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.

One of his ideas was bouncing radio signals off the moon to reach far points on Earth.
Thus he is credited with thinking up satellites, or "artificial moons".
Also that space elevator on a cable thing, also considered a sound idea that's simply waiting for the right materials to be developed.