"Islands in the Sky", first published in 1954, sees Roy Malcolm win a trip to the Inner Station, a space station rotating 500 miles from Earth. "The Sands of Mars", set in the 21st century, has a group of pioneers struggling to change the face of this inhospitable planet. "Earthlight" is set in a human colony on the moon. This omnibus edition of Arthur C. Clarke's early novels shows the author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" exploring space and time in adventurous and thoughtful ways. Although the course of recent history has been different, these novels offer a glimpse of what-might-have-been, as envisoned nearly 50 years ago by the greatest sci-fi writer of them all.