The City And The Stars (S.F. Masterworks)
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Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar; for millennia its protective dome shutout the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rules the stars. But then, as legend had it, The invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, A Unique to break through Diaspar's stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.
About the Author
SALES POINTS #39 in the Millennium SF Masterworks series, a library of the finest science fiction ever written. 'Hauntingly effective . . . a beautifully conceived, unforgettable future world' Robert Silverberg 'Probably his most perfect work' Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I never thought I'd find myself describing a book in such terms, but Arthur C Clarke's "The City and the Stars" is simply a beautiful work of breath-taking vision and insight. It's beauty resides in the gentleness with which he submerges the reader not only into the flow of the story but into a way of thinking that makes us understand profound issues which confront the human race as we head into the future.
In part, what is remarkable is the book itself - written in 1956, it anticipates many of the problems and conflicts which the rise of technology presents us with today: in particular, how human beings themselves interact with and then become shaped by the machines they create. But what is even more remarkable is that Clarke's style does this in a way which takes the reader back to the early days of almost childhood innocence when everything is strange and new; the reader becomes a child again, looking at the world with eyes filled with wonder and asking the simplest of questions all over again. This is Clarke's critique of the main city - Diaspar: in effect, he is saying that with the rise of technology we become at first reliant on and then indifferent to the world. Machines do it for us - and then what is left for us to do or think? Diaspar is the city of the future - along with the stagnating human beings who fill that world.
The plot itself is breath-taking;in 255 pages we are unbelievably taken across a barren world millions of years into the future, across a long forgotten galaxy - and then back to Earth again, all with amazing precision, speed - and above all, stylistic grace. At no point are we forced into assumptions or presuppositions. The story unfolds quite naturally and without haste. The grace of style accompanies the beauty of the perspective we are invited to share.
In the end, you put the book down and are happy to sit quietly for a long time just wondering - wondering about the future of humanity, wondering about what the future could bring, wondering whether we are already on a path it is too late to turn away from. This is simply a fantastic book, a tremendous story and a very rare opportunity to have our eyes lifted above the mundane and the normal to consider wider issues and to appreciate bigger pictures. At the end you really will look lovingly at this book - and, I suspect, anticipate with fondness the day when you will pick it up and read it again.
In part, what is remarkable is the book itself - written in 1956, it anticipates many of the problems and conflicts which the rise of technology presents us with today: in particular, how human beings themselves interact with and then become shaped by the machines they create. But what is even more remarkable is that Clarke's style does this in a way which takes the reader back to the early days of almost childhood innocence when everything is strange and new; the reader becomes a child again, looking at the world with eyes filled with wonder and asking the simplest of questions all over again. This is Clarke's critique of the main city - Diaspar: in effect, he is saying that with the rise of technology we become at first reliant on and then indifferent to the world. Machines do it for us - and then what is left for us to do or think? Diaspar is the city of the future - along with the stagnating human beings who fill that world.
The plot itself is breath-taking;in 255 pages we are unbelievably taken across a barren world millions of years into the future, across a long forgotten galaxy - and then back to Earth again, all with amazing precision, speed - and above all, stylistic grace. At no point are we forced into assumptions or presuppositions. The story unfolds quite naturally and without haste. The grace of style accompanies the beauty of the perspective we are invited to share.
In the end, you put the book down and are happy to sit quietly for a long time just wondering - wondering about the future of humanity, wondering about what the future could bring, wondering whether we are already on a path it is too late to turn away from. This is simply a fantastic book, a tremendous story and a very rare opportunity to have our eyes lifted above the mundane and the normal to consider wider issues and to appreciate bigger pictures. At the end you really will look lovingly at this book - and, I suspect, anticipate with fondness the day when you will pick it up and read it again.
38 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Grand ideas of great scope were the hallmark of 'The Golden Age of Science Fiction' and this book certainly fits that mold. Set in the very far future, so far that many main sequence stars have started to die, this is a story of two very different paths that two different groups of humans have taken to the puzzle of existence and life. In the city of Diaspar, we have a totally enclosed and static society, where people live for a thousand years, then store their memories for some later computer controlled reincarnation, where anything outside the city is not only totally ignored, its very existence is practically denied. At the other extreme is Lys, where man is just one part of the world of living, growing things, where bio-engineering has been raised to such an art it is buried in the background, and humans have developed telepathic talents. These are the last two areas of civilization on an Earth that has otherwise become a desert, where even the oceans have totally dried up.
