Summertime on Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke Episode #404

Arthur C. Clarke | August 24, 2025

Summertime on Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke Episode #404
Arthur C. Clarke

SUMMERTIME ON ICARUS

Episode #404 · Written by Arthur C. Clarke · Narrated by Scott Miller

A stranded astronaut races against an oncoming sunrise that will turn the tiny asteroid Icarus into a furnace of light and death. As the sun rises with merciless intensity, his only hope lies in holding out long enough for rescue—if rescue can find him in time.

Summertime on Icarus is one of Arthur C. Clarke’s most gripping survival stories, set in the blazing inner reaches of the solar system where the sun dominates every moment of existence. Astronaut Colin Sherrard awakens inside a damaged space-pod on the surface of Icarus—an iron-nickel asteroid only two miles across—where sunrise doesn’t just bring light, it brings destruction. As the asteroid rotates, the sun’s oncoming rim glows like a blade of fire, ready to scorch the landscape with temperatures nearing a thousand degrees. With his rocket system crippled and his radio destroyed, Sherrard faces an unforgiving truth: if he cannot stay ahead of dawn, he will die.

Clarke masterfully builds tension as Sherrard claw-crawls his ten-foot pod across a world where gravity is negligible, orientation is unreliable, and time is cruelly short. The story’s power lies not in spectacle but in precision: real physics, real engineering, and the razor-thin line between ingenuity and disaster. Clarke’s depiction of space-vertigo—an astronaut losing the sense of up and down—is both scientifically accurate and emotionally gripping. And when the sun finally crests the edge of Icarus, the blast of heat becomes almost a character in itself, overwhelming, merciless, and impossible to ignore. This is Clarke at his finest: detailed, immersive, high-stakes science fiction that feels entirely plausible.

For listeners drawn to hard science fiction, survival drama, or tales of human resilience under extreme pressure, this story is a standout. The harsh beauty of the solar corona, the psychology of isolation, and the relentless march of sunrise all combine to create a deeply cinematic experience. Clarke explores not only the physical challenges but the mental ones—discipline, fear, memory, and the instinct to hold on even when hope seems faint.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Summertime on Icarus shows Clarke’s extraordinary ability to place ordinary people into extraordinary cosmic situations—then illuminate the courage, frailty, and stubborn determination that make us human.

LISTEN TO THE STORY

Listen to Summertime on Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke — a vintage sci-fi tale of survival as an astronaut races the deadly sunrise on a tiny asteroid near the sun.