The City and the Stars

By: Arthur C. Clarke

Narrated by: Geoffrey T. Williams

A journey of discovery that will shake the foundations of everything the people of Earth have ever believed...

Diaspar is Earth's last city - surrounded by deserts, on a world where the oceans have long since dried up. It is a domed, isolated, technological marvel run by the Central Computer. Diaspar has conquered death. People are called forth from the Hall of Creation; they live for 1,000 years and then are recalled, stored in the Central Computer's memory, to be born thousands of years later, over and over again, with memories of earlier lives intact.

No one has entered or left Diaspar since anyone can remember. Its people have an unreasoning dread of the unknown, of the world outside the city. And no child has been born for at least 10 million years.

Until Alvin. He is unique. He has no past lives, no past memories. He also has no fear of the outside world. In fact he has an overwhelming curiosity, a drive to explore, to see what lies beyond the sterile boundaries of the city.

When he finally escapes, he discovers a place he could hardly have imagined: a country called Lys. Its people are telepathic. They know life and death. In Lys, Alvin finds friendship and love. And he begins his fateful journey to the stars and back. On his return he brings with him something so strange, so alien and powerful, that it will change the world forever. But for better or worse, not even Alvin can guess.

©1956 Arthur C. Clarke/Scovil Chichak Galen (P)2009 Geoffrey T.Williams

Incredible!!!

This is one of the most imaginative sci- fi I’ve ever encountered! Such great world-building.

Great performance of a classic sci-fi story

Multiple voice actors and sound effects bring to life this classic sci-fi story. Well done narration. You could easily listen to this audio book every year.

Not one of Clark's greatest, but interesting

Is there anything you would change about this book?

The story is very much a morality tale on what happens when Man ceases to look out into the universe, ceases to grow & ceases to advance; stagnation, mechanisation and a slide into decadence. It's a theme of many of Clark's books but this one doesn't quite hit the mark. The inhabitants of the city (of the title) have immortality, freedom from all phyiscal needs and the elimination of crime, disease & all social ills. This lack of strife eliminates all desires for expansion but also eliminates everything you can hang a story off!

What other book might you compare The City and the Stars to and why?

The obvious comparision is "Childhood's End" which deals with the end of Man in a much better and more interesting way.

How could the performance have been better?

It could have been a performance. There's no emotional content and the variation between characters was attempted by varying the squeekiness of the reader's voice in subtle shades.

Do you think The City and the Stars needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

The book describes one man's struggle to break Man out of the decandent Nirvana he has trapped himself in. To prevent spoiling the plot, any follow up book could only be his continuing struggle to break Man out or Man's attempt to break back in! The book is a message not a story & having delivered the message, it's done where it is.

Imaginative - Deep Time

This book was very imaginative and had very captivating elements to it. I greatly appreciated the deep time concepts and the cutting edge Sci-Fi this old school novel cultivated which went on to inspire a plethora of different works and themes within my favorite genres. This is big idea sci-fi not for the faint of heart.

The book is worth enduring the performance

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes -- actually, when I offered it to my teenaged son to listen while cleaning his room, I told him the same thing: The book is good enough to overcome the annoyingness of the acting. When he was finished, he agreed.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Geoffrey T. Williams?

Just Williams, please! Ditch the rest of 'em!