Imperial Earth
0-575-02011-3
Imperial Earth is a science fiction novel by British writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke, published in 1975 by Gollancz Books. The plot follows the protagonist, Duncan Makenzie, on a trip to Earth from his home on Titan, in large part as a diplomatic visit to the U.S. for its quincentennial in 2276, but also to have a clone of himself produced. The book was published in time for the U.S. bicentennial in 1976.
Plot summary
Duncan Makenzie is the latest generation of the 'first family' of Titan, a colonised moon of Saturn. Originally settled by his grandfather Malcolm Makenzie in the early 23rd century, Titan's economy has flourished based on the harvest and sale of hydrogen mined from the atmosphere, which is used to fuel the fusion engines of interplanetary spacecraft.
As the plot opens in 2276, a number of factors are combining to make a diplomatic visit to the 'mother world' of Earth a necessity. Firstly, the forthcoming 500th anniversary of US Independence, which is bringing in colonists from the entire Solar System, obviously needs a suitable representative from Titan. Secondly, the Makenzie family carry a fatal damaged gene that means any normal continuation of the family line is impossible—so both Duncan and his "father" Colin are clones of his "grandfather" Malcolm. Human cloning is a mature technology but is even at this time ethically controversial. And thirdly, technological advances in spacecraft drive systems — specifically the 'asymptotic drive' which improves the specific impulse and thrust by orders of magnitude — means that Titan's whole economy is under threat as the demand for hydrogen is about to collapse.
The human aspects of the tale center mainly on the intense infatuation (largely unrequited but not unconsummated) that the two main male characters, Duncan and Karl Helmer, develop for the vividly characterized Catherine Linden Ellerman (Calindy), a visitor to Titan from Earth in their youth, and its lifelong consequences.
A number of other sub-plots suggest some sort of greater mystery, but remain unexplored. The book ends with him returning home with his new "child" Malcolm (who is a clone of his dead friend Karl), leaving the other plot threads dangling.
Editions
The original UK hardcover edition (ISBN 0-575-02011-3) has the subtitle "A Fantasy of Love and Discord" and has 38 chapters and "Acknowledgments and Notes". The later US hardcover edition adds a quote from Ernest Hemingway, has 43 chapters, drops the subtitle, and expands the Acknowledgements and Notes. The later US paperback edition also features an "Additional Note" about a possible biological error in the plot.
See also
- Pentomino - A math game explained in the story
References
External links
- Imperial Earth title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- v
- t
- e
- Prelude to Space
- The Sands of Mars
- Islands in the Sky
- Against the Fall of Night
- Childhood's End
- Earthlight
- The City and the Stars
- The Deep Range
- A Fall of Moondust
- Dolphin Island
- Glide Path
- Imperial Earth
- The Fountains of Paradise
- The Songs of Distant Earth
- Cradle (with Gentry Lee)
- The Ghost from the Grand Banks
- The Hammer of God
- Richter 10 (with Mike McQuay)
- The Trigger (with Michael Kube-McDowell)
- The Light of Other Days (with Stephen Baxter)
- The Last Theorem (with Frederik Pohl)
Space Odyssey |
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Rama series |
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A Time Odyssey |
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collections
- Expedition to Earth
- Reach for Tomorrow
- Tales from the White Hart
- The Other Side of the Sky
- Tales of Ten Worlds
- The Nine Billion Names of God
- Of Time and Stars
- The Wind from the Sun
- The Best of Arthur C. Clarke
- The Sentinel
- Tales from Planet Earth
- More Than One Universe
- The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke
- Interplanetary Flight: An Introduction to Astronautics
- The Lost Worlds of 2001
- The View from Serendip
- The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010
- How the World Was One: Beyond the Global Village
- An Encyclopedia of Claims, Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (film)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (comics)
- 2010: The Year We Make Contact (film)
- The Nine Billion Names of God (short film)
- Rendezvous with Rama (video game)
- "The Star" (TV episode)
- The Songs of Distant Earth (album)
- Rama (video game)
- Childhood's End (TV miniseries)
- Arthur C. Clarke in media
- Sir Arthur Clarke Award
- Arthur C. Clarke Award
- Geostationary orbit
- Clarke's three laws
- Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World
- Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers
- Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious Universe
- Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies
- God, the Universe and Everything Else
- Great Basses wreck
- 4923 Clarke
- Serendipaceratops
- GRB 080319B