If you want an omnibus of short fiction by Arthur C. Clarke, a Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master, then you want The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke. If you’re looking for a representative sample of Clarke’s short stories, or for some examples of the creative and extrapolative abilities that established Clarke as one of science fiction’s greatest and most important writers, then check out Tales from Planet Earth. Tales from Planet Earth ranges widely across time, but the stories are centered on our home world. Many SF writers confine their visions of earth to its flatlands, but Clarke is three-dimensional; his stories
Hate,

The Deep Range,
and
The Man Who Ploughed the Sea
plunge into the ocean, while
The Cruel Sky
ascends the Himalayas. Some stories, like
The Other Tiger
and
‘If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth…’,
end on chilling twists.
The Road to the Sea
spans centuries and millennia to explore how humanity’s exodus to the stars may affect the world left behind.
Hate
considers how transcendence of the Earth’s atmosphere may affect ancient enmities.
The Parasite
demonstrates a scary nastiness not usually associated with Clarke.
The Wall of Darkness
is set on an alternate-universe earth so different from ours, and
The Lion of Comarre
is set in a future so far away, that both stories feel like fantasy; but both are rigorously extrapolated from scientific theory. Two lighthearted entertainments,
The Next Tenants
and
The Man Who Ploughed the Sea,
are from Tales of the White Hart. All of the stories in Tales from Planet Earth are recommended. The iBooks 2001 Anniversary Edition of Tales from Planet Earth collects 14 SF stories first published between 1950 and 1987, including the satire
On Golden Seas,
which has
never before [been] collected in any Clarke book.
–Cynthia Ward Review
Here…is a collection of Arthur’s science fiction stories, science fiction dealing with science, extrapolated intelligently. How you will enjoy it!
ISAAC ASIMOV
Product Description The fiction of Arthur C. Clarke has spanned the universe. He has carried us across unimaginable distances to alien times and places. Yet he has not lost sight of his home. Many of his greatest stories are set-or have their roots-right here on Planet Earth. In this book, Clarke’s best stories about our home planet are gathered together. For Arthur C. Clarke, more than any other science fiction writer,
home
is the entire Earth, through all of space and time. In this book, he shows us around his home to share his wonder. He invites us to share his vision and his dream. About the Author Arthur C. Clarke is the author of many seminal works of science fiction, most noteably; 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (Little Brown).