A Clash of Cymbals
by James Blish
Villes Nomades (Collections and Selections — 04), Cities in Flight: Publication order (3), Cities in Flight: Chronological order (4)
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"When the scientists of the wandering planet HE - in their journeys through the furthest reaches of inter-galactic space - heard the sounds of hydrogen atoms coming into existence out of NOTHING, they realized that they had accidentally discovered the birthplace of continuous creation. But they didn't know until later, much later, that they had uncovered mankind's Day of Judgement. Following up the Hevian's discovery, scientists of New Earth learned of the existence of a Universe based on show more Anti-Matter energy - a chemical and physical structure so antagonistic to their own Universe that the slightest contact meant instantaneous oblivion for both worlds. In desperation, the scientists joined forces to create a missile to explore this mysterious and hostile Anti-Matter Universe. But when the missile returned the scientists learned one awesome fact: In three years time the two Universes were doomed to inevitable, catastrophic collision."--Goodreads.com. show lessTags
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So to the final book in Blish's 'Cities in Flight' sequence, and the fourth sf novel I ever read.
What could I possibly have made of it when I read it at age 14? There are huge expository lumps of advanced cosmology in it, although I have to say that for 1959, a lot of what I understood (even now!) strikes me as being fairly sound, except for the way in which the steady-state theory is promoted as a sound and lasting theory of the origin of the universe; which is odd, because we are firmly in (cosmological) Big Bang territory here.
I also, at age 14, would not have grasped the joke Blish was playing on us by reflecting Archbishop Usher's fabled date for God's Creation of the World of 4004 BC (though he doesn't go so far as to replicate show more the actual day and month!). Quite why Blish chose to throw this into the mixture I'm not sure, though it does correspond to the cosmic ideas in the novel of the reflection of matter and anti-matter universes..
As with its prequel, 'Earthman, come home', I found myself revisiting an old friend in the form of this book, although Amalfi's casual acceptance of eugenic euthanasia for his children because of his centuries of spacefaring having exposed him to excessive radiation and subsequent genetic damage somewhat jaw-dropping. I found the recurring characters from previous books quite well-drawn, though the Hevians, as recent introductions (apart from their leader) were rather sketchy.
My main issue with the book was the way in which it seemed to have very little to do with the story of the flying cities; New York is permanently grounded, and at the end of 'Earthman, come home', the last of the Okies settled down to raise families and grow crops. Perhaps John Amalfi's unrest and urge to be back in space would have made only a coda to that novel, though doubtless it would have fitted better there. Flying off in an entirely new, part cosmological, part mystical adventure which had very little to do with the sort of events and the sort of story that we saw in the preceding volumes was really something of a discontinuity.
There was a good sense of the passage of time and the characters' reaction to suddenly being forced to reflect on that passage; But oh! The expository lumps! show less
What could I possibly have made of it when I read it at age 14? There are huge expository lumps of advanced cosmology in it, although I have to say that for 1959, a lot of what I understood (even now!) strikes me as being fairly sound, except for the way in which the steady-state theory is promoted as a sound and lasting theory of the origin of the universe; which is odd, because we are firmly in (cosmological) Big Bang territory here.
I also, at age 14, would not have grasped the joke Blish was playing on us by reflecting Archbishop Usher's fabled date for God's Creation of the World of 4004 BC (though he doesn't go so far as to replicate show more the actual day and month!). Quite why Blish chose to throw this into the mixture I'm not sure, though it does correspond to the cosmic ideas in the novel of the reflection of matter and anti-matter universes..
As with its prequel, 'Earthman, come home', I found myself revisiting an old friend in the form of this book, although Amalfi's casual acceptance of eugenic euthanasia for his children because of his centuries of spacefaring having exposed him to excessive radiation and subsequent genetic damage somewhat jaw-dropping. I found the recurring characters from previous books quite well-drawn, though the Hevians, as recent introductions (apart from their leader) were rather sketchy.
My main issue with the book was the way in which it seemed to have very little to do with the story of the flying cities; New York is permanently grounded, and at the end of 'Earthman, come home', the last of the Okies settled down to raise families and grow crops. Perhaps John Amalfi's unrest and urge to be back in space would have made only a coda to that novel, though doubtless it would have fitted better there. Flying off in an entirely new, part cosmological, part mystical adventure which had very little to do with the sort of events and the sort of story that we saw in the preceding volumes was really something of a discontinuity.
There was a good sense of the passage of time and the characters' reaction to suddenly being forced to reflect on that passage; But oh! The expository lumps! show less
This, the final book in the Cities of Flight quadrilogy, was a bit of a disappointment in my opinion. Moving forward from the first three it is suddenly heavily laden with jargon and an initially somewhat disjointed dialogue. Once things do get moving the story does improve, however it takes some perseverance to get there and it certainly isn't like the earlier fun to read space adventures.
Bit of a fizzler, didn't get much from the ending either.
Bit of a fizzler, didn't get much from the ending either.
This is the last installment in the Cities in Flight series, and it presents the most dire problem for Amalfi and company: the end of the universe.
With New York permanently grounded on New Earth, Amalfi has resigned as mayor and is bored to death. He has a permanent case of wanderlust and is itching to get back to the stars. He's pretty psyched to see the wandering planet He make its way to the New Earth system. Meeting with them, he learns that they've made a discovery: the birthplace of continuous creation. He and some scientists head out with the Hevians to check it out and discover further that there's an anti-matter universe on the other side. And we all know what happens when matter and anti-matter come together.
