Cities in Flight is a collection of the four novels that James Blish wrote in the 1950's about what became known as "Okie cities," cities that, because of depressed economic conditions, like the Oklahoma migrants of the 1930's, equiped themselves with Spindizzy drives and traveled to the stars in search of work and prosperity. Overlook's summary for its 2000 edition reads as follows:
Blish's brilliant and bleak classic is built on two crucial discoveries: antigravity devices-"spindizzies"which allow whole cities to be lifted from Earth to become giant spaceships, and longevity drugs, which enable the cities' inhabitants to live for thousands of years. In the first novel, They Shall Have Stars, man has thoroughly explored the solar system, yet the dream of going even further seems to have died in all but one man. His role in the discovery of spindizzies, faster-than-light travel, and the secret of immortality puts the stars within man's reach at last. Centuries later, in A Life for the Stars, antigravity generators have enabled whole cities to lift off the surface of Earth to become galactic wanderers. In Earthman, Come Home, the nomadic cities revert to barbarism and begin to pose a threat to all civilized worlds. In the final novel, The Triumph of Time, history repeats itself as the cities once again journey back into space, leading to a terrifying discovery that could destroy the entire universe. A compelling and haunting vision of our world and its limits, this Overlook publication returns to print, an unquestioned science fiction masterpiece.
