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The City and the Stars

by Arthur C. Clarke

Cover artist: Richard Powers

Publisher: Signet

Pub year: 1957

Cover price: 35¢

 

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Book detail for The City and the Stars

Cover tagline

In the dim future, when only one great city remains on Earth, a single adventurer dares to penetrate the Universe

Back cover text

He was the first child to be born on Earth for at least ten million years...

and because he was so different from the others around him, he set out to prove what they all denied ... that life existed elsewhere on their fabulous planet.

This is a thrilling exploration of life hundreds of millions of years from now, written by one of today's most distinguished science-fiction novelists.

Arthur C. Clarke was born in England in 1917 and had a long career in science before turning to science fiction. He is the author of eleven books which have been translated into twelve languages and have sold over a million copies. Harcourt, Brace & Co. published the higher-priced edition of this book.

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Interior text

Voyage Into Space

Here is a suspenseful novel of the future, when a daring exploration into the unknown changes the course of existence for the two isolated nations that are the sole survivors on an otherwise deserted, devastated Earth.

Fearing that any communication between their peoples will send their cities crashing into the oblivion which has destroyed all other civilizations, the rulers of Diaspar and Lys have carefully concealed the knowledge of each other's existence.

But when a bold, restless young man from Diaspar, the only one among the city's ten million inhabitants who refuses to accept their comfortable insulation, plans an illegal and venturesome journey of discovery, he sets in motion the daring plan that challenges and threatens to change both nations' sheltered way of life.

Entertaining, provocative and rooted in sound scientific research, this unusual novel offers a remarkable view of the shape of life in the future.

"Much more a fresh act of creation that any ... I have seen in the science fantasy field."
— New York Herald Tribune