The Songs of Distant Earth (Arthur C.Clarke)

"Thalassa was a paradise above the earth. Its beauty and vast resources seduce its inhabitants into a feeling of perfection. But then the Magellan arrives, carrying with it one million refugees from the last mad days of earth. Paradise looks indeed lost...."

So says the 'blurb'on a number of publications of Songs of Distant Earth.I don't agree at all-I think the inhabitants of Thalassa resemble a carefully sculpted society somehow lacking challenge-or ,arguably,a 'soul'-Magellan was 'good news'-and not before time!

Mike Oldfield wrote a whole album after reading this book.It's a book that makes you wonder....