A Life for the Stars

Blish continues the excellent writing, jumping ahead some 600 years, to a time when the spin dizzy has been invented and aging defeated. The spin dizzy is an anti-gravity device, allowing ships to transcend the upper limits of light speed and travel virtually energy-free. But the anti-aging drugs are available only to the wealthy, and the spin dizzy has allowed most of Earth's major cities to leave Earth on their own power, traveling to other planets. This latter concept is what drew me to this series, as it was detailed and shown at the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle. In this book we follow a boy, conscripted into the city of Pittsburgh, and then his fortunes in the larger floating city of New York. Blish uses the Depression era terms to conceive of cities traveling around like hobos, looking for work, and becoming integrated into a galactic economy. This continues to be some excellent writing, and greater story development and imagination than you find in most science fiction. In particular the adventures of the boy really create a bond between the character and the reader. Blish has done an incredible job of creating a vivid character that you feel for, and you want to continue to follow his exploits in future novels. Unfortunately, in this last regard, the reader is sorely disappointed in the third installment.