An immensely readable and stimulating collection  of essays examining the enormous possibilities the human race now has for creativity and destruction. Against Orwell’s ominous date 1984 he has deliberately set the hopeful word Spring because he feels the worst of the world’s long winter may well be over. Clarke’s passionate interest in space exploration, vast knowledge of technological and scientific developments and his informed, optimistic humanism are communicated in a style  that will strike a responsive chord in the hearts and minds of all readers concerned for the future of humankind on – and off – Earth.