The City and the Stars was published by Frederick Muller in 1956 (a complete rewrite of Clarke’s earlier novel Against the Fall of Night, 1953). A billion years in the future, the city of Diaspar is the last city on Earth. Its inhabitants are effectively immortal — their memories and personalities are stored in the city’s Central Computer and periodically reincarnated in new bodies. Diaspar is a sealed system: no one enters, no one leaves, and the desert beyond its walls is believed to be lifeless and hostile.
Alvin is a “Unique” — a consciousness that has never been incarnated before, uncontaminated by the accumulated fears and habits of a billion-year civilization. His curiosity about what lies outside Diaspar drives the novel’s plot. What he discovers — the pastoral community of Lys, the truth about Earth’s past, and the real reason Diaspar was sealed — overturns everything his civilization believes about itself.
Collecting The City and the Stars
First edition (Frederick Muller, London, 1956): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- UK first edition, fine in jacket: $300–$800
- US first edition (Harcourt): $150–$400