| Author: | James Blish |
| Copyright: | 1970 |
| Date Reviewed: | 3/24/84 |
| Rating: | 8.5 |
Synopsis: Cities in Flight is a composite of four novellas in one volume.
In the first, "They Shall Have Stars", Senator Wagoner conceives of a plan to colonize the stars. The plan requires the conquest over gravity and death. Colonel Paige discovers this plan and with his new girlfriend, helps the Senator keep the secret from the Chief of the FBI.
In the second story, "A Life for the Stars", we meet young Chris DeFord as he is pressed into service aboard the city of Pittsburgh just before take off. Chris has many adventures on Pittsburgh and latter on another Okie/hobo city - New York.
"Earthman, Come Home" is the longest story, centering on Mayor Amalfi. It is here we learn much of the philosophy of being Hobo among the stars. During its course, New York lands on many planets, each with a story of its own.
"The Triumph of Time" tells of New Earth's desperate struggle to some how 'survive' the end of time.
Review: "Cities in Flight" is a long book but never become boring because of that. The four stories span over 1000 years and are sufficiently different from one another that there is not much repetition. The first and last stories do come close to being boring; not out of size but because of content. In the first, we travel with Paige as he learns more about the Jupiter/Bridge project and its real meaning. However we never really learn why it's so important to keep this massive bridge on Jupiter. The novella is a typical 'Heinlein youth' story about an intelligent boy who almost single-handedly saves his city. Despite the improbability, it was good reading.
"Earthman, Come Home" is the heart of the novel. As soon as I understood how important to the novel it was that an Okie city is simply a traveling hobo, I could feel what it might be like to run one. In the course of the novel, the city makes several planet falls and on each one there is some sort of important confrontation. Invariably, these are solved by Mayor Amalfi in some mysterious way which we don't realize until the end. Since I don't personally care much for mystery stories, I would have preferred to know more of what the Mayor was planning along the way. Still, it was a very interesting story which kept my interest.
The forth story was easily the worst and the most unbelievable. Most of it was spent trying to give a detailed explanation of the science of the end of time. This was a mistake; the explanation just didn't work.
Overall, "Cites in Flight" is a well written novel, though it has some problems. There are many inconsistencies among the four stories; which can be dismissed. The science is the weakest part of the novel. I can't say for sure that most of the science was bad (some certainly was); it just felt wrong. The study of the Hobo civilization, its origin and purpose in the galaxy was perhaps the strongest feature of the novel.