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.

Good ideas - if you were born in like 1910 or something.  I have a mobile phone, a story about satellites really isn't that ZOMG amazing.  I tried the short stories, and maybe it was the collections I was reading but they were *all* the same 4 stories. Over and over and over and over again.

When the Will Smith movie is probably better than the books it's based on you know the books aren't worth it.