The City and the Stars

With help from Khedron, the city's licensed troublemaker known as the Jester, Alvin finds a hidden way out of Diaspar and discovers Lys, a green, pastoral land where people live short natural lives and communicate by thought. The two societies have forgotten each other entirely, and each regards the other with suspicion. From there, Alvin's search leads him to ancient machines, a long-abandoned spaceport and eventually to the stars, where the truth about humanity's past is stranger than any legend Diaspar has told.

This is Clarke at his most visionary. The scale is breathtaking, spanning millions of years and the history of the galaxy, yet the story is driven by a simple, human impulse: the refusal to accept limits. The contrast between Diaspar, where technology preserves everything, and Lys, where life is natural and fleeting, raises questions about immortality, comfort and progress that feel more relevant than ever.

The characters are thinly drawn and the dialogue can be stiff, as in much classic science fiction. But the ideas and the sense of wonder are extraordinary, and many readers consider it his finest novel. About 255 pages in the Gollancz SF Masterworks paperback.