Cities in Flight by James Blish: A Book Retelling Series
So I just finished reading Cities in Flight by James Blish, and I have thoughts. A lot of thoughts. Enough that I’m going to retell this whole thing as a blog series.
Cities in Flight
James Blish's epic four-novel omnibus spanning from Cold War politics to the literal end of the universe, following flying cities through thousands of years of future history.
Cities in Flight collects four novels written between 1950 and 1962 into one massive future history. The setup is simple but wild: humanity discovers antigravity engines (spindizzies) that can lift entire cities off Earth, plus drugs that stop aging. Put those together and you get whole cities full of immortal people flying through space looking for work. They’re called Okies, named after the Dust Bowl migrant workers.
The first novel, They Shall Have Stars, is set in a near-future Cold War world where two secret projects - a drug research lab in New York and a massive engineering project on Jupiter - lead to the discoveries that change everything. A Life for the Stars follows a teenager press-ganged aboard a flying city, learning how this strange new civilization works. Earthman, Come Home is the big one, following Mayor Amalfi as he runs New York City through centuries of interstellar travel, dealing with corrupt authorities, dying civilizations, and economic collapse. The Triumph of Time brings it all to an end - literally, as the universe itself faces destruction and the characters must decide how to face the end of everything.
Blish built the whole thing on Oswald Spengler’s philosophy about how civilizations rise and fall in predictable patterns. It gives the series an intellectual weight that most space opera doesn’t have. The writing is dense 1950s sci-fi prose, but the ideas are enormous. If you like Asimov’s Foundation or big-picture science fiction that spans millennia, this is essential reading.
Cities in Flight Retelling: They Shall Have Stars Part 1 - The Bridge and the Drug
They Shall Have Stars opens not with rockets or alien planets. It opens with two tired men talking by a fireplace in Washington. And the shadows on the walls are making them nervous.
Cities in Flight Retelling: They Shall Have Stars Part 2 - Secrets and Pressure
In Part 1, we met our three storylines: Colonel Paige Russell poking around a secretive drug company, the Bridge crew building an impossible structure on Jupiter, and Senator Wagoner playing a quiet political chess game. Now all three threads get more interesting. And more uncomfortable.
Cities in Flight Retelling: They Shall Have Stars Part 3 - The Race Heats Up
Things are picking up speed now. Both storylines in “They Shall Have Stars” start moving fast in chapters 5 through 8. The drug research in New York gets tangled up with love and spies. And out on Jupiter, the Bridge crew is cracking under the weight of that giant planet staring down at them. Let’s get into it.
Cities in Flight Retelling: They Shall Have Stars Part 4 - Antigravity and Immortality
This is where everything pays off. All the political scheming, the impossible engineering on Jupiter, the secret drug research in the Bronx. In this final section of They Shall Have Stars, the two storylines crash into each other and we learn what Senator Wagoner was really doing all along.
Cities in Flight Retelling: A Life for the Stars Part 1 - Kidnapped by a Flying City
We’re now in the second novel of Cities in Flight, and the story jumps forward by centuries. The spindizzies exist. The anti-aging drugs exist. And whole cities are ripping themselves off the ground and flying into space to find work among the stars. They call these migrant cities “Okies,” and the Earth they leave behind is broke, used up, and slowly emptying out.
Cities in Flight Retelling: A Life for the Stars Part 2 - School in Space
Chris deFord just arrived aboard New York City. The real one. Flying through space. And now the city wants to know: what is he good for?
Cities in Flight Retelling: A Life for the Stars Part 3 - Demons and Ghosts in Space
Chris tried to be a hero and it kind of blew up in his face. Then the city left that storm-planet behind, flew back into space, and things got philosophical real fast.
Cities in Flight Retelling: A Life for the Stars Part 4 - Meeting Mayor Amalfi
This is it. The final part of A Life for the Stars. Chris deFord has gone from a farm boy snatched off Earth to someone who actually understands how Okie cities work. And now, in these last three chapters, everything comes together.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 1 - New York in Space
We are now in the third novel of Cities in Flight, and this is the big one. “Earthman, Come Home” is the longest book in the collection, and it shifts focus to the character who matters most in this universe: Mayor John Amalfi of New York City. Not New York on Earth. New York flying through space, powered by spindizzy engines, looking for work among the stars.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 2 - The Duchy and the Rift
Last time, New York landed on Utopia and Hazleton went missing with a local girl. Now things get worse. The city has to deal with a golden-armored space dictator, and then fly into the emptiest stretch of space anyone has ever seen.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 3 - The Mystery of He
This is the big one. Chapter 4 of Earthman, Come Home is called “He,” and it’s the longest chapter in the entire novel. “He” is a planet, not a person. And what happens on that planet is one of the most ambitious things Amalfi and New York City have ever attempted. They move a whole world.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 4 - Murphy's Law in Space
The chapter is called “Murphy,” and if you know Murphy’s Law, you already know how this is going to go. Everything that can go wrong does go wrong. And then it gets worse.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 5 - The Jungle of Cities
Three hundred flying cities are parked around a dying red dwarf star. Most of them can barely keep their lights on. Welcome to the Okie jungle. Think of it as a hobo camp in space, except the hobos are entire cities, and the camp rules are written by whoever has the most power to burn.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 6 - The March on Earth
In Part 5, we saw the jungle of Okie cities gathering near a red dwarf star, desperate for work. An Acolyte entrepreneur showed up offering terrible wages, things got violent, and Lieutenant Lerner’s cops accidentally blew up a bystander city. Amalfi watched it all and decided it was time to visit Buda-Pesht, the King’s city, in person. He brought Hazleton and Dee along. And now things get political.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 7 - The Battle of Hern VI
Amalfi is turning a dead rock into a weapon. Hern VI is a planetoid, small and ugly, and his people are bolting spindizzy engines all over it. The work is brutal. Every driver has to be placed at exact compass points, locked to the center of gravity, balanced against every other machine. And there still aren’t enough to make the thing fully steerable. When this rock finally flies, it will be clumsy and wild. But it will fly.
Cities in Flight Retelling: Earthman Come Home Part 8 - Coming Home
New York has left the Milky Way behind. The spindizzies are failing one by one. And on a planet in the Greater Magellanic Cloud, Mayor Amalfi is about to go head-to-head with the most notorious criminal city in Okie history. This is the finale.