Arthur C Clarke - The Songs Of Distant Earth

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by Arthur C. Clarke

1986

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Thalassa was a paradise above the earth. Its beauty and vast resources seduce its inhabitants into a

feeling of perfection. But then the Magellan arrives, carrying with it one million refugees from the last mad

days of earth. Paradise looks indeed lost....

Synopsis

The arrival of a spaceship from Earth--destroyed when its sun went nova--carrying five million Earthlings

in suspended animation, as well as an uncensored cultural record of Earth, threatens to destroy the

paradisiacal planet of Thalassa.

Spotlight Reviews

Don't Miss It, July 7, 2002

Reviewer:

In "The Songs of Distant Earth", Arthur C. Clarke seems to have a good grasp of the elements of

writing, and he's eliminated some of the flaws that appeared in his earlier works. Like most of his novels,

this one presents a lot of ideas in a small space and leaves some major questions unresolved at the

conclusion. It's a book that will leave you thinking for days afterward.

The story, which is told partially in explanatory flashbacks, begins when scientists discover that the sun

will explode within a few thousand years, leading to the destruction of Earth. In order to save humanity,

several small colonies are established on nearby planets. Later, after the discovery of a new technology,

large spaceships are able to carry millions of colonists out to the stars. Most of the plot concerns what

happens when one of these ships arrives on a planet that was already colonized earlier. The original

concept that drives this book is that the first round of colonies was very carefully engineered by people

from Earth. They were designed to be paradises where people would be raised in an environment quite

different from Earth. Thus, there is a definite culture clash when the big spaceship arrives.

I found that Clarke handled the characterization of the two different groups of people quite well. It

was really possible to understand how their backgrounds were totally different and how this gave rise to

two different worldviews. Also, Clarke cut down on unnecessarily thorough descriptions, so "The Songs

of Distant Earth" is more compact and readable than some of his earlier efforts. Finally, as others have

mentioned, his language and dialogue is very lyrical and poetic, which helps the reader understand the

mood of the characters in this distant paradise.

Arthur C. Clarke's vision of Star Trek, August 12, 2000

Reviewer:

In his author's foreword, Arthur C. Clarke writes that this is his vision of the "space opera" or Star

Trek, and here he uses real science to give us a more realistic view of inter steller travel. No Warp Six

could get you to another solar system in just a week's time. The actual travel would last several centuries.

Hence this book deals with the last races of man who travel to another solar system to begin a new life,

after Earth's sun goes Nova. They land for refueling and rest on a planet called Thalassa where human

beings have already lived for 300 years, and this clash of cultures could alter the planet's culture in very

harmful and unseen ways. Great book. Should also be made into a movie.

All Customer Reviews

Avg. Customer Review:

I LOVE this book!!, May 3, 2003

Reviewer:

I remember buying this book - not really expecting much from it. I also wasn't that familair with Arthur

C. Clarke (but that has changed). This is one of the best (if not the best) books that I've ever read.

Hmmm.. it could very well be my "favorite". I'm not usually drawn to male writers. Although male myself,

female writers are usually... well, in my opinion - better writers. But, Arthur C. Clarke is awesome and

did a first-rate job writing this novel. I wish he had written a companion book about the colonist after

they reached Sagan II. I've enjoyed reading and rereading this book many times.

The Best, March 19, 2003

Reviewer:

I have read several of clarkes books, and this is the best. I cried at the end. Of all the books I've read

in my life, this is hands down my favorite. THE BEST! enough said.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The first version of this novel, a 12,500-word short story, was written between February and April

1957 and subsequently published in IF Magazine (US) for June 1958 and Science Fantasy (UK) in June

1959. It may be more conveniently located in my own Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich collections The

Other Side of the Sky (1958) and From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962).

In 1979, I developed the theme in a short movie outline that appeared in OMNI Magazine (Vol.3,

No.12, 1980). This has since been published in the illustrated Byron Press/Berkley collection of my short

stories The Sentinel (1984), together with an introduction explaining its origin and the unexpected manner

in which it lead to the writing and filming of 2010: Odyssey Two.

This novel, the third and final version, was begun in May 1983 and completed in June 1985.

July 1, 1985

Colombo, Sri Lanka

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first suggestion that vacuum energies might be used for propulsion appears to have been made by

Shinichi Seike in 1969. (“Quantum electric space vehicle”; 8th Symposium on Space Technology and

Science, Tokyo)

Ten years later, H.D. Froning of McDonnell Douglas Astronautics introduced the idea at the British

Interplanetary Societies’ Interstellar Studies Conference, London (September 1969) and followed it up

with two papers: “Propulsion Requirements for a Quantum Interstellar Ramjet” (JBIS, Vol.33, 1980) and

“Investigation of a quantum ramjet for interstellar flight” (AIAA Preprint 81-1534, 1981).

Ignoring the countless inventors of unspecified “space drives,” the first person to use the idea in fiction

appears to have been Dr. Charles Sheffield, chief scientist of Earth Satellite Corporation; he discusses the

theoretical basis of the quantum drive” (or, as he has named it, “vacuum energy drive”) in his novel The

McAndrew Chronicles (Analog magazine 1981; Tor, 1983).

