The Songs of Distant Earth was published by Grafton in 1986. Clarke frequently called it his personal favorite among his novels. The premise: the Sun is about to go nova. Over centuries, Earth has sent out automated seedships carrying frozen embryos and gene banks to colonize distant worlds. One such colony, Thalassa — a water world — has been settled for three hundred years when the last starship from Earth, the Magellan, arrives carrying the final survivors and all the cultural heritage of the human race preserved in its quantum memory banks.
The colonists of Thalassa are the descendants of embryos — they never knew Earth, have no emotional attachment to it, and have developed their own culture. The crew of the Magellan carry all of human history as a living wound. The central love story between a local woman and one of the ship’s crew is shadowed by the absolute knowledge that the ship will leave and the lovers will be separated by light-years.
Collecting The Songs of Distant Earth
First edition (Grafton, London, 1986): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $30–$60
- US first edition (Del Rey): $15–$40