The Songs of Distant Earth.
“To expect the universe to be benevolent was like imagining one could always win at a game of pure chance:" First Edition of Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth
The Songs of Distant Earth.
CLARKE, Arthur C.
$25.00
Item Number: 145176
New York: Ballantine Books, 1986.
First edition of the author’s first book after ‘2010: Odyssey Two.’ Octavo, original blue half cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket painting by Michael Whelan. Jacket design by Anthony C. Russo.
Based on an idea developed almost thirty years before publishing in a short story of the same name, 'The Songs of Distant Earth' takes the television space-opera genre of fiction and gives it a realistic spin, using current technology to create a story of interstellar culture-clash within the realm of human possibility. "The drama that interests Mr. Clarke is played out on a much larger canvas. It concerns the lures and limitations of knowledge, the destiny of mankind, and the fate of the universe" (Gerald Jones, The New York Times).