But while all of show more the scientists are conjecturing about what, if anything, can be done, others are trying to come to terms with what this means. Amalfi isn't the only one who's grown unhappy with life on New Earth. He and Dee finally get to explore their attraction to one another since her husband, Mark Hazleton, is busy with work and a philosophical group known as the Stochastics. And a couple of young adults struggle with traditional bonds of love in the face of the end of the universe.
Eventually, the scientists come up with come up with a way to cope with the end. I don't want to spoil what discoveries they find and obstacles they encounter, but Amalfi tackles the end of the universe in a very Amalfi way. show less
With New York permanently grounded on New Earth, Amalfi has resigned as mayor and is bored to death. He has a permanent case of wanderlust and is itching to get back to the stars. He's pretty psyched to see the wandering planet He make its way to the New Earth system. Meeting with them, he learns that they've made a discovery: the birthplace of continuous creation. He and some scientists head out with the Hevians to check it out and discover further that there's an anti-matter universe on the other side. And we all know what happens when matter and anti-matter come together.
But while all of show more the scientists are conjecturing about what, if anything, can be done, others are trying to come to terms with what this means. Amalfi isn't the only one who's grown unhappy with life on New Earth. He and Dee finally get to explore their attraction to one another since her husband, Mark Hazleton, is busy with work and a philosophical group known as the Stochastics. And a couple of young adults struggle with traditional bonds of love in the face of the end of the universe.
Eventually, the scientists come up with come up with a way to cope with the end. I don't want to spoil what discoveries they find and obstacles they encounter, but Amalfi tackles the end of the universe in a very Amalfi way. show less
This story picks up, unlike previous volumes, where the last one ended. Mayor Amalfi has become restless on New Earth and seeks to resume a life of adventure among the stars. Serendipitously - or not - adventure finds him instead, along with all the rest of the universe as time itself appears to be coming imminently to an end.
Here at the final volume of this series, which until now I've consistently rated as four stars, I have to let my rating slip a bit as I struggle to appreciate this strange epilogue. It's unquestionably the closing chapter on the history of the Okie cities, so finality may have been the author's goal. It is also a critical piece to consider when pinpointing the series' encompassing themes. Through all four books we show more are given to contemplate what it would be like to experience near-immortality, and what that might provide for seeking meaning in the universe. It's difficult to relate what this final volume adds to that contemplation without producing an enormous spoiler, but suffice to say you get the author's final answer.
The writing is probably the worst here of the four: a whole lot of overwriting (surprising for such an already short book), and with technical detail that goes even farther over my head. Having completed the series I'm not as prepared to broadly recommend it as I was at the beginning, but - curiosity satisfied. show less
Here at the final volume of this series, which until now I've consistently rated as four stars, I have to let my rating slip a bit as I struggle to appreciate this strange epilogue. It's unquestionably the closing chapter on the history of the Okie cities, so finality may have been the author's goal. It is also a critical piece to consider when pinpointing the series' encompassing themes. Through all four books we show more are given to contemplate what it would be like to experience near-immortality, and what that might provide for seeking meaning in the universe. It's difficult to relate what this final volume adds to that contemplation without producing an enormous spoiler, but suffice to say you get the author's final answer.
The writing is probably the worst here of the four: a whole lot of overwriting (surprising for such an already short book), and with technical detail that goes even farther over my head. Having completed the series I'm not as prepared to broadly recommend it as I was at the beginning, but - curiosity satisfied. show less
Mayor Amalfi and the mobile city of New York discover the universe is doomed to end in a matter-antimatter collision in three years. Amalfi races to the center of the universe to influence the resulting new Big Bang, ultimately deciding to create a different, new universe as his own universe ends.
Cities in Flight 4
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James Benjamin Blish was born on May 23, 1921 in East Orange, N.J. Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942 - 1944 as a medical technician in the United States Army. After the war he became the science editor for the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. His first published story appeared in 1940, and his writing show more career progressed until he gave up his job to become a professional writer. From 1962 to 1968, he worked for the Tobacco Institute. Between 1967 and his death from lung cancer in 1975, Blish wrote authorized short story collections based upon the 1960s TV series Star Trek. He wrote 11 volumes adapting episodes of the series. He died midway through writing Star Trek 12. Perhaps Blish's most famous works were the "Okies" stories, known collectively as Cities in Flight, published in the science-fiction digest magazine Astounding Science Fiction. Some of James Blish's other works include The Vanished Jet, And All the Stars a Stage, The Quincunx of Time, and Flight of Eagles. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Villes Nomades
1 works (Collections and Selections — 04)
Cities in Flight: Publication order
6 works (3)
Cities in Flight: Chronological order
6 works (4)
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- A Clash of Cymbals
- Original title
- A Clash of Cymbals
- Alternate titles*
- The Triumph of Time
- Original publication date
- 1958-10
- Important places
- Okie Cities
- Epigraph
- "Bismillahi 'rrahmani 'rrahim; When the day that must come shall have come suddenly; None shall treat that sudden coming as a lie; Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!; When the earth shall be shaken with a shock; And ... (show all)the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling; And shall become scattered dust; And into three bands shall ye be divided: ... Before thee have we granted to a man a life that shall last forever: If thou then die, shall they live forever? Every soul shall taste of death: ... But it shall come on them suddenly and shall confound them; and they shall not be able to put it back, neither shall they be respited." - The Koran; Sura LVI, Sura XXI
- Dedication
- To Lester and Evelyn del Rey
- First words
- ... Thus we have seen that Earth, a planet like other civilized worlds, having a score of myriads of years of atmosphere-bound history behind her, and having begun manned local spaceflight in approximately her own year 1960, ... (show all)did not achieve importance on a galactic scale until her independent discovery of the gravitron polarity generator in her year 2019.
- Original language
- English
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
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