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The world lost a creative genius, a moving storyteller, and one of the Big Three of sci-fi today. Arthur C. Clarke passed away at a hospital near his home in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

In addition to writing 33 novels and a host of short stories and essays, Clarke – alongside Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov – helped define the entire science fiction genre.

He is most well-known for his masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey which he adapted for the big screen with director Stanley Kubrick. Its sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two was also made into a film, and his classic Rendezvous with Rama has been slated for pre-production by David Fincher.

As with other sci-fi pioneers, Clarke was deeply invested in the proliferation and advancement of technology, specifically space travel and telecommunications.

With countless awards to his name, Clarke also had the incredibly cool honor of having a dinosaur named after him as well as an asteroid and was knighted in 1998.

With Clarke’s passing – following Heinlein’s in 1988 and Asimov’s in 1992 – it is the end of an era for science fiction. Thankfully, the trailblazer left a solid foundation for the future and a compelling desire to explore it. Although he left an incredible body of work to treasure, the man himself and his humanity will be greatly missed.