The City and the Stars
The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
Anyone who’s read any of my previous reviews of Arthur C. Clarke’s work will know what a fan I am, and this book just deepens that admiration. The City and the Star’s is maybe slightly more character based than some of his previous work, but the incredible Hard Sci-Fi and imaginative concept is still there too. It’s one of those books where everything just comes together.
The City and the Stars follows the story of Alvin, a resident of the last city on Earth, Diaspar, and is set a billion years in the future. The Human Race has retreated from the stars, and indeed much of the Earth due to a historical conflict with the Invaders. A deal was made never to leave the city, in order for humanity’s survival. A billion years on, Alvin wants to leave the city and see what’s out there, while the rest of the population don’t understand his ambition in the slightest, and have no intention of ever stepping outside the cities walls, especially when they have everything they need inside the advanced utopian city.
It’s a book that’s intriguing from the offset due to the billion years in the future setting, and the technology within the city. People are no longer born, instead come from a memory bank and remember past lives. They live for a thousand years. There’s peace, and no disease. Everyone is perfectly contempt and has everything they need. You want something, the matter machines will instantly make it. The whole city is looked after by robots. It’s self sufficient and worry free, unless you’re Alvin.
Much of the book follows Alvin’s desire to find a way out of Diaspar and too see if anything remains outside the city. Are there still humans alive someplace on Earth? Is the entire planet really a desert? Are there still bodies of water? Mountains? And what of the Invaders? Are they long gone? Or making sure we still keep to our end of the bargain?
So much of the story and journey is about risk and reward, both in the historical context of the human race and their struggle with the invaders, and the luxuries of modern life vs what was lost for it. Without death, how much is life worth living? Without children, have we lost something? What of love? Ambition? If everything we want is handed to us, how do we grow? The book is full of big themes, and deep ideas, but it never gets lost in them. Instead, it kind of becomes an adventure book at times as we follow Alvin.
I think I've said as much as I can without spoiling anything, but I will say I love how everything unfolded within the book. The way the adventure took off, and the characters involved. The world building was incredible, and within Alvin is some of Clarke’s best character work in my opinion. The story had such scope to it, and a lot of beauty alongside the big questions.
The City and the Stars is a great read for anyone who likes Arthur C Clarke, and probably plenty who don’t enjoy his work as much either. It still has his big sci-fi ideas and hard sci-fi approach, but maybe a little more heart too, which considering that’s one of the themes of the book, is a good thing.
