seems almost like an episode out of the film Alien. Alien is basically a film that connects a series of individual stories showing each member of the crew being stalked by the title creature. It is science fiction, of course, but it is also a horror story set in space. “Who’s There” is similar to Alien in another respect: there’s a cat. As the tension reaches its fever pitch, the ironic kicks in as it turns out it was just the tabby all along.
“The Food of the Gods”
Familiar with Soylent Green? Here is another case of Clarke writing a story that has a ironic ending that may seem familiar to those who’ve seen a certain movie. The same ironic revelation about the essential ingredient in Soylent Green occurs at the end of this story about bioengineering food. The food of the gods? Yep, it's people.
“The Star”
The single most profound—and for some readers most distressing—use of irony in one of Clarke’s short stories is the revelation which occurs at the end of “The Star.” A mission to study a white dwarf resulting from a star going results is narrated by the astrophysicist on the spaceship who also happens to be a Jesuit priest. His two worlds collide in spectacularly ironic fashion when two unexpected facts about the star’s explosion are discovered. It wiped out the population of an entire civilization advanced enough to leave behind evidence of its existence which survived the supernova. At the very same moment, the explosion produced a light brilliant enough to be stand out in the sky as something unusual enough by those looking at it from earth to interpret as a sign from God heralding the arrival of a baby who would be named Jesus.
“The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told”
Ironically enough, at just over 130 words, this is not even near to being in the top of the longest science fiction stories ever told. Perhaps even more ironic: it is also not the shortest story in the collection. In fact, it is roughly one-hundred words longer than the shortest story in the collection.