An admittedly naive calculation by Richard Feynman suggests that every cubic centimeter of vacuum

contains enough energy to boil all the oceans of Earth. Another estimate by John Wheeler gives a value a

mere seventy-nine orders of magnitude larger. When two of the world’s greatest physicists dis agree by a

little matter of seventy-nine zeroes, the rest of us may be excused a certain skepticism; but it’s at least an

in teresting thought that the vacuum inside an ordinary light bulb contains enough energy to destroy the

Galaxy . . . and perhaps, with a little extra effort, the Cosmos.

In what may hopefully be a historic paper (“Extractin g electrical energy from the vacuum by cohesion

of charged foliated conductors,” Physical Review, Vol. 30B, pp.1700-17O2, August 15, 1984) Dr.

Robert L. Forward of the Hughes Research Labs has shown that at least a minute fraction of this energy

can be tapped. If it can be harnessed for propulsion by anyone besides science-fiction writers, the purely

engineering problems of interstellar-or even intergalactic-flight would be solved.

But perhaps not. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Alan Bond for his detailed mathematical analysis of the

shielding necessary for the mission described in this novel and for pointing out that a blunt cone is the

most advantageous shape. It may well turn out that the factor limiting high-velocity interstellar flight will

not be energy but ablation of the shield mass by dust grains, and evaporation by protons. The history

and theory of the “space elevator” will be found in my address to the Thirtieth Congress of the

International Astronautical Federation, Munich, 1979: “The Space Elevator:

‘Thought Experiment’ or Key to the Universe?” (Reprinted in Advances in Earth Orientated

Applications of Space Technology, Vol.1, No.1, 1981, pp. 39-48 and Ascent to Orbit: John Wiley,

1984). I have also developed the idea in the novel The Fountains of Paradise (Del Rey, Gollancz, 1978).

The first experiments in this direction, involving payloads lowered into the atmosphere on

hundred-kilometerlong “tethers” from the space shuttle, will be commencing around the time this novel is

published. My apologies to Jim Ballard and J.T. Frazer for stealing the title of their own two very

different volumes for my final chapter.

My special gratitude to the Diyawadane Nilame and his staff at the Temple of the Tooth, Kandy, for

kindly inviting me into the Relic Chamber during a time of troubles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Arthur C. Clarke was born at Minehead, Somerset, England, in 1917 and is a graduate of Kings

College, London, where he obtained First Class Honors in Physics and Mathematics. He is past

Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of the Academy of Astronautics, the Royal

Astronomical Society, and many other scientific organizations. During World War II, as an RAF officer,

he was in charge of the first radar talkdown equipment during its experimental trials. His only

non-science4iction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work.

Author of fifty books, some twenty million-plus copies of which have been printed in over thirty

languages, his numerous awards include the 1961 Kalinga Prize, the AAAS-Westinghouse

science-writing prize, the Bradford Washburn Award, and the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell

Awards-all three of which were won by his novel Rendezvous with Rama.

In 1968 he shared an Oscar nomination with Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey, and his

thirteen-part TV series Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World has now been screened in many countries.

He joined Walter Cronkite during CBS’ coverage of the Apollo missions.

His invention of the communications satellite in 1945 has brought him numerous honors, such as the

1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai

Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, and a Fellowship of King’s College,

London. The President of Sri Lanka recently nominated him Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa,

near Colombo.

Contents

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

1. THE BEACH AT TARNA

2. THE LITTLE NEUTRAL ONE

3. VILLAGE COUNCIL

4. TOCSIN

5. NIGHT RIDE

6. PLANETFALL

7. LORDS OF THE LAST DAYS

8. REMEMBRANCE OF LOVE LOST

9. THE QUEST FOR SUPERSPACE

10. FIRST CONTACT

11. DELEGATION

12. HERITAGE

13. TASK FORCE

14. MIRISSA

15. TERRA NOVA

16. PARTY GAMES

17. CHAIN OF COMMAND

18. KUMAR

19. PRETTY POLLY

20. IDYLL

21. ACADEMY

22. KRAKAN

23. ICE DAY

24. ARCHIVE

25. SCORP

26. SNOWFLAKE RISING

27. MIRROR OF THE PAST

28. THE SUNKEN FOREST

29. SABRA

30. CHILD OF KRAKAN

31. PETITION

32. CLINIC

33. TIDES

34. SHIPNET

35. CONVALESCENCE

37. IN VINO VERITAS

38. DEBATE

39. THE LEOPARD IN THE SNOWS

40. CONFRONTATION

41. PILLOW TALK

42. SURVIVOR

43. INTERROGATION

44. SPYBALL

45. BAIT

46. WHATEVER GODS MAY BE

47. ASCENSION

48. DECISION

49. FIRE ON THE REEF

50. SHIELD OF ICE

51. RELIC

52. THE SONGS OF DISTANT EARTH

53. THE GOLDEN MASK

54. VALEDICTION

55. DEPARTURE

56. BELOW THE INTERFACE

57. THE VOICES OF TIME

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byArthurC.Clarke1986EditorialReviewsBookDescriptionThalassawasaparadiseabovetheearth.Itsbeautyandvastresourcesseduceitsinhabitantsintoafeelingofperfection.ButthentheMagellanarrives,carryingwithitonemillionrefugeesfromthelastmaddaysofearth.Paradiselooksindeedlost....SynopsisThearrivalofaspaceshipfrom...

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Arthur C Clarke - The Songs Of Distant Earth

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