Is Clarke a good writer?

So, Clarke.

I never found what was good about him. Every time I tried reading his fiction, horribly poor writing hurt my perception. I never ever though he was anything popular, though; but lo(l) and behold, he's dead and now it seems he was very, very loved by the hugest of audiences.

So... was he really good? I only read some random short stories, nonsensically written and on nonsensical subjects, like the one where buddhist monks were calculating all the names of God with a modern computer, and when they were done the STARS STARTED TO SHUT OFF OH MAN SO AMAZING XD .

What is some of his best stuff? I wanna see where the awesome lies. I really wouldn't mind finding myself another awesome writer, seriously. I'm not doing this to read a bit and then scream "I TOLD YOU SO! HE SUCKS FOR REAL!" I just never found anything good in whatever I read by him, but, really, that might have only been because I never really looked.

>>10
I don't know why you seem to think lesser of "realistically thinking of some cool stuff" when he was a science fiction author, isn't that what they do?

Also, nitpicking, he isn't part of the "top three", he's part of the "big three", and this because of their imagination and their influence on the genre, science and people. It wasn't "awarded" because they were all supreme prosaists.

Clarke simply wasn't the best writer (italics on that), and maybe the sense-of-wunda has deteriorated along the decades.

Read Childhood's End and Rendezvous with Rama before you call it quits?