‘Once and for all’ because a) after the Battle of Earth, Okie cities had been outlawed b) at least two of the city’s spindizzy engines were fatally malfunctioning.Īfter defeating the incumbent inhabitants of this planet – the Intergalactic Master Traders who were the bad guys who had annihilated Thor V centuries earlier – the inhabitants of New York named the planet New Earth and settled down to make it home. In the series of events preceding this book and described in Earthman, Come Home, John Amalfi had steered the space-flying Okie city of New York through umpteen perils and finally out of the galaxy altogether to land, once and for all, on a planet in the Magellanic Cloud. The final instalment of James Blish’s Cities in Flight tetralogy opens with yet another prologue reminding us of the key dates in its ‘future history’ (pp.477-79): Cities in Flight chronologyĢ018 discovery of the first anti-agathic drugsĢ019 discovery of the gravitron polarity generatorĢ105 establishment of the Bureaucratic StateĢ289 first contact with the Vegan TyrannyĢ413 struggle with Vegans ends with scorching of VegaĢ464 Battle of BD 40º 4048′ between Earth and Hruntansģ089 Admiral Hrunta is poisoned / John Amalfi becomes mayor of New Yorkģ111 Arpa Hrunta installed as ‘Emperor of Space’ / New York takes flightģ602 ‘reduction of the Duchy of Gort’ / Dr Schloss boards New Yorkģ900 collapse of the germanium standard for currencyģ905 Battle of the Jungle in the Acolyte Clusterģ948 Battle of the Blasted Heath in which New York defeats the IMTģ975 Battle of Earth attacked by Okie citiesģ978 New York leaves the galaxy for the Magellanic Cloudģ998 New York lands on planet in the Magellanic Cloudģ999 New York christens this planet New EarthĤ104 ‘totally universal physical cataclysm’

Blish cities in flight