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Cities in Flight

140 statements
26 feature instances
24 referencing feature instances

Cities in Flight	type	TVTItem
Cities in Flight	label	Cities in Flight
Cities in Flight	page	CitiesInFlight
Cities in Flight	comment	Cities in Flight is a series of Science Fiction stories and novels by James Blish. Originally four volumes, it was later released as an omnibus edition under the series name.The original volumes, in internal chronological order, are: They Shall Have Stars (1956) A Life for the Stars (1962) Earthman Come Home (collection, 1952) The Triumph of Time (1958)The series is a grand, sweeping epic, based on the development of a form of Applied Phlebotinum called "the Spindizzy drive", which provides cheap artificial gravity, force-fields, and faster-than-light travel. So cheap and powerful is the Spindizzy that most of the major cities of Earth decide to take off and head for the stars.
Cities in Flight	fetched	2023-10-11T22:21:01Z
Cities in Flight	parsed	2023-10-11T22:21:01Z
Cities in Flight	processingComment	Dropped link to UrbanLegend: Not a Feature - UNKNOWN
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Cities in Flight	isPartOf	DBTropes
Cities in Flight / int_14ed6ab7	type	Does This Remind You of Anything?
Cities in Flight / int_14ed6ab7	comment	Does This Remind You of Anything?: The first of the novels was written in The '50s and has the Western world ruled by a McCarthyist government that purges anyone who has "anti-Western" views, or for associating with such people. Scientific research is hamstrung by excessive secrecy, affecting the freedom of information necessary for the scientific method to work. Ideology is not "democracy" or "capitalism" but just "anti-communism"; ironically both sides end up merging because they aren't that different.
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Cities in Flight / int_19947832	type	The Exact Center of Everything
Cities in Flight / int_19947832	comment	The Exact Center of Everything: In The Triumph of Time, the Universe is about to be destroyed by collision with its antimatter counterpart, after which a new Big Bang will create a new Universe. The protagonists discover a way that they can influence the creation of the new Universe, but it has to be performed at the centre of the current Universe. So they set out for it, racing against time and an enigmatic and hostile alien civilisation.
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Cities in Flight / int_1ed1bead	type	Domed Hometown
Cities in Flight / int_1ed1bead	comment	Domed Hometown: Many Earth cities, including Pittsburgh and New York, use the spindizzies to travel through space looking for work.
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Cities in Flight / int_26d48b37	type	Earth That Used to Be Better
Cities in Flight / int_26d48b37	comment	Earth That Used to Be Better: All of Earth's major cities literally fly away using antigravity devices. The planet they leave behind is referred to as "the sleepy capital of the Galaxy", and it's mentioned that other than old bureaucrats, "nobody went there at all".
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Cities in Flight / int_2991089a	type	Oppressive States of America
Cities in Flight / int_2991089a	comment	Oppressive States of America: In the first book, America is rapidly becoming a totalitarian state ruled by the hereditary head of the FBI, Francis X. MacHinery.
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Cities in Flight / int_329cce08	type	Significant Monogram
Cities in Flight / int_329cce08	comment	Significant Monogram: It's likely no coincidence that Alois Hrunta, self-proclaimed Emperor of Space, had such a similar name to Adolf Hitler.
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Cities in Flight / int_4108bb3e	type	Doomed Hometown
Cities in Flight / int_4108bb3e	comment	Doomed Hometown: After the invention of the spindizzy, Earth's economy collapsed. This leads to cities installing spindizzies and heading into space to look for a better life. So each of them is a town with a Doomed Hometown.
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Cities in Flight / int_56855fa3	type	Casual Interstellar Travel
Cities in Flight / int_56855fa3	comment	Casual Interstellar Travel: This is done with cities and indeed entire planets, when a new law of physics shows that the larger an object is, the easier it is to move at hugely FTL speeds. At one point it is stated that a spacecraft is crossing the solar system at FTL speeds powered by a few ordinary batteries.
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Cities in Flight / int_6366c81c	type	Planar Shockwave
Cities in Flight / int_6366c81c	comment	Planar Shockwave: There is an explosive TDX that only explodes perpendicular to the local gravity field.
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Cities in Flight / int_6ab0c0f1	type	Overdrive
Cities in Flight / int_6ab0c0f1	comment	Overdrive: The cities of the title can fly at faster-than-light speeds, but they're all equipped with a gadget called "Situation N" which can instantly teleport them away from trouble. Only thing is, it can only ever be used once per city. Situation N also has the great disadvantage of depositing the affected city in a completely unknown location, a very long way away. As it happens, this becomes a plot point but there is no given reason why the City would not find itself stranded in interstellar space, unable to navigate, seek work or even able to transit anywhere useful within its available supplies. Indeed, there is a specific penalty whereby a City can be broken up to prevent this being attempted, and City Fathers have been known to execute or otherwise depose city managers to prevent this.
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Cities in Flight / int_75b53c77	type	Arcology
Cities in Flight / int_75b53c77	comment	Arcology: Cheap and easy anti-gravity and faster-than-light technology leads to most of Earth's major cities converting themselves to arcologies and setting off for the stars.
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Cities in Flight / int_83856158	type	Worthless Yellow Rocks
Cities in Flight / int_83856158	comment	Worthless Yellow Rocks: Played With. The protagonists carefully save up germanium for use as currency. After they come back to "civilization" some time later, they are told that it's a "fine and useful metal, but you buy it, you don't buy things with it." Ironically, the sellers want a "valuable" metal like...gold. Later, a sign that the galactic economy has collapsed is when the New Yorkers are told the only currency accepted is the anti-aging drugs that keep them all alive.
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Cities in Flight / int_91e894b4	type	Apocalypse How
Cities in Flight / int_91e894b4	comment	Apocalypse How: Universal/Physical Annihilation: The Triumph of Time ends with the destruction of the entire Universe. However the Multiverse endures, as everyone is given the opportunity to shape a new universe themselves. The main character believes so much in free will that he refuses to give any shape to his own new universe and blows himself up, thus creating a totally random universe.
