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One of the classical Utopias of philosophy is the City of the Sun by Tommaso Campanella, which outlined an ideal community based upon a marvelous Arcadian city encompassing seven levels of advanced humanity.

Utopian groups had emigrated into space to found their ideal communities... and it was on such a colony world, called appropriately Arcadia that the recontact starship Daedalus made its fourth planetfall. And there, in all its perfect splendor, stood the fulfillment of Campanella's dream, the real seven-circled City of the Sun.

But the city was too literal, the inhabitants too perfect, the world too Arcadian - and very quickly the Daedalus's scientists realized that in this Utopia the idealists had unleashed a phenomenon that could undermine all human culture on all human worlds.

Cover art by Don Maitz.

Published in 1978 by DAW.
IBSN:0-87997-377-3

It was a circular city - like the City of the Sun, a perfect community dreamed up by the seventeenth-century philosopher Campanella.

Many utopian groups had emigrated into space to found their ideal settlements. And it was on one such colony world - appropriately called Arcadia - that the recontact starship Daedalus made its fourth planetfall. There in all its splendour stood the fulfilment of Campanella's dream - the real seven-circled City of the Sun.

But the city was too ordered, the inhabitants too perfect, the world too Arcadian... and very soon the Daedalus's scientists realized that in this particular utopia the idealists had unleashed a force that could undermine all human culture on other planets.

Cover art by Tim White.

Published in 1979 by Hamlyn.
IBSN:0-600-20017-5

Review by Ian Braidwood

Cast of Characters:
Alexis Alexander, Cpt Peter Rolving, Linda Beck, Karen Karelia, Nathan Parrick, Conrad Silvian, Marial Valory, The Ego, The Self, Antolin Sorokin.

The fourth landing of the Daedalus is apparently in utopia. The colonists have apparently set out to create the idealistic vision of a man imprisoned by the Spanish inquisition (I bet he didn't expect that :-).

As is traditional in science fiction, all is not as it seems and the people of Arcadia have a very good reason to keep the truth from their earthly visitors. Not that they're going to find it easy, for every man, woman and child carries a disfiguring parasite on their back, which ramifies throughout their bodies like a network of veins. What's more, the people act very oddly and the warrior cast appear to have been chemically castrated.

The crew of the Daedalus quarantine themselves aboard, except for Nathan, Mariel and Alex, who are taken into the city to meet 'The Ego'; apparently a man who reports to 'The Self'. The three space travellers have to wait until after the meeting to hear the decision passed back down the hierarchy, before they are able to begin their investigations.

My favourite Daedalus story, which like all Brian's best work, transcends mundane values and aspires to a wider humanity.

The Brian Stableford Website