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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
60 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Some of Clarke's best later work,
By
This review is from: Songs of Distant Earth (Mass Market Paperback)
"The Songs of Distant Earth" is an engaging story centered around one of Arthur C. Clarke's deceptively simply plot hooks: Prior to the destruction of the Earth in a nova 1,500 years from now, "seedships" were sent to the stars so humanity could live on. An early seedship birthed a small, Eden-like civilization on a planet called Thalassa.Now, hundreds of years after this society achieved near perfection, another seedship has arrived. And it is carrying people who have come directly from the now destroyed Earth. Like most of Clarke's work, "The Songs of Distant Earth" is a story driven by ideas. Ideas about how the future of humanity will turn out. Ideas about how we will eventually solve the problems of today. And ideas about how we will finally reach the stars, and what we'll do when we get there. Unlike much of his later work, "Songs" holds up well. This is not only the best of his late-period writing, but falls in with the very best novels he has written no matter the era. The pacing is quick, with a new revelation or theory around every corner, luring the reader deeper into the story with short, pithy chapters, each revealing a small (but fascinating) part of an intricate whole. Most of the classic Clarke hallmarks are here, including the handful of themes that grew to dominate his later works. The space elevator, the possibly intelligent yet wholly alien lifeform, the theories on how humans will cross the gulf between the stars, and the diatribes against religion. The cast of characters is not huge, but he rotates the viewpoint from chapter to chapter between about half-a-dozen of the people. The variety is good, as subtlety in painting his characters has never been a Clarke strong suit. As mentioned, "Songs" is driven by ideas. The first third of the book, maybe even the first half, is a never-ending stream of theories and predictions and discoveries. One of the author's great strengths is his ability to easily yet convincingly paint a picture of mankind's future. What takes other authors chapter after chapter to flesh out Clarke manages in small and succinct bites. This book is heavy with the hallmarks of later Clarke. Those of a strongly conservative philosophy may be uncomfortable with some of Clarke's blunt thoughts on matters like religion, guns and sexuality. Like all of his later works, the book is permeated with Clarke's disdain for organized religion (save his soft spot for Buddhism). Sometimes he is subtle, sometimes not; here, one entire chapter is devoted to one character's monologue about why religion is The Great Evil. And Clarke does not limit the anti-religious sentiments to his characters; he openly debases the entire concept of God in the narrator's voice on several occasions. It's somewhat jarring to have the author's philosophy pushed in the voice of the narrator rather than through a character. Of course, Clarke readers should not be surprised by this, as it has been a running theme in his stories for years. The inclusion of one specific passage on another subject, however, is puzzling, as it serves no purpose to the story and seems only to have been included for Clarke to expose a political viewpoint. Clarke uses the irrelevant scene to espouse his view that gun ownership is a "perversion," notes that the character has stirrings in his loins when holding the gun, and passes the gun off as a phallic symbol. The gun never comes into play again. A puzzling and an unnecessary intrusion of politics. Also like later Clarke, the author runs with the presumption that everyone is somewhat bisexual. At one point, he indicates that in the future people who are 100 percent heterosexual are considered flawed and borderline psychotic. The author isn't always so heavy-handed, however, and his frank but not in-your-face treatment of the subject is almost refreshing in its casualness. None of this should serve to ruin the story even for those who lean to the right, because like Arthur C. Clarke at his best, he lays out a possible future and how we got there with almost flawless execution. Only once or twice does his handling of political and social issues feel heavy-handed. Also like Clarke at his best, he lures the reader along with hints of discovery at every turn; discovery, not preaching, drives the story. This is best reflected in the discovery of a life form indigenous to Thalassa. Clarke's revelations about them are spaced evenly throughout the novel - the better to lure you along - and walk that fine balance between telling you enough to keep you interested but not so much that your imagination is spoiled. Because Clarke's stories generally don't hitch on some raging conflict or objective-based scenario, this one included, the ending may seem anti-climatic. Plot threads introduced midway through the book that look as if they will heat up are resolved well before the end. But that is Clarke. He presents an idea, a snapshot of the future, serves up a slice and gets out before the idea wears itself thin. That is a great strength of his work. All in all, "The Songs of Distant Earth" stands as one of Clarke's best novels, surpassed only by his true classics. It is certainly the very best of his later work. No Arthur C. Clarke fan should go without reading this one, and probably neither should any fan of the genre.
35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautifully written and very imaginative.,
By Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Songs of Distant Earth (Mass Market Paperback)
This is a book that you will likely not forget reading. Clarke's imagination here is staggering.The novel takes place several thousand years from now. Earth has been destroyed by an unstable sun. Mankind foresaw the nova of Earth's sun for about two thousand years, and mounted an effort to colonize nearby stars in order to save the species. This was done in the nick of time. The story takes place on planet Thalassa--a world largely of oceans with a single pair of islands perhaps the size of Taiwan. The Thalassans, originally colonists from Earth, have been alone for over a thousand years. Now they are visited by the last starship from Earth, which stops there en route to a different planet intended for colonization. The story deals with the clash of cultures, but the best part are the flashbacks to Earth, and Clarke's highly intelligent and plausible extrapolations as regards science, politics, and societal development. Clarke's prose is outstanding as well, which is not all that common in science fiction. This is, quite simply, a wonderful story which will strike a chord in most readers.
17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Haunting, Sad, and Beautiful.,
This review is from: Songs of Distant Earth (Mass Market Paperback)
Arthur C. Clarke is in fine form with this book about humanity after the death of Earth, burnt up by the Sun. Many colonies were started on other planets, and Thalassa was one of the later ones sent out before the Sun blew up. Thalassa is a quiet utopia, with the citizenry leading uneventful lives on their ocean world. This peace is shaken when the starship Magellan comes into their system, containing thousands of humans who were the last to leave the Solar System before the Sun blew up. Unlike the Thalassans, who grew up untroubled by the tensions and violence of Earth, the Magellan crew has fresh memories of the last violent days of Earth and still grieve for their home and loved ones; they remember religion, which was supressed on Thalassa to avoid religious strife; they remember tragedy. Clarke's book is a sensitive telling of what happens when the Thalassans are exposed to the last human survivors of Earth, and how those survivors are touched by the tranquillity of Thalassa. Clarke shows you love, remembrance, and tragedy infused with Clarke's sense of wonder.
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