Songs of Distant Earth
Songs of Distant Earth is a 1986 soft science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke, and an earlier science fiction short story by the same author.Warning: Plot details follow.
The story is centred on a rendevous between human beings far in the future, after the destruction of the Earth, on the oceanic planet of Thalassa.
Unlike Clarke's other work, this piece focuses on characterisation and emotional development, instead of technological change. In some senses, it was written as a response to critics who attacked his writings as cold and impersonal.
In the story, humans respond to the prospect of unavoidable doom by launching a series of robot colony ships into space, to continue Earth life after the destruction of the homeworld. Thalassa is colonised by one such ship, but loses contact due to a natural disaster. Meanwhile, just as the predicted time of cataclysm is due to elapse, vacuum energy technology is invented to allow the construction of one near-light-speed vessel, the Magellan, which is launched to build the last colony of mankind. (Previous colony ships involved frozen embryos, or various forms of DNA synthesis. In Magellan, a living crew is transported in cryogenic stasis.)
En route to their target, Planet Sagan, the Magellan collides with interstellar debris, causing the destruction of their asteroid shield. A small crew is hence awakened, and the ship takes a detour to the nearest planet where water is available. (their shield being constructed of ice) This planet turns out to be Thalassa, and the novel continues by tackling the impact of this reunion, documenting the efforts of the Magellan crew to save their ship, and most poignantly, the possibility of love amidst the barriers of distance and time.
ISBN 0-34-532240-1
The Songs of Distant Earth is also an album by Mike Oldfield.