Cities in Flight by James Blish
"Cities in Flight" is a science fiction tetralogy by James Blish that explores a future where cities can fly and interstellar travel is possible. The series is set against a backdrop of a decaying Earth culture in the early 21st century, as the U.S. and Soviet Union are merging into a bureaucratic state. The narrative unfolds through a variety of characters and settings, primarily focusing on the cities that have taken to the skies, referred to as "Okies," and their interactions with both Earth authorities and other flying cities.
The story covers significant technological advancements, such as antigravity screens (spindizzies) and anti-aging drugs (anti-agathics), which enable the cities to travel throughout the galaxy. Key themes include the moral dilemmas faced by these cities, with some acting as good citizens while others become rogue entities. The main character, New York City, often finds itself in conflict with Earth’s police and other space-faring cities.
Throughout the series, Blish presents a vision of human culture's evolution and challenges as they navigate interstellar life, culminating in epic struggles against various threats and existential questions about their place in the universe. The final book addresses a new cosmic cycle, introducing the idea of a potential rebirth through a collision with a twin antimatter universe. "Cities in Flight" offers a thought-provoking exploration of civilization, technology, and survival against a richly constructed science fiction backdrop.
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Cities in Flight
First published:Cities in Flight (1970, as tetralogy); previously published as Earthman, Come Home (1955), They Shall Have Stars (1956; also published as Year 2018), The Triumph of Time (1958; also published as A Clash of Cymbals), and A Life for the Stars (1962)
Type of work: Novels
Type of plot: Science fiction—future history
Time of work: 2012-4004
Locale: Earth, Jupiter, various star systems in and beyond the galaxy, and the center of the universe
The Plot
Much of the material making up Cities in Flight was published in other forms between 1950 and 1962 and in a different order from that presented in the completed tetralogy. The core of the story idea was published in a series of novelettes—“Okie” (1950), “Bindlestiff” (1950), “Sargasso of Lost Cities” (1953), and “Earthman Come Home” (1953)—which were revised and combined into Earthman, Come Home, the third novel in the chronological sequence. They Shall Have Stars, the first novel in the sequence, was formed by combining the novelettes “Bridge” (1952) and “At Death’s End” (1954). The second novel in the sequence, A Life for the Stars, was published as juvenile science fiction fours years after the fourth, The Triumph of Time.
The overarching conception melding these disparately written pieces into a single volume is James Blish’s elaboration of a complete future history that begins in the early twenty-first century, as the United States and the Soviet Union are about to merge into a single bureaucratic state. Blish conceives of a new galactic Earthmanist culture—a version of Western culture—formed on the basis of antigravity screens (spindizzies) that allow entire cities to take flight and anti-agathics (antideath drugs) that allow the long lifetimes required for interstellar flight.
Earth dominates the galaxy after the defeat of the previous hegemony, the Vegan tyranny, a vaguely defined humanoid/alien civilization. The galaxy is “pollinated” by Earth cities, which function as itinerant industrial bases (Okies) and are policed by the Earth “cops,” who exist in creative tension with the Okies. A basic plot idea throughout the series is that some cities are good citizens, such as New York City, the “protagonist” city of the series. Others have become rogues, or “bindlestiffs.” The worst of these, the legendary Interstellar Master Traders (IMT), have slaughtered an entire planet. As background to the narrative, Earth culture decays as Earth’s growing bureaucracy and fear of the Okies destroys the galactic economy. As time itself draws to an end, in the fortieth century, a new alien civilization, the Web of Hercules, rises to power.
They Shall Have Stars tells, in alternating narratives, of the development of the two technologies on which the rest of the series depends. Bliss Wagoner, a U.S. senator, secretly sponsors both projects in an effort to create an escape route for Western culture. In the first of the two narratives, a space pilot, Paige Russell, falls in love with Anne Abbott, the daughter of the president of the drug company where immortality drugs are being developed. The second narrative is told from the point of view of Robert Helmuth, a construction supervisor of the giant “bridge” being built on Jupiter by remote control to test the theories that will make antigravity possible. At the end, Wagoner arranges for Russell and Abbott to become the nucleus of a colonizing diaspora from Earth. Wagoner is executed for treason by the paranoid head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
A Life for the Stars, set in the thirty-second century, tells of the departure of Earth’s cities. Crispin DeFord, a youth, is impressed by the city of Scranton, Pennsylvania, as it departs from an Earth whose economy has collapsed. The novel is essentially a coming-of-age story in which the young DeFord, thrust into perilous circumstances, manages by virtue of his wits and the help of older mentors to survive and, at the end, to become city manager of New York, which Scranton encounters in space. Much of the narrative deals with DeFord’s education, after he is transferred to New York, in the culture and technology of the Okie city. DeFord demonstrates his abilities in a series of daring escapades that help save New York from a bindlestiff.
Earthman, Come Home, set in the last half of the fourth millennium, tells of New York under the guidance of Mayor John Amalfi and the new city manager, Mark Hazelton. A series of escapades, including equipping the entire planet of He with spindizzies (told in A Life for the Stars), brings the city into constant conflict with the Earth police. New York is forced to join a “hobo jungle” of unemployed Okie cities. Amalfi, through his understanding of the principles of cultural development, is able to manipulate the cities to march on Earth and, through their flight across the galaxy, to lure out of hiding the Vegan Fort, the last lurking vestige of the Vegan tyranny. Amalfi destroys the Fort by “flying” a planet at intergalactic speed across the path of the Fort as it enters the solar system. New York ends up grounded on a planet in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, where it must defeat the IMT, which has hidden there, in order to begin a new culture in the wake of the collapse of the old.
The Triumph of Time is set in the first years of the forty-first century. The scientists of New York and the planet He, now returned from intergalactic space, discover that in the repeating cycles of time itself a twin antimatter universe will collide with the known universe to begin a new big bang. The only chance for “survival”—which amounts to the right to determine the physical composition of a new universe—is to fly to the center of the universe. To do this, Amalfi must fight off a rebellion against New York’s hegemony in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, dispel the apathy of a culture grown old, and race the rising galactic civilization, the Web of Hercules, to the center. At the end, at the moment of his death, Amalfi chooses to make a new universe completely different from the old one.