Against this background we find Alvin, the first truly new citizen in Diaspar in seven thousand years, born without any memories of prior existences, to whom, without any preset thought biases, all things are open to question. When he starts to question the origin of Diaspar and ask what exists outside the city, he is met with rebuff and ostracism. Persisting in his questions, he eventually finds a way to leave Diaspar and travel to Lys. The things he learns there and the additional questions provoked by this knowledge eventually lead to things far beyond the Earth and a complete revision of 'known' history, with the fate of the galaxy hanging in the balance.
While Alvin and the other characters are reasonably portrayed, this is not the strong suit of this book, nor will you find a great amount of 'hard' science gadgets and plot devices. This is rather a book that will make you think about the long term purpose of man and his place in the universe. There is a painted picture here of just what the ultimate end point is of pure technological development and the stifling effects such an environment has on people, strongly contrasted with an alternative development line focusing on human mental capabilities and its negatives. Both thematic sides are held up beneath the strong lights of hope, pride, and ambition.
There is a feeling of near poetry, a total 'sense of wonder', that pervades this book, a feeling that will captivate and invigorate the reader, that will take him far outside the everyday concerns of today. In certain areas, the great weight of not just millennia, but billions of years of history will press upon you, where the discovery of ages old items will be as much of an adventure as watching our first manned lunar mission.
This book was a near total rewrite of "Against the Fall of Night". While the basic scenario is the same between the two books, the endings are dramatically different, and actually present a different outlook on man’s purpose and his part in the grander scheme of things. I have never been able to decide which of the two versions is better – but that just means you should read both, as they are both fully deserving of your time and attention.
--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Forget 20XX series .. forget Rama ... forget falling Moondust .. this is THE greatest Science Fiction novel EVER written. To do this novel justice in such a short comment would require a writer of Clarke's calibre.. it radiates readability from the first page and your interest in the characters seems to reach higher and higher peaks with every successive chapter. The social comments are astounding and to show how powerful and well written this novel is, a comparison of the two cities of Lys and Diaspar helped to earn me an 'A' in Higher English. Fantastic.. how few science fiction works can cross the boundary into a really telling look at social structures while being set so deep in the future that it is hard to even envisage the passage of time till then. Alvin... although having a rather comedic name for a centre character develops through the novel and it really feels like you are starting off on a voyage of discovery with him. Alystra plays the adoring naive woman in what would be a typically sexist role. It never is this though due to the social behaviour in the city.. it mearly serves as a method to show how solid Alvin is in a situation as alien to him as to anyone in the city.. his longing for the outside. Hard to imagine that this novel was first published in 1956, based on an earlier work.. all I can say is wow! .. Mr. Clarke.. its a masterpiece. 10 stars out of 5.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Good old Arthur C Clarke
I must have read this the first time forty or more years ago and I'm thoroughly enjoying re-reading it now. Read more
Published 2 months ago by John
Absolutely amazing for a novel from the 1950s!
This novel has hardly aged a day in the 60 years since it has been published - no mean feat for the science fiction genre, particularly for a technology driven story which this... Read more
Published 3 months ago by D. Doyle
Wow. Just Wow
There are very few books you read, and go wow. And go back and read again. And say wow again.
The book is about a boy stuck in a city- a perfect city, where there is no... Read more
The book is about a boy stuck in a city- a perfect city, where there is no... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Shantnu Tiwari
Memories!
I will remember this book all my life. It is one of a few, such as Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series, that set my reading firmly on the SF path, many years ago. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Rw Williams
A brilliant book from the past
I have got to that age now when books that I read as a teenager are useful for a re-read.
This book gives a believable tale of what may happen to mankind in the far... Read more
This book gives a believable tale of what may happen to mankind in the far... Read more
Published 16 months ago by sologuitarist61
A vision upon humankind's twilight
Humankind has endured hundreds of millions of years, expanding and colonizing space and ultimately returning to Earth for the dawn of its civilization. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Jorge Teixeira
Revisited
I read this much-loved book again after some decades. It still has astonishing power: the work of a master.
Published 19 months ago by M. E. Brown
absorbing and thought-provoking classic of science fiction
A classic novel of the far future which anticipates some developments in our own society and raises many questions about the possible consequences of technological advancement and,... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Sarah A. Brown
SF Masterwork
This is ACC's finest work and one of the great works in the whole history of science fiction. The little introduction alone, barely 1 page, is just exquisitely written and sets up... Read more
Published on 26 May 2010 by Klaatu
Snap Graeme
Reading through the reviews of this brilliant novel I happened upon the comment by Graeme Buckley and his route to this novel was exactly the same as mine. Read more
Published on 5 May 2010 by W. J. Mccormack
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