This was a chore to read! ( )

I bought this omnibus a few years ago, following some recommendation (here on GR, I think). 'Cities in Flight' is part of the SF Masterworks series, hailed as one of the must-read classics and what not. I had never heard of James Blish, let alone read any of his works.

There's a quote from [a:Terry Pratchett|1654|Terry Pratchett|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1235562205p2/1654.jpg] on the cover: "This is the real heady wine of science fiction.". I can only agree, because it's indeed science (!) fiction: You get enough mathematics, chemistry and physics thrown at you over the course of the four books. If you don't have enough (basic?) knowledge in those fields, it might be better to skip this/these book(s), even if it's science "fiction", meaning there's a story (or multiple) to be read.

There are four books, but they are related, even if the story time-line is spread over several thousands of years (from the Cold War, or 20th century, to somewhere in 4100).

Blish's writing style also doesn't allow to fly through the book(s), let alone the rather flat characters. It was hard to sympathise with any of them, although Mayor John Amalfi was, especially in the last book, becoming a real annoyance, stuck-up and what not.

The introduction is done by Adam Roberts, who wrote that, while the books are ordered chronologically (as they are to be placed on the stories' time-line), it's best to start with the first one that was written, i.e. book 3 ([b:Earthman, Come Home|1930281|Earthman, Come Home (Cities in Flight, #3)|James Blish|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1333473568s/1930281.jpg|1932627]). Since I didn't like to go back and forth, I decided to start from the beginning: [b:They Shall Have Stars|1930282|They Shall Have Stars (Cities in Flight, #1)|James Blish|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1315488887s/1930282.jpg|1932628].

The blurb mentioned longevity drugs and anti-gravity devices (spindizzies). The spindizzies were developed to set up space flight and discover new planets to conquer to establish a new empire, a new life away from Earth, where the Cold War had been going on far longer than it had in reality and Russia had kicked the West's butt. Hence the world looking totally different. Some US cities (no sign of anything European, though, or I must have overlooked it) then took to space, thanks to those anti-gravity devices and looked for income and settlement elsewhere. Of course, fierce competition arises, etcetera, etcetera. The thing is... I never had the impression a new empire was being built. It was more about exploring space, looking for new adventures, new settlements and enough resources to survive.

The longevity drugs are a consequence of the space flight. Instead of antibiotics, you take something to prolong your life for several tens of years. If you take the pills at 70, then you'll be 70 for a few decades, with your health staying like that. It's thus better to take the drugs at a younger age, obviously.

Learning is not done via traditional means, but through hypnopedia or sleep-learning: Computers stuff any required teachings, subjects, ... into your brain. There's also supervision of the city and internal political decisions with the City Fathers, which I think are large computers (server-like?) that hold a lot of information and can calculate certain events or provide background information on historical happenings.

There are, at the end, afterwords by Stephen Baxter (who gave his advice and background info on the books, content-wise and its historical value) and Richard D. Mullen (who gave a philosophical analysis, based on Oswald Spengler's book [b:The Decline of the West|801754|The Decline of the West|Oswald Spengler|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348519197s/801754.jpg|1081173], on the Earthmanist culture that was a main theme in the books). Or, added value that is always good to have with such books.

In short: I can see why it has been republished, why it's considered a "classic", as it deals with some interesting and "new" themes (at least at the time of writing), but I found it relatively hard to get through.

I will not go into further detail about the content. Other readers have done a very good job at that, so I'll just link to e.g. Sath's reviews, which are detailed enough. I also agree, on a general level, with her points of critique, although we differ in rating the books.

They Shall Have Stars: click here
A Life for the Stars: click here
Earthman, Come Home: click here
The Triumph of Time: click here ( )

"Cities in Flight" is hard science fiction, with hard science, chemical formulas and mathematical equations tossed in to clarify concepts the characters talk about. It's four related stories. One thing to remember while reading this is, it was written before Sputnik.

The first begins in the early 21st century, with the Soviet Union subtly winning the cold war by "sovietizing" the west, that is, the west is so secretive now, it's behaving like everything they're fighting in the Soviet Union. One rebellious, but powerful senator organizes a lot of scientific and engineering research knowing that the west will collapse soon and opening up the stars for travel and colonization.

The research culminates in a biological compound to keep people from growing old and dying, and in an antigravity device to move objects in space, with a long, engineering and political name, but which everyone simply call spindizzies.

The second story opens up about 1100 years later, when whole cities pack up as space ships, using spindizzies, and take off as migrant workers to look for work out in other star systems.

The third story gives a bit of history of space flight and the science behind it. Blish does get some future predictions wrong (again, written before Sputnik) about how the Soviet Union was against space flight as then the unhappy people would leave.

Overall the third story was the weakest. It was like a bunch of episodes of Star Trek mashed together as mayor Amalfi leads the Okie city, New York, on various adventures, from one narrow escape from disaster to another. They were all over the galaxy and I found it incredibly hard to keep track of time and distance.

Some aspects felt very out of date now, in the early 21st century. For instance, now we're used to all large air craft having identifying signals, but in this space craft as large as New York City have nothing like it.

For now it was all too much and I didn't enjoy the 3rd story, so I'll skip the 4th and come back to it in a few months. The first two were definitely the strongest, good characters and good plots. ( )

This is a review of the first two books of the quartet. The first is in a style I have come to expect from Blish; a rather high brow and deep philosophical discussion masquerading as an eventful piece of pulp. Dubious science fiction is carried off by a presentation indebted to a knowledge and understanding of real science, unlike many modern approaches where any attempt to explain the nature of advanced technology is not forthcoming. The book does take oblique looks at two common Blish themes: religion and the search for knowledge, which are closely interwoven in Black Easter, A Case of Conscience and Doctor Mirabilis.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/335149/post ( )

Enjoyed it years ago. On my list to read again ( )