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Loading... The Songs of Distant Earth (1986)by Arthur C. Clarke
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Nice pacing, good story, interesting science ( ) Arthur C Clarke is one of the best sci fi authors who ever lived. This book is not a good example of why. Clarke's famous lack of characterization in his books is on full display here. I was continually forgetting which character was which, because they all had exotic names that started with K and had no distinguishing characteristics. (Except for the three women-the love interest of one of the K's, the annoying reporter woman, and the woman who has sex with one of the other K's before he dies) Usually this isn't much of a problem, because in most of Clarke's books, the plot and setting are captivating, but here, they're just sort of OK. One of the best sci-fi books I've read. It's thought-provoking and full of good vibes. A ship bound from the now-destroyed earth comes to a planet where one of Earth's seedships had landed 7 centuries ago. Mostly a water-world, these people are happily settled. Ship Magellan has crossed 50 light years, stopping at planet Thalassa to pick up some water from their ocean. The exchange of technology and culture is a delight to experience through the eyes of Clarke's well-written characters. My favorite part is the explanation of god that one of Clarke's characters gives: " 'the trouble with the word god,' he began slowly, 'is that it never meant the same thing to any two people - especially if they were philosophers. that's why it slowly dropped out of use during the third millennium except as an expletive--in some cultures, too obscene for polite use. 'instead, it was replaced by a whole constellation of specialized words. This at least stopped people arguing at cross-purposes, which caused 90% of the trouble in the past. 'The personal God, sometimes called God One, became Alpha. It was the hypothetical entity supposed to watch over the affairs of everyday life - every individual, every animal!--and to reward good and punish evil, usually in a vaguely described existence after death. You worshipped Alpha, prayed to it, carried out elaborate religious ceremonies, and built huge churches in its honor... 'then there was The God who created the universe and might or might not have had anything to do with it since then. That was Omega. By the time they'd finished dissecting God, the philosophers has used up all the other 20 or so letters of the ancient Greek alphabet, but Alpha and Omega will do very nicely for this morning. I'd guess that not more than 10 billion man years were ever spent discussing them.' " He goes on with more explanation of what happened to god...pages 254-259, 1986 paperback Serendib BV edition. This book was a pretty average read for me. It wasn’t bad, but nothing about the story or the characters gripped me. I’ve read a couple other books by the author and I haven’t been very enthusiastic about any of them, so his writing style just may not work for me. This book is set on an alien planet populated by humans in the far distant future. When it became clear Earth’s destruction was imminent, various seed ships were sent out to different planets to keep the human species from being wiped out. At that time, they didn’t have the technology to send living humans such great distances. The story begins on a planet that was long ago established by one of those seed ships, and the inhabitants are unexpectedly visited by a ship of humans who claim to have traveled directly from Earth shortly before its destruction. By that time, technology had improved enough that they could put humans in suspended animation to make the trip. The world-building felt pretty solid, but the characters never felt as well-developed and I never cared much for any of them. Although the story was moderately interesting, I didn’t feel like there was anything to sink my teeth into. There were a variety of plot elements introduced, but none were developed substantially or carried out in a way I found satisfying. I kept expecting various plot points to become a bigger part of the story than they actually did. I particularly wanted more from the “scorps” storyline; I think that was the most interesting part to me. So it was an ok read, but I don’t think it will be very memorable for me. no reviews | add a review
Belongs to Publisher SeriesSündmuste horisont (13) Is contained inHas as a commentary on the textDistinctions
The paradise of Thalassa is threatened by an evolutionary event brewing beneath the calm seas and by a spacecraft of refugees hovering in orbit above the planet. 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. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)823.914Literature English & Old English literatures English fiction Modern Period 1901-1999 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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