Songs of a Distant Earth is not very song-like. Clarke writes more in Jules Verne sci-fi tradition, exploring the immediate implications of a technical idea, rather than broader contemplation. The story revolves around a space ship arriving at a colony. The colonists have never seen actual terrans; they were started by machines from DNA samples after a long slower than light journey. The new, faster than light ship has fled the destruction of earth, with cryo-sleeping passengers. We hear their disparate stories of a new colony scrabbling for full life on a planet with little land. We hear of the demise of earth and the mass psychosocial consequences of its impending doom. We see their mixing and the first risings of a new semi-intelligent race. That's it. Little is developed, changed, or resolved. We gradually reveal these two twined stories, then, like a music box out of power, the Songs of a Distant Earth stop.
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