Imperial Earth was published by Gollancz in 1975 and issued in the US by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1976 (in a slightly revised text). The novel is set in 2276 and follows Duncan Makenzie, the third generation of a clone dynasty that governs Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. Duncan visits Earth for the American Quincentennial, ostensibly as a diplomatic envoy but actually to arrange for his own cloning — the Makenzie family can only reproduce via cloning due to radiation damage sustained by the first settler, Malcolm.
Clarke used the structure of Duncan’s visit to provide a panoramic tour of Earth in the twenty-third century — a world reshaped by renewable energy, where the population has stabilized, and where the great political question is whether humanity should expand outward into the solar system or turn inward. The novel’s real concerns are identity (what does cloning mean for selfhood?), communication (the novel involves an asymptotic communication device based on black holes), and the meaning of biological vs. cultural inheritance.
Collecting Imperial Earth
First edition (Gollancz, London, 1975): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $50–$120
- US first edition (Harcourt): $20–$60