What do you think?
Rate this book
Daedalus Mission #4
The City of the Sun
It was a circular city - like the City of the Sun, a perfect community dreamed up by the seventeenth-century philosopher Campanella.
Many utopian groups had emigrated into space to found their ideal settlements. And it was on one such colony world - appropriately named Arcadia - that the recontact ship Daedalus made its fourth planetfall. There in all its splendour stood the fulfillment of Campanella's dream - the real seven-circled City of the Sun.
But the city was too ordered, the inhabitants too perfect, the world too Arcadian...and very soon the Daedalus's scientists realized that in this particular utopia the idealists had unleashed a force that could undermine all human culture on other planets.
Many utopian groups had emigrated into space to found their ideal settlements. And it was on one such colony world - appropriately named Arcadia - that the recontact ship Daedalus made its fourth planetfall. There in all its splendour stood the fulfillment of Campanella's dream - the real seven-circled City of the Sun.
But the city was too ordered, the inhabitants too perfect, the world too Arcadian...and very soon the Daedalus's scientists realized that in this particular utopia the idealists had unleashed a force that could undermine all human culture on other planets.
153 pages, Paperback
First published May 2, 1978
1 person is currently reading
86 people want to read
About the author
Brian M. Stableford
882 books136 followersBrian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 23, 2023
Best of these so far, and the cover actually depicts something from the book!
The Daedalus lands on Arcadia, notable only for a large number of colonial slime mould-like organisms, some of which are parasitic on vertebrates. The colony appears healthy, having constructed a massive recreation of the seven-walled city in the classical utopian work The City of the Sun, decorated with millions of pictographic tiles symbolizing all the knowledge of humanity. The city appears to extraordinarily ordered, egalitarian, and happy, perfect except for the masses of parasitic tissue every citizen carries on their body.
This entry reverses the typical course, where political interference prevents the implementation of the simple solution, with Alexis deducing relatively early on that a biological solution to the problem is likely impossible. It's up to them to come political solution, to either retreat and let Earth figure it out (read: genocide), or try and come to some decision on the ground as to whether the city can be trusted to exist or not.
Two scenes are very evocative (relative to the rest of the series), the description of the utopic city and its citizens, and Alexis' drug-induced nightmare of a black mass, the high point so far. The ending is
I really wish Barlowe had chosen the the slime mould infection as the entry for this series, it's such a better image to me than the salamander dudes from the previous book.
The Daedalus lands on Arcadia, notable only for a large number of colonial slime mould-like organisms, some of which are parasitic on vertebrates. The colony appears healthy, having constructed a massive recreation of the seven-walled city in the classical utopian work The City of the Sun, decorated with millions of pictographic tiles symbolizing all the knowledge of humanity. The city appears to extraordinarily ordered, egalitarian, and happy, perfect except for the masses of parasitic tissue every citizen carries on their body.
This entry reverses the typical course, where political interference prevents the implementation of the simple solution, with Alexis deducing relatively early on that a biological solution to the problem is likely impossible. It's up to them to come political solution, to either retreat and let Earth figure it out (read: genocide), or try and come to some decision on the ground as to whether the city can be trusted to exist or not.
Two scenes are very evocative (relative to the rest of the series), the description of the utopic city and its citizens, and Alexis' drug-induced nightmare of a black mass, the high point so far. The ending is
I really wish Barlowe had chosen the the slime mould infection as the entry for this series, it's such a better image to me than the salamander dudes from the previous book.
February 22, 2021
Book 4 of the series takes the team to the world of Arcadia, and for a while it looks like another failed colony until they spot a single city in the wilderness. On landing, everything seems a little off - the team spots a strange growth pattern on the skins of their welcoming committee. It isn't long before they realise that everyone in Arcadia has some kind of parasitic fungus growing on them.
Naturally there is more to it than this, as Alex in particular starts to realise that it isn't just a parasite but an actual intelligence that is seemingly controlling the whole population. The rest of the crew react with disgust to this development and are all for packing up and leaving, but the colonists ask them to stay for 60 days to study their way of life. The catch - one of the team has to become connected to the parasites at the end of the study.