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Cities in Flight / int_97cd3d59	type	Remember the Alamo
Cities in Flight / int_97cd3d59	comment	Remember the Alamo: In the series, it's "Remember Thor V!" We're never told just what happened on Thor V, only that the City known as Interstellar Master Traders did something terrible to the colony there. The only suggestion is the phrase "[IMT] made the sky fall" — which is all too possible if you have a city with a spindizzy drive.
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Cities in Flight / int_9b0b8109	type	Floating Continent
Cities in Flight / int_9b0b8109	comment	Floating Continent: The "spindizzy"—the Applied Phlebotinum that allows for Anti-Gravity, Force Fields, Artificial Gravity, and Faster-Than-Light Travel—works better with larger masses. As a result, eventually, entire Terran cities cut themselves free of the planet and soar out to the stars.
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Cities in Flight / int_9e298840	type	New York Is Only Manhattan
Cities in Flight / int_9e298840	comment	New York Is Only Manhattan: The flying city of New York consists only of Manhattan.
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Cities in Flight / int_b3eecaae	type	Colony Drop
Cities in Flight / int_b3eecaae	comment	Colony Drop: The rogue city known as Interstellar Master Traders does this with a flying city in Earthman Come Home. Inverted When New York City sticks a bunch of Spindizzies on an uninhabited planet, and flies it into the Vegan Orbital Fort.
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Cities in Flight / int_bb40e7e0	type	Failed Future Forecast
Cities in Flight / int_bb40e7e0	comment	Failed Future Forecast: The series involves the Western democratic government model becoming ever more intolerant, eventually resembling the Soviet model very closely, and then the Soviets winning the war (and absorbing the West) because they were better at being Soviets.
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Cities in Flight / int_c326149a	type	Hobos
Cities in Flight / int_c326149a	comment	Hobos: Mayor Amalfi likens the titular cities to the migrants of the United States, saying that most cities are hobos (migrant workers), but some are tramps (basically petty criminals), and a few are the lowest sort: bindlestiffs, a type of migrant that lives by robbing other migrants.
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Cities in Flight / int_c7b5445c	type	Cool Starship
Cities in Flight / int_c7b5445c	comment	Cool Starship: The devices called "Spindizzies" can lift up whole cities and send them into space at FTL speed. It's just as cool as it sounds. In Earthman, Come Home, the citizens of New York City fit out several planets with spindizzies. Since the great the mass means greater velocity, the planets travel at ludicrous speed.
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Cities in Flight / int_c919de1d	type	"London, England" Syndrome
Cities in Flight / int_c919de1d	comment	"London, England" Syndrome: Earth's cities, fitted with antigravity generators and spacedrives, roam the Galaxy looking for work. Nevertheless, they still use names like "Chicago, Illinois" or "Scranton, Pennsylvania". This even becomes a plot point when one character spots the error in a city's name and realizes it's actually an alien battlestation.
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Cities in Flight / int_ee17f4d2	type	Mobile City
Cities in Flight / int_ee17f4d2	comment	Mobile City: The spindizzy works better with larger masses. As a result, eventually, entire Terran cities cut themselves free of the planet and soar out to the stars as independent, nomadic city-states.
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Cities in Flight / int_eff83d77	type	Mundane Utility
Cities in Flight / int_eff83d77	comment	Mundane Utility: The spindizzy drive is able to lift cities into orbit and generate a force field sufficient to retain their atmosphere against the vacuum of space. The same technology, at much lower power, is used to generate a force field that keeps gardens dry when it's raining.
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Cities in Flight / int_f9c17447	type	The Remnant
Cities in Flight / int_f9c17447	comment	the Vegan Orbital Fort is widely regarded as this, Cities which disappear are sometimes attributed to having been destroyed by it - but it makes a dramatic reappearance during the March On Earth
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Cities in Flight / int_fdad3753	type	When Things Spin, Science Happens
Cities in Flight / int_fdad3753	comment	When Things Spin, Science Happens: Implied in the Spindizzy drive. Spindizzies are based on P. M. S. Blackett's work on planetary magnetism, correlating magnetism, gravity, and angular momentum. Some writers (like this one) say that "spin [it] dizzy" is what the device does to the subatomic particles: changing their angular momentum. However, because the device itself is never actually seen or described in canon, it’s possible that it, itself, spins.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

Cities in Flight	hasFeature	American Literature (# to D) / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Battle Trophy / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Casual Interstellar Travel / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Caused the Big Bang / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Colony Drop / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Commie Nazis / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Doomed Hometown / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Earth That Used to Be Better / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Floating Continent / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Hobos / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	"London, England" Syndrome / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Mobile City / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Moving Buildings / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Naming Your Colony World / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	New York Is Only Manhattan / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Overdrive / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Planar Shockwave / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Reactionless Drive / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Remember the Alamo / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Russia Takes Over the World / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Sleep Learning / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	Technology Marches On / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	The Exact Center of Everything / int_a849cfab
Cities in Flight	hasFeature	We Are as Mayflies / int_a849cfab

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