The Songs of Distant Earth

This is a mesmerizing story about a possible future for humanity after the sun explodes, destroying Earth's solar system. In the 2500s, seed ships carrying frozen embryos were launched into space with the hope of saving humanity. By chance, one of these ships landed on a planet called Thalassa. Although it is 90% ocean, Thalassa has oxygen and a mild climate. The planet features an active volcano and intelligent underwater life forms resembling giant lobsters, which the humans called "Scorps," along with other unknown entities. The Lassans, the planet's inhabitants, are a peaceful society that controls their population and avoids conflict.

However, 800 years later, the spaceship Magellan makes an emergency landing on Thalassa while en show more route to a distant planet. The Lassans are unprepared for this unexpected arrival, which awakens curiosity about their past.

Clarke argues that religion has caused more wars, death, and sorrow than any other single factor. This is a point of endless debate, but I agree that more mayhem has been unleashed in the name of religion than by anything else. Greed for land and power comes in a close second. However, once humanity sets aside its religious beliefs and differences, peaceful conditions tend to follow. If humans ever have the chance to start anew on a distant planet, I hope we seize that opportunity to do better. show less

What I love so much about Arthur C. Clarke's work is his underlying sense of sorrow for the human condition. It forms a foundational layer for the emotional weight of his stories. In this one, the wistful idea looming over the characters is our own fateful end as a species. Though the characters move on, survive, carry out the directives of life, each one must deal with endings more than beginnings. Hope may be the engine driving the security of mankind but melancholy is its cockpit.

Clarke limberly uses a narrative telescopy to explore notions of cultural discovery, the dangers of influence, and the urge of human attachment... and detachment.

I recommend this story to fans of the genre, fans of Arthur C. Clarke, and to anyone who's ever show more wondered at life beyond earth and what desperate conditions may spark its beginning. show less

What I love so much about Arthur C. Clarke's work is his underlying sense of sorrow for the human condition. It forms a foundational layer for the emotional weight of his stories. In this one, the wistful idea looming over the characters is our own fateful end as a species. Though the characters move on, survive, carry out the directives of life, each one must deal with endings more than beginnings. Hope may be the engine driving the security of mankind but melancholy is its cockpit.

Clarke limberly uses a narrative telescopy to explore notions of cultural discovery, the dangers of influence, and the urge of human attachment... and detachment.

I recommend this story to fans of the genre, fans of Arthur C. Clarke, and to anyone who's ever show more wondered at life beyond earth and what desperate conditions may spark its beginning. show less

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 show more 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. show less

I love Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama and so was quite intrigued by this book's synopsis which claimed it was Clarke's favorite book of his, which just goes to show that authors have terrible taste. I found this dull and disjointed. The characterization was all telling--for example, the exposition tells us again and again that Mirissa is brilliant but yet, she *does* absolutely nothing and we never see any evidence of her superior intellect. There really is no plot, the fate of Earth is not really moving and hard to read in our current environmental moment with a straight face. Given what climate change is doing to our world, it is hard to read a prediction of humanity facing the demise of its world--for which humans bear no show more blame--with such foresight and dignity. The most interesting part of the story--the discovery of the alien race of scorps--feels really tangential even though every other (unsubtly) stated theme in the novel suggests that they should be the focus. All in all, disappointing and dull. show less

More superficial, conventional, and dated than I'd have expected from a late Arthur Clarke novel, "The Songs of Distant Earth" has a good idea, a decent colonial culture to contrast with the travelers, and potential to be a really good tale but pretty much fails to execute any of them. Everything is told in only enough depth to get to the end, side plots are introduced and completed with a handful of pages, and Thalassan society is just too utopian to be actually functioning.

Worse for me was the irritating classist/military English schoolboy in Clarke that still insists on referring to characters by their rank or hierarchical position (e.g., 'Deputy Captain X', or 'Science Officer Y') not just upon introduction but throughout the entire show more book. Geez, Clarke; we GOT it. My point is that the characters don't matter as people: it's not _who_ they are to Clarke, it's _what _ they are. This is one of many ways in which this book reads more as if it had been published in 1956 than 1986.

Wicked disappointed. show less

Arthur C. Clarke is both famous for his science fiction writing (he is considered one of the Big Three of the Golden Age of SF-writing) and his scientific knowledge. That means that his science fiction novels have the potential to be a lot closer to what is actually scientifically possible than most novels. In this book he tells us in his introduction that 'inspired' by series like Star Trek and movies like Star Wars (this book is from 1986) he set out to write a 'humanity in the stars' novel that is a bit more realistic (than a warp drive for example).
In the 3800s mankind has colonized, or tried to colonize several planets far from our solar system. Back in the late 1900s, mankind discovered the Sun would be going supernova around show more 3500, so from that point on all energy was put into developing technologies to make the escape of mankind from earth possible. On the planet Thalassa, which is mostly oceanic with three islands of land, one such colonizing ship landed successfully. This ship did not carry any humans because of the length of the journey, but humans were 'grown' from DNA information stored on the ship. The planet has lost touch with Earth 400 years earlier after the local volcano destroyed their transmitting equipment. The society on Thalassa is very laid back, with a stable culture devoid of politics or religion.
One day a ship appears, Magellan, a ship from Earth, with the last million humans to have left Earth before its destruction. Just before the end humanity has developed a quantum drive making manned interstellar space travel a possibility. The crew of the Magellan is awakened near Thalassa while the other humans aboard are kept cryogenically frozen. They are on their way to Sagan 2, a planet even further from earth where they will terraform a habitable planet for themselves. They stop on Thalassa to repair their ice shield, forcing them to stay on Thalassa and mingle with the people there for at least a year.
The book deals with the consequences of the visit of the last humans to a colony of humans who never even saw Earth except in a recording. Their cultures are very different (the colonists of Thalassa received a censored version of the history and culture of Earth).
The story of the Thalassa people and the last people from Earth is very interesting. There is a clash of cultures, a sense of loss for those from Earth, a debate about the mission of Magellan. In between are many sections that go deeper into the reason for what is or has happened, for example explaining the discovery of the Sun going supernova or of the quantum drive. This is where Clarke gets more scientific than science fiction. It is very interesting to read this (although I have no idea how correct it still is, being published 27 years ago), but it slowed the story down for me. Other than that the story was very interesting, especially reading about how humanity works with the limits physics has given us. Four out of five stars. show less