Cities in Flight

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1. beezleOct 2024
   Was about to say so many of these "you've never heard of" lists are books within the past decade but there are just so many older ones. Asimov alone wrote many book outside of the robot and foundation series.

   One that only the older set may know is Cities in Flight by James Blish (technically a trilogy but primarily sold as the single combined novel).

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2. lardarzSep 2011
   Good list, and I've read nearly all of them.

   Getting past the first chapter of Pandoras Star is well worth it - Morninglightmountain is one of the most original, minblowingly awesome all time alien baddies, and the trepidation and sense of impending doom in that book and its's sequel Judas Unchained are superb. Would also recommend the Void Trilogy by Peter F Hamilton too - strong mix of scifi and an alternate fantasy world.

   Missing in my view would be: Greg Bear - Eon (as people have mentioned, but also: M John Harrison - Light James Blish - Cities in Flight Battlefield Earth (awesome book, hopeless film) Brave New World for my ultimate "classic"

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3. aredoxSep 2025
   Was that the inspiration for James Blish's Cities in Flight series?

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cities_in_Flight

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4. jerfSep 2013
   In one of the anthologies for Larry Niven (either N-Space or Playground of the Mind), he describes a Ringworld that induces magnetic effects on its star to shoot out a jet of plasma, using that to propel the whole system.

   While trying to find an online reference for this, apparently in the last Ringworld novel they hook a hyperdrive up to this, making it the largest "ship" I know. (I use "I know" advisedly... I'm sure somebody somewhere has turned a multiverse into some sort of ship for some reason or other.)

   In the Cities in Flight series by James Blish, the planet "He" gets about quite well, though that is dwarfed in every measurement by the Ringworld.

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