The Songs of Distant Earth

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

From the New York Times bestselling author of the Space Odyssey series comