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237th out of 345 books
—
241 voters
They Shall Have Stars (Cities in Flight #1)
by
James Blish
In They Shall Have Stars, humankind's will to explore space is renewed with the advent of two discoveries: anti-gravity (the "spindizzy" machines) and the key to almost eternal life (anti-agathic drugs).
Paperback, 159 pages
Published
1967
by Avon Books
(first published 1956)
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I'm currently reading through the omnibus Cities in Flight, which contains all four books in Blish's series. But I couldn't contain myself to one review for the omnibus, each book deserves its own personal review, so hopefully I may be forgiven for shelving all four books and the omnibus. It's not done to drive up my 2012 book challenge, honest!
'They Shall Have Stars' was slightly difficult to get into, not only is the style of writing slightly different to the modern sci-fi and fantasy that I'm...more
'They Shall Have Stars' was slightly difficult to get into, not only is the style of writing slightly different to the modern sci-fi and fantasy that I'm...more
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They Shall Have Stars is the first novel of the quartet that forms James Blish’s Cities in Flight series, also referred to as his “Okie” novels.
TSHS definitely reads like a set-up for a larger work. The dual story lines—the discovery of an anti-ageing drug that will bring about pharmaceutical-induced immortality, and the construction of a massive bridge on Jupiter that leads to the discovery of anti-gravity, allowing cheap, easy space travel—serve to bring about the technological advances that...more
TSHS definitely reads like a set-up for a larger work. The dual story lines—the discovery of an anti-ageing drug that will bring about pharmaceutical-induced immortality, and the construction of a massive bridge on Jupiter that leads to the discovery of anti-gravity, allowing cheap, easy space travel—serve to bring about the technological advances that...more
They Shall Have Stars, the first of the Cities in Flight series by James Blish, is a sophisticated, high tech science fiction novel. Stars is a story set in the near future, in which the world is still split as it was in the 1950's— the USSR never fell. The long years of political stagnation and cold war propaganda have turned the west into a soviet-esque totalitarian government. As a result of this all mainstream scientific growth is censored and classified, which has limited mankind's explorat...more
Proloog tot de 'Cities in flight'-serie. Rustige en lekker ouderwetse Science Fiction met drie hoofdpersonen, die draait om de uitvinding van antizwaartekracht (middels het bouwen van een enorme brug van ijs op Jupiter) en een middel tegen sterfelijkheid. De roman speelt in 2018 en is een prettige mengeling van achterhaalde science en originele fiction (de sovjet-unie bestaat nog steeds, DNA is onbekend, de 10e planeet Proserpina is ontdekt, er is intelligent leven geweest op mars).
In zijn weten...more
In zijn weten...more
While this novel is an excellent prologue, it is clearly a prologue that is solely designed to set up the rest of Cities in Flight. This novel does a solid job of providing the setting; it presents the scientific and political milieu for the year 2018, which sets up the rest of the Cities in Flight storyarc.
A commentator, "Manny", has made the interesting point that the novel is a treatment of Christianity. His is a cogent, clever, and perhaps correct analysis. Nevertheless, I found the book boring and the characters flat. Reading the other three novels of the cycle is going to be a chore. I'm disappointed.
This series is nearly great. It's nearly classic science fiction at it's best. An elegant stripped down sort of prose is now and again marred by a juvenile fiction sort of tone. It's rather unfortunate, but I find this substantially undermines my enjoyment of the stories.
Nice little story nothing to mind blowing.
Zeros in on the central character leaving the spectacle of flying cities pretty much unexplored.
Spends quite a lot of time building up the detail of the culture on the cities.
A very plesant read.
Zeros in on the central character leaving the spectacle of flying cities pretty much unexplored.
Spends quite a lot of time building up the detail of the culture on the cities.
A very plesant read.
Lots of very cool ideas and decent writing but as a story, it faltered in various places and never really took hold of me. I'm hoping that after this set-up, the rest of the tetralogy will be able to focus a little more on storytelling than worldbuilding.
As it said at the start of the book, this is not one of James Blish's best works, its a tedious read and moves slowly. I've reached book two and I'm waiting to be "enthralled".
From "Cities In Flight"; Four Novels in One; Part 1 of 4
Zzzzzzz
The book is okay. It does a decent job of setting up its characters, and establishing the technologies that will appear in future books in the series. However, always skates on the edge of turning into the Exciting Adventures Of Nothing Happening.
The best sci-fi I've read: now hardboiled, now comic, now lyrical, the novel is both a very complex indictment of fanaticism and a visionary ode to our abilities to dream.
An interesting story of politics and science and the collapse of civilization. Nothing more than a prologue really though...
The reputation of Blish's Cities in Flight far exceeds the actual books. This, the first one, was insufferably boring.
May 18, 2013
Analog
marked it as to-read
May 18, 2013
Ana
marked it as to-read
May 17, 2013
Animeparty
marked it as to-read
May 17, 2013
Ian
marked it as to-read
May 16, 2013
Peter Petersson
marked it as to-read
May 15, 2013
Draco
marked it as find-that-book
May 14, 2013
Jason Smith
marked it as to-read
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James Benjamin Blish (East Orange, New Jersey, May 23, 1921 – Henley-on-Thames, July 30, 1975) was an American author of fantasy and science fiction. Blish also wrote literary criticism of science fiction using the pen-name William Atheling Jr.
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–...more
More about James Blish...
In the late 1930's to the early 1940's, Blish was a member of the Futurians.
Blish trained as a biologist at Rutgers and Columbia University, and spent 1942–...more
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