Once again, it is Alex that gets into most trouble - getting thrown from an alien "horse", getting attacked by alien "wolves", and getting imprisoned and fed hallucinogenic drugs by the colonist (seriously, this happens in every book).
It is an interesting plot line - what would happen if we met aliens that we simply couldn't understand? Disgust is one of our most basic emotions, originally meant to stop us from eating foods that could harm us, but has evolved into moral disgust at situations that we might find disagreeable. This is what occurs here, and Alex has an uphill battle to persuade the rest of the team to try and understand the point of view of the alien organism. The alternative is to leave, and possible contact the UN - the diplomatic leader Nathan is convinced that the parasite is a threat to Earth and would like nothing more than to see the colony destroyed.
The solution to this dilemma may be a little pat, but it also doesn't feel forced either. Like the rest of the books in the series it is an easy read and I finished it in a day.
Naturally there is more to it than this, as Alex in particular starts to realise that it isn't just a parasite but an actual intelligence that is seemingly controlling the whole population. The rest of the crew react with disgust to this development and are all for packing up and leaving, but the colonists ask them to stay for 60 days to study their way of life. The catch - one of the team has to become connected to the parasites at the end of the study.
Once again, it is Alex that gets into most trouble - getting thrown from an alien "horse", getting attacked by alien "wolves", and getting imprisoned and fed hallucinogenic drugs by the colonist (seriously, this happens in every book).
It is an interesting plot line - what would happen if we met aliens that we simply couldn't understand? Disgust is one of our most basic emotions, originally meant to stop us from eating foods that could harm us, but has evolved into moral disgust at situations that we might find disagreeable. This is what occurs here, and Alex has an uphill battle to persuade the rest of the team to try and understand the point of view of the alien organism. The alternative is to leave, and possible contact the UN - the diplomatic leader Nathan is convinced that the parasite is a threat to Earth and would like nothing more than to see the colony destroyed.
The solution to this dilemma may be a little pat, but it also doesn't feel forced either. Like the rest of the books in the series it is an easy read and I finished it in a day.
April 22, 2025
This being the fourth book in the Daedalus mission series and having enjoyed the third so much I went straight on the number four.
This beginning of this book made me glad I had started with #3 and not this one. In The City of the Sun, we start with the team on board the ship- the Daedalus. It is a tense time, coming in to a new planet, searching for the colony that should be there, because no trace of radio has been identified to the surface and there has been no response to their hail. Eventually they locate an image of a walled city, come in to land and contact the descendants of the colonists.
But first we encounter the ecology: I was totally there for the ecology! Here Stableford excelled in the last book and once again explores the idea of a while new ecology. Here, it is the question of what might have happened if colonial invertebrates had successfully made it out of the ocean an colonised the and. He calls them 'algae' but it is clear what he is talking about. We then find that the colonists have themselves been colonised by black threads of... something and this opens up the field for discussion of parasitism versus mutualism and the costs and benefits of a higher animal like a human living in a 'hive' style colony.
I also love that Alex, our protagonist and narrator – also an ecologist – gets a chance to make that wonderful statement (that my lecturers at uni loved) about how if you removed all inorganic matter from the Earth, and every bit of organic matter EXCEPT for nematode worms, the shape of the Earth and most of it's inhabitants would still be discernable. Only zoologists and ecologists like that one.
Aside from the worldbuilding however, I could see a lot of flaws to this book and I am starting to understand why some people do not rate the series higher:
- The characterisations are pretty basic and as we start on boar the ship, with characters have been previously introduced, we get NOTHING of character establishment or development except possibly the two main protagonists of Nathan and Alex.
- The antagonism between Alex and Nathan is awkward (at times it totally reads like a married couple squabbling, at other times like two young bucks stotting for control of their Lek).
- The fact that ALL the crew are cold and antagonistic without explanation feels superficial and a little frustrating, I don't know if they were set up in earlier books, but Muriel, Conrad, Karen and the others whose names I can't even remember; not well done, not at all.
It is not clear, but it seems like Nathan is NOT meant to be in change and Alex resents him constantly stepping up and behaving like he is. The other four of five crew don't seem to care at all. But, does that meant the UN sent a ship into space with NO LEADER? Surely even the UN on their most scrambled day would not do that.
So Alex and crew contact the colony, are creeped out by the black threads present in their bodies, discomforted by the lack of humanity, curiosity or other characteristics normally associated with human individuals. Though the colony is alive and thriving and superficially appears perfect, peaceful, and regulated, a kind of Utopia it is strongly telegraphed to the reader from the outset that this is far from what most people would call a utopia.
Now the ending comes with some pretty interesting twists and I am not going to spoiler them. This book is pretty good as a classic SFF and if I could get my hands on the whole series, I would read them all. I do really like the writing style; basic it may be, but also well crafted and easy to read. No age-defying prose perhaps, but perfectly decent for what it is.
I love his biological, ecological and sociological themes, that is what really does it for me in these two books. I could happily have read more about colonial organisms and their expansion onto land from the sea where they are more prolific (at least on Earth) but I can understand I am probably a minority of one who wants to read that and Stableford was aiming for a wider market.
But now for a few
However, flaws aside, a really good ecological themes classic SF.
This beginning of this book made me glad I had started with #3 and not this one. In The City of the Sun, we start with the team on board the ship- the Daedalus. It is a tense time, coming in to a new planet, searching for the colony that should be there, because no trace of radio has been identified to the surface and there has been no response to their hail. Eventually they locate an image of a walled city, come in to land and contact the descendants of the colonists.
But first we encounter the ecology: I was totally there for the ecology! Here Stableford excelled in the last book and once again explores the idea of a while new ecology. Here, it is the question of what might have happened if colonial invertebrates had successfully made it out of the ocean an colonised the and. He calls them 'algae' but it is clear what he is talking about. We then find that the colonists have themselves been colonised by black threads of... something and this opens up the field for discussion of parasitism versus mutualism and the costs and benefits of a higher animal like a human living in a 'hive' style colony.
I also love that Alex, our protagonist and narrator – also an ecologist – gets a chance to make that wonderful statement (that my lecturers at uni loved) about how if you removed all inorganic matter from the Earth, and every bit of organic matter EXCEPT for nematode worms, the shape of the Earth and most of it's inhabitants would still be discernable. Only zoologists and ecologists like that one.
Aside from the worldbuilding however, I could see a lot of flaws to this book and I am starting to understand why some people do not rate the series higher:
- The characterisations are pretty basic and as we start on boar the ship, with characters have been previously introduced, we get NOTHING of character establishment or development except possibly the two main protagonists of Nathan and Alex.
- The antagonism between Alex and Nathan is awkward (at times it totally reads like a married couple squabbling, at other times like two young bucks stotting for control of their Lek).
- The fact that ALL the crew are cold and antagonistic without explanation feels superficial and a little frustrating, I don't know if they were set up in earlier books, but Muriel, Conrad, Karen and the others whose names I can't even remember; not well done, not at all.
It is not clear, but it seems like Nathan is NOT meant to be in change and Alex resents him constantly stepping up and behaving like he is. The other four of five crew don't seem to care at all. But, does that meant the UN sent a ship into space with NO LEADER? Surely even the UN on their most scrambled day would not do that.
So Alex and crew contact the colony, are creeped out by the black threads present in their bodies, discomforted by the lack of humanity, curiosity or other characteristics normally associated with human individuals. Though the colony is alive and thriving and superficially appears perfect, peaceful, and regulated, a kind of Utopia it is strongly telegraphed to the reader from the outset that this is far from what most people would call a utopia.
Now the ending comes with some pretty interesting twists and I am not going to spoiler them. This book is pretty good as a classic SFF and if I could get my hands on the whole series, I would read them all. I do really like the writing style; basic it may be, but also well crafted and easy to read. No age-defying prose perhaps, but perfectly decent for what it is.
I love his biological, ecological and sociological themes, that is what really does it for me in these two books. I could happily have read more about colonial organisms and their expansion onto land from the sea where they are more prolific (at least on Earth) but I can understand I am probably a minority of one who wants to read that and Stableford was aiming for a wider market.
But now for a few
However, flaws aside, a really good ecological themes classic SF.
July 22, 2023
Daedalus Mission part four.
Daedalus is a starship from Earth visiting 6 planets to which colony ships were sent over 100 years ago. Their mission: find out the state of the colonies and help them if possible. Each novel in the series recounts the mission to one of the 6 planets. Each planet presents different problems and mysteries for the crew to solve.
The Daedalus crew arrives at the fourth colony world, named Arcadia, to discover the human colonists were infected by a parasitical alien fungus that grows into the host and emulates any type of biological structure it finds. After interacting with and emulating human neural tissue, the black fungus constructs its own neural tissue and eventual becomes conscious. The colonists have become a hive mind that's spent the last 100 years building a circular walled city based on a description in a book in the colony's database.
The crew is faced with several problems to solve: 1) are the humans still human with a symbiotic hive mind friend or is the black fungus just controlling their bodies like biological robots? 2) does the hive mind want to add more humans, maybe all humans everywhere into its collective? 3) should they try to "cure" the parasitical infection, killing the hive mind, or should they negotiate with the hive mind?
Meanwhile, the hive mind has its own problems to work out - are the human visitors from Earth a danger? Will they try to destroy the colony in fear? Should they be eliminated to protect the colony?
The diplomatic part of the Daedalus crew tries to sort out the answers while the scientists prepare options in case no peaceful solution can be found.
Daedalus is a starship from Earth visiting 6 planets to which colony ships were sent over 100 years ago. Their mission: find out the state of the colonies and help them if possible. Each novel in the series recounts the mission to one of the 6 planets. Each planet presents different problems and mysteries for the crew to solve.
The Daedalus crew arrives at the fourth colony world, named Arcadia, to discover the human colonists were infected by a parasitical alien fungus that grows into the host and emulates any type of biological structure it finds. After interacting with and emulating human neural tissue, the black fungus constructs its own neural tissue and eventual becomes conscious. The colonists have become a hive mind that's spent the last 100 years building a circular walled city based on a description in a book in the colony's database.
The crew is faced with several problems to solve: 1) are the humans still human with a symbiotic hive mind friend or is the black fungus just controlling their bodies like biological robots? 2) does the hive mind want to add more humans, maybe all humans everywhere into its collective? 3) should they try to "cure" the parasitical infection, killing the hive mind, or should they negotiate with the hive mind?
Meanwhile, the hive mind has its own problems to work out - are the human visitors from Earth a danger? Will they try to destroy the colony in fear? Should they be eliminated to protect the colony?
The diplomatic part of the Daedalus crew tries to sort out the answers while the scientists prepare options in case no peaceful solution can be found.
June 18, 2024
In the early 2000’s there were a rash of books and articles about the wonders of fungus and how it shaped our world. There was even some speculation that fungi interacted with humans to make us what we are. Well, Brian Stapleton was thinking about this in the 1970’s and The City of the Sun was the result. This novel is part of his Daedalus Mission series where travelers from Earth visit colonies to see how humans are doing on new worlds (a great idea for a series, BTW). On mission #4, they land on a world with a highly organized human city where the people have been colonized by fungus, large black additions of it hang from their heads and backs and criss-cross arms and legs. The people seem to think with one mind, are unemotional, and automatonic. Are they being controlled by this fungus or is it a symbiotic arrangement? Could this fungus decide it wants to spread across the galaxy and take over all life forms? This philosophical SF novel is both intellectually engaging and entertaining. Stapleton once again shows the science part of science fiction need not be boring.
October 2, 2024
3.5
A bit better and more interesting than previous volumes.
As is common with the series, the book feels a bit rushed at times.
A bit better and more interesting than previous volumes.
As is common with the series, the book feels a bit rushed at times.
May 8, 2015
1981 grade B+
series book D4
series book D4
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews