Review: The City and The Stars by Arthur C Clarke
The City and The Stars by Arthur C Clarke, published in 1956, was the first novel by Arthur C Clarke I read. It was the reason I went on to read many more, a few of my favourites include: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Fountain of Paradise, and Rendezvous with Rama.
Arthur C Clarke is seen by some (and I think rightly so) as one of the fathers of the science fiction genre alongside the likes of Asimov and Heinlen. The ideas he postulated revolutionised not just fiction, but reality too. He is credited, for example, for coming up with the idea of global communications satellites.
However, it’s not the writer Arthur C Clarke we’re looking at today, or his more popular work 2001: A Space Odyssey, but his classic work, The City and The Stars.
About The City and The Stars
The City and The Stars by Arthur C Clarke is an interesting tale, not without its flaws. Millennia ago an unknown threat, that we are led to believe to be an interstellar war, nearly annihilated humanity. In response, humanity retreated, withdrew from the stars and built a city, enclosed, safe and hidden, it was called Diaspar. (Interesting sidebar: the name Diaspar is derived from the word diaspora which means the dispersion or spread of people from their original homeland. This city then is the realisation of the opposite.)
The city of Diaspar is a utopia. The inhabitants lead lives of leisure, free of the stresses and fears of life. They invest their time in the arts, music, or whatever pursuits of passion they so desire. However, with this ‘perfected’ society comes stagnation. No new people are born, instead, each person's genetics are recycled periodically as determined by the central computer, the city’s over-arching artificial intelligence.
Life for humanity has gone on under the dome of Diaspar for seemingly thousands of years without changing. It is completely cut off from the outside world, and the people seem to have an unexplainable fear or repulsion of change and of the outside.
That is until the protagonist Alvin is birthed. Alvin is different in several ways. For a start, he has no knowledge of his past lives as everyone else does. Because of this, he seeks answers, but despite the wealth of knowledge Diaspar holds, his past and his purpose remain a mystery. In order to discover the reason for his existence he, along with the Jester Khedron must challenge the system and overturn the status quo of millennia.
As this overview suggests, the story has elements of a bildungsroman, Alvin must find himself and grow to fulfil his destiny. However, there is far more to it. It explores themes such as humanity's ravenous desire to expand and the potential for creating new threats as well as offering a vehicle for Clarke's incredible imagination.
The Best and Worst of The City and The Stars
As the book progresses, Alvin escapes from the confines of Diaspar and Clarke throws a variety of fascinating obstacles into our protagonist's path. He creates a parallel city where he explores side-by-side two juxtaposing future societies which allows him to present the pros and cons of each for the reader to judge.
If I could say one bad thing about The City and The Stars, it’s that Clarke perhaps became overly enamoured with his speculations and ideas as he wrote, so as you progress through the story the plot that is so enticingly established in the first half of the novel takes a back seat.
That being said, this is one of the reasons I love Arthur C Clarke's work. His originality and flair, his apparently endless imaginings of the future, of the progress of technology, and his vision make you step back, take a deep breath and say wow.
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Final Words
The City and The Stars by Arthur C Clarke then is a delightful dalliance of imagination. But, it lacks in several places. Everything takes second place to Clarke’s awe-inspiring ideas. For example, it fails, in my opinion, to make me really care about the main character he’s a vehicle for the author rather than the other way round. This leads to the plot being a little disjointed, and it lacks the grit and realism at times that readers might want, reading almost like a fable at points.
However, I don’t really care. Clarke’s vision of mankind’s future is bizarre and unique. The City and The Stars offers an incredible reflection on humanity’s past and future and for these reasons, it has undoubtedly influenced the genre and has become a staple for sci-fi fans.