Title: The City and the Stars
Author: Arthur C. Clarke
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 256
Rating: 3.5/5
I was quite excited going into this book because I’d heard so many good things about it. I’d even read a short story that had apparently acted as something of a precursor to this novel, although there were differences.
That short story was called Against the Fall of Night, and it’s said to be Clarke’s first novel, although I’d argue it was more of a novella than anything. I actually preferred that one to this one, even though they were both pretty good. I also noticed a few areas where it read as though Clarke had just copied directly from the older manuscript.
The general premise here is that there’s a city that’s survived the test of time and which represents hundreds of thousands of years of human development. There’s even a cultural clash when two different strands of homo sapiens meet each other, as well as an interesting observation that only one of them has belly buttons.
It’s that kind of stuff that I found the most interesting. Sure, there’s plenty more that you can enjoy, and the plot itself is surprisingly good considering it’s really a book about a big idea, but I think Clarke is at his best when he’s philosophising. The City and the Stars has philosophy in spades, making it exactly the kind of sci-fi I like. It was just missing a vital spark.
