Songs of Distant Earth
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- For the music album by Mike Oldfield, see The Songs of Distant Earth (album)
| Songs of Distant Earth | |
 Dust-jacket from the 1st edition |
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| Author | Arthur C. Clarke |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Del Rey Books |
| Publication date | 1986 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover) |
| Pages | 256 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-345-33219-9 |
Songs of Distant Earth is the common title of several science fiction works by Arthur C. Clarke, including a science fiction short story, a short movie synopsis, and a 1986 science fiction novel that all bear the same title. This article deals with the novel.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
The story is centered on a rendezvous between human beings far in the future, after a time of great crisis on Earth, on the oceanic planet of Thalassa.
Unlike Clarke's other works, this piece focuses on characterisation and emotional development, instead of technological change. In some sense, it was written as a response to critics who attacked his writings as cold and impersonal.
In the novel, the human race responds to the prospect of unavoidable doom by launching a series of robot colony ships into space, to continue Earth life after the destruction of the homeworld (caused by the Sun becoming a nova). Thalassa is colonised by one such ship in 3109, but loses contact with Earth due to a volcanic eruption that destroys its interstellar communications antenna. Meanwhile, just prior to the Sun going nova, vacuum energy technology is invented to allow the construction of one near-light-speed vessel, the Magellan, which is launched to build the last colony of mankind. (Previous colony ships employed embryo space colonization, or various forms of DNA synthesis. In Magellan, a living crew of 1 million people is transported in cryonic suspension.)
En route to its target, the planet Sagan 2, the Magellan makes a planned stop at planet Thalassa to replenish its worn down ice shield, which has been steadily chipped away by interstellar debris. A small subset of the crew is awakened to perform the repair work on the shield. Because Thalassa has not maintained its interstellar communications antenna, the planet's citizens are unaware of the coming of the Magellan until the ship's arrival in orbit about the planet. The novel explores the impact of this reunion, documenting the efforts of the Magellan crew to repair their ship, and most poignantly, the possibility of love amidst the barriers of distance and time.
The novel also deals with a semi-sentient life form on the planet that are dubbed "Scorps". They resemble sea scorpions or the eurypterids of ancient Earth. They have a social structure that is likely eusocial. A queen of their species is seen inside a cave and two intimidating members of the species are shown guarding the cave. Each "Scorp" has a ring of metal around one of their fore claws, with higher numbers representing a higher rank in their society.
[edit] Scientific aspects
The story explored one possible outcome of the solar neutrino problem, which was unsolved at the time the story was written.
Experimental work on cryonic suspension (sometimes called cryogenic stasis) is ongoing. While recent tests (2005) have shown the possibility of inducing a short term hibernation-like state on mice [1], there is no feasible method of revival currently known or theorized.
Vacuum energy is a controversial feature of modern physics, and the concept has repeatedly been hijacked by pseudoscientific theories. In the acknowledgements to the book, Clarke considered using vacuum energy a scientifically viable, but highly futuristic, propulsion technology.
The logistics of space travel at near-light speeds is also explored in the novel in some detail, albeit with some errors for the sake of dramatic tension. The novel is also notable for featuring a space elevator. In his introduction notes to the novel, Clarke states that he wished it to be a realistic interstellar voyage, without use of warp drives or other fantastic technologies.
[edit] Cross-media Influences
Multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Oldfield was so moved by the novel, that he wrote an entire album based on it (see link above). Around this time, Oldfield was exploring computer game possibilities, and on UK editions of the CD album "The Songs Of a Distant Earth", Oldfield included a CD-ROM multi-media interactive exploration "game" of some notable locations from the book, including the "Hibernaculum". Buried within the game is the promotional video for the album's single "Let There Be Light". The album's artwork features stills from the CD-ROM. The CD-ROM portion is only playable on Mac (not PC) computers.
The total forms "Songs" has taken as of 2005:
- the original short story, published in 1958 in The Other Side of the Sky
- a little-known 5-page movie outline, published in 1979 (Omni Magazine, vol III no 12)
- full-length novel (1986)
- original album by Mike Oldfield
- CD-ROM computer game (from the UK edition of the album)
- promotional music video: "Let There Be Light"
- A song by Kuribayashi Minami used in the video game Muv-Luv (the final chapter of the game is also named after Songs)
[edit] References
- Brown, Charles N.; William G. Contento. The Locus Index to Science Fiction. Retrieved on 2007-12-06.
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