The Songs of Distant Earth
- 240
- Pages
- about 4.5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“The Songs of Distant Earth” is a calm, quietly optimistic novel about what humanity carries with it after the end of the world. Arthur C. Clarke named it his favourite among his novels, and some readers prize its gentle utopia and its thoughts on religion, time and family. Others find it dated, not least in how it treats women, and its characters hard to keep apart.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Songs of Distant Earth is a 1986 science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, based upon his 1958 short story of the same title. Of all of his novels, Clarke stated that this was his favourite. Prior to the publishing of the novel, Clarke also wrote a short step outline with the same title, published in Omni magazine and anthologised in The Sentinel in 1983.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 91 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 38% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.8 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.5 | 12 | 13% |
| Hardcover | 7.9 | 79 | 87% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Songs of Distant Earth?
It has 240 pages — shorter than 88% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.8, the closest to this book.
