Expedition to Earth is a collection of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke

Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...

.

There are at least two variants of this book's table of contents - in different editions of the book (perhaps with different ISBN numbers). Both variants include the stories History Lesson and Encounter in the Dawn

Encounter in the Dawn

"Encounter in the Dawn" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke published in 1953 in the magazine Amazing Stories. It was originally collected in the anthology Expedition to Earth, and, in one edition of the book, is titled "Expedition to Earth". In a later collection the title "Encounter at...

. But only one story is included under its own title; other story is included under the title "Expedition to Earth". Variants differ in the story that is included under its own title.

Contents

This collection, originally published in 1953, includes:

• "Second Dawn"
• "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth"
• "Breaking Strain
  Breaking Strain (short story)
  "Breaking Strain," also known as "Thirty Seconds Thirty Days," is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1949. It was adapted into a movie in 1994 under the title .-Plot summary:...
  
  "
• "History Lesson" (as "Expedition to Earth" in the British Edition, Sidgwick & Jackson
  Sidgwick & Jackson
  Sidgwick & Jackson is an imprint of publishing company Pan Macmillan. It was founded in Britain in 1908. Notable early Sidgwick and Jackson authors include poet Rupert Brooke and novelist E.M. Forster...
  
  , 1954)
• "Superiority
  Superiority (short story)
  "Superiority" is a science fiction short story by Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1951. It depicts an arms race, and shows how the side which is more technologically advanced can be defeated, despite its apparent superiority, because of its own organizational flaws and its willingness to...
  
  "
• "Exile of the Eons"
• "Hide-and-Seek
  Hide-and-Seek (short story)
  "Hide and Seek" is a science fiction short story written by Arthur C. Clarke and first published in 1949 in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction...
  
  "
• "Expedition to Earth
  Encounter in the Dawn
  "Encounter in the Dawn" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke published in 1953 in the magazine Amazing Stories. It was originally collected in the anthology Expedition to Earth, and, in one edition of the book, is titled "Expedition to Earth". In a later collection the title "Encounter at...
  
  " (as "Encounter in the Dawn" in the British Edition, Sidgwick & Jackson
  Sidgwick & Jackson
  Sidgwick & Jackson is an imprint of publishing company Pan Macmillan. It was founded in Britain in 1908. Notable early Sidgwick and Jackson authors include poet Rupert Brooke and novelist E.M. Forster...
  
  , 1954)
• "Loophole
  Loophole (short story)
  Loophole is a science fiction short story written by Arthur C. Clarke and first published in 1946 in the magazine Astounding Science-Fiction. It was subsequently published as part of a short story collection in Expedition to Earth in 1953. This story details the concern of the advanced Martian...
  
  "
• "Inheritance"
• "The Sentinel
  The Sentinel (short story)
  "The Sentinel" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, which was expanded and modified into the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Clarke expressed impatience with the common description of it as "the story on which 2001 is based." He was quoted as saying, it is like comparing "an acorn to...
  
  "

Reception

Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 and McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

 selected the collection as one of the best sf books of 1953, praising the stories' "humor, technical ideas, science-fictional thinking and all-around excellence." P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

 praised it as "an excellent collection . . . span[ning] the whole range of [Clarke's} talents. Writing in the Hartford Courant, reviewer R. W. Wallace declared that the stories "show [Clarke] as a more skilled literary artist" than even his novel Childhood's End

Childhood's End

Childhood's End is a 1953 science fiction novel by the British author Arthur C. Clarke. The story follows the peaceful alien invasion of Earth by the mysterious Overlords, whose arrival ends all war, helps form a world government, and turns the planet into a near-utopia...

had.