Join Goodreads

and meet your next favorite book!

Sign Up Now

The City and the Stars

by

4.08 20,387 ratings
Your Rating (Clear)
  • Cancel
Clarke's masterful evocation of the far future of humanity, considered his finest novel.

Friends’ Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up .

Community Reviews

rated it it was amazing
almost 2 years ago

I have neglected Sir Arthur C. Clarke for far too long. Way back when I started reading science fiction I tended to read more of other two authors from the group commonly known as "Big Three of science fiction", these other two being Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. I fe... Read full review

rated it really liked it
19 days ago

The City and the Stars, Arthur C. Clarke
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و هفتم سپتامبر سال 1993 مسلادی
عنوان: شهر و ستارگان؛ نویسنده: آرتور سی. کلارک؛ مترجم: محمدرضا عمادی؛ تهران، هرم، 1371؛ در 261 ص؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی قرن 20 م
در این داستان کلارک قدم به دورانی م... Read full review

rated it it was amazing
3 months ago

Nevjerojatno koliko je ovo romantično čitati. Pisana 1956. i dok sam ju čitao(4. puta) kroz glavu su mi letjele sve one knjige koje su napisane poslije ovoga. Svaki veliki SF pisac barem je malo maznuo iz Grada i Zvijezda. Prolazak Alvina kroz ne razvijene svjetove, čarol... Read full review

rated it liked it
over 3 years ago

Shelves: science-fiction
In Higher Speculations, a book I unsuccessfully keep recommending to people, Helge Kragh has an exasperated chapter on the subject sometimes referred to as "physical eschatology": the so-called scientific forecasting of the very distant future, where people, apparently se... Read full review

rated it really liked it
almost 7 years ago

4.0 to 4.5 stars. Another superb novel by one of the greatest science fiction writers of all time. One of Clarke's earlier works, this is actually a re-write of [book:Against the Fall of Night|33841 and thus does not read like an early novel. Well written and full of BIG,... Read full review

rated it really liked it
over 1 year ago

Shelves: reviewed
"When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce an emotional effect." (p. 32)

In Diaspar, the echoes of the past permeate the present. According to the legends, man had traipsed across the galaxies and conquered the stars.... Read full review

rated it really liked it
9 months ago

Ceva lipseşte.

În acest Univers se lăsă noaptea. Umbrele se lungeau către un est ce n-avea să mai cunoască alţi zori. Dar altundeva, stelele erau încă tinere şi lumina dimineţii zăbovea; şi într-o bună zi, Omul urma să pornească iarăşi pe drumul străbătut cîndva... Read full review

rated it it was amazing
8 months ago

Shelves: favorites
Kada bi Zil Vern, Asimov i Tolkin seli da zajedno napisu knjigu, zamisljam da bi ovako izgledala. Najbolja sf knjiga koju sam procitao

rated it it was amazing
2 months ago

Shelves: knjige
Zbog ovakvih sam knjiga nekada davno zavolio sf...nekada sam ju citao u nekoj kracoj formi i bila mi je isto dobra ali sad me bas pravo obgrlila. Citajuci knjigu, prolazilo mi je kroz glavu u kako sjebanom vremenu sad zivimo i kako se nekada vjerovalo u Covjeka, i onako p... Read full review

Other Books by this Author

  • 2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)
    2001: A Space Odyssey
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)
    Rendezvous with Rama
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Childhood's End
    Childhood's End
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • 2010: Odyssey Two (Space Odyssey, #2)
    2010: Odyssey Two
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • The Fountains of Paradise
    The Fountains of Paradise
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • 2061: Odyssey Three (Space Odyssey, #3)
    2061: Odyssey Three
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • The Garden of Rama (Rama, #3)
    The Garden of Rama
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • Rama II (Rama, #2)
    Rama II
    by Arthur C. Clarke
  • 3001: The Final Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #4)
    3001: The Final Odyssey
    by Arthur C. Clarke

Readers Also Enjoyed

Book Details

Paperback, SF Masterworks, 255 pages
Published March 8th 2001 by Gollancz (first published October 1956
ISBN
1857987632 (ISBN13: 9781857987638)
Edition Language
English
Original Title
The City and the Stars
Characters
Alvin, Khedron, Jeserac, Alystra, Hilvar More…Alvin, Khedron, Jeserac, Alystra, Hilvar, Seranis, Krif, Vanamonde Less
Literary Awards
Locus Award

About this Author

7779. uy66 Arthur C. Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke was a graduate of King's...

Genres

Quotes

Men had sought beauty in many forms—in sequences of sound, in lines upon paper, in surfaces of stone, in the movements of the human body, in colours ranged through space.
When beauty is universal, it loses its power to move the heart, and only its absence can produce any emotional effect.
The rise of science, which with monotonous regularity refuted the cosmologies of the prophets and produced miracles which they could never match, eventually destroyed all these faiths. It did not destroy the awe, nor the reverence and humility, which all intelligent beings felt as they contemplated the stupendous universe in which they found themselves. What it did weaken, and finally obliterate, were the countless religions each of which claimed with unbelievable arrogance, that it was the sole repository of the truth and that its millions of rivals and predecessors were all mistaken.

Discussions