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Summary: Clarke tries to move away from his most successful novels.
Review: The Songs of Distant earth is a journeyman's novel that could have been written by any number of writers. It is not terribly original, action packed, or thought provoking.
It was published based on Clarke's success with the Odyssey series. My bet is that it was a short story from his pulp days that he was able to expand to novel length.
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Summary: One of the best Science Fiction novels period.
Review: A intruiging tale of a future which sees the end of Earth and our solar system and the visit of one colonized world in the far (yet so close in perspective to our galaxy even) reaches of space. This colony of Thalassa is at first a paradise with many interesting people and places to go as the last earthlings meet them. But by the end of the story a new world with Jealousy has poked through the seemingly perfect land, but all through A.C. Clarke gives what any book should undoubtedly have, a great mix of characters. This one is a definite must for any avid Science Fiction reader, and is my personal favorite Sci-Fi novel
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Summary: One of the best futures I've ever read.
Review: One of the best futures I've ever read.
And I've read a lot of them.
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Summary: How great!!!
Review: Songs of distant Earth is just great! I liked it from the first time I read it. just read it everyone
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Summary: Just brilliant!
Review: This work gives the best satisfaction/pages ratio I've ever encountered. It's interesting, funny, thrilling and moving - all at the same time, along with some interesting views by the writer about mankind and God
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Summary: A lovely, bittersweet story *Some Spoilers*
Review: The reason I love most of Clarke's work is that it tends to focus on ideas and human interactions as opposed to saving the world, winning some war or saving a girl. Others, of course, will disagree.
This novel is one of the best of Clarke's later works, but for those of you looking for drama and crises that need resolved will be disappointed.
The novel takes place thousands of years in the future. Humanity discovered that our Sun was unstable and would nova far earlier than expected. In order to save part of humanity, various projects were developed to save something of our species.
One of the first used were "seeder ships". This were automated space craft containing human embryos and genetic material of many Earth creatures. The concept was that these ships would land on planets capable of sustaining human life and the automated systems on board would create a sutiable colony by providing a technological base and the onboard computers would educated the first generation of colonists birthed from the embryons on board with a very censored version of human history. The primary example of the effort to create a better human society is the censorship of religion. None of the great religious works (or works based on them) are included in the data banks of these vessels. The hope was that a society raised without religion would avoid the violence that often accompanies it.
The colony of Thalassa, where the action takes place, is a result of these plans. The Lassans live on two island of an otherwise watery world. The Earth they know is a sanatized version and their world is Eden like. Violence, jealousy and hate are rare. As the result of the breakdown of the colony's interstellar communication device the Lassan's are even more isolated than other seeder colonies having had no contact with other colonies for hundreds of years.
It is to this peaceful, beautiful world that the one of next generation of human colony ships arrives. It is the Magellan, a ship with an advanced drive system that finally allowed humanity to reach distant worlds in a "reasonable" amount of times meaning hundreds of years not thousands. The Magellan is more of a space ark because it contains over a million specially selected colonists in cryogenic suspension. Even more poignent, the Magellan was the last of these ships to leave Earth, escaping only days before the Solar system died. To them Earth is a recent memory, not an ancient past, and the crew still mourns its passing and the loss of those left behind.
The Magellan stopped at Thalassa because the ice shield that protects the ship during its voyage is in need of repair. The crew didn't think that Thalassa would be inhabited. Most of the resulting novel revolves around how much and what type of interactions do or should develop between the two very different groups and what knowledge can be passed on to the very curious Thalassans without permanently damaging their culture.
There is no one protagonist in this story. Rather the point of view moves between various characters and their reaction to the Lassans or vice-versa. There are a few interesting sub-plots such as the discovery of an intelligent marine based species and a plot by some of the crew to sabatoge the Magellan so they can remain on the idyllic world.
Overall the work is very bittersweet as both groups must deal with the knowledge gained, friends/lovers never to be seen again once the ship leaves and the grief/guilt that comes with being the last chosen survivors of a dying world.
An excellent read and one that stays in your thoughts long after you're done.
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Summary: Excellent science fiction
Review: An interesting perspective on how religion shapes the way humanity has developed, along with speculation on the effect of censorship of humanities darkest moments within a new society. Again Sir Arthur is way ahead of the rest in his thinking, putting forward some very serious questions about our "civilization" with hints at some of the root causes of major problems and how they be improved.
All this very deep and serious stuff is bound up spectacularly in a wonderfully involving story that will suck you in so you can't put it down. It's not a sermon on the evils of mankind, it's a great entertaining work of fiction with some very pertinent messages - all done with Sir Arthur's inimitable style and humour. If you read no other Arthur C Clarke book (and if so shame on you) read this one. It's one of his best.
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Summary: Space opera and sci-fi high tech at its finest!
Review: No one claiming to be a sci-fi lover could read this book and not be utterly fascinated by its realistic tale regarding our sun going nova in a few thousand years, forcing humanity to set out in suspended animation for the stars. Landing on a paradisical world, Thalassa, wherein a clash of cultures takes place to intensify the conflict and, thus, add this great book to many others: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.
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Summary: I don't know about this one...
Review: Part of me really wanted to like this novel, after all, I am a big fan of Clarke's work. But I must say, I was somewhat disappointed with the story. After such successes as Rendezvous with Rama and 2001, you would expect the works to only get better, but the results are not up to par. My first problem with this book is its lack of centrality. There is really no "protagonist" character, unless Loren is counted, and there is very little in the way of plot, complication, or conflict. I'll admit, I was not exactly sure how the entire planetary-travel idea would be fixed, but the solution was presented within the first 100 pages, and the rest of the book was anticlimatic to the nth degree. Also, Clarke seems to be using this work as merely an excuse to push an anti-family, anti-religion platform, which would be fine if it was that sort of a story, but the ideas don't seem to go with space theater very well. On a related (sort of) note, there is something to be said for conciseness. The chapters dedicated to how this "futuristic" technology was "discovered" or "works" are unnecessary, and detract from the meat of the story. And, yes, there is some meat to this story, with a good amount of character development. But there is still no conflict, and very little in the way of interesting plot twists. Subplots detract from the main action, and in this case there is little enough of that to go around. To simplify: what substance is here is an excellent morsel of food for thought. Unfortunately, there is so much fluff around it and nothing to keep the reader's attention after some time. You're better served with one of the 2001's or Rama's than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful book
Review: I found it compelling and impossible to put down. I read it in less than a day. The Mike Oldfield album by the same name (inspired by the book) is also excellent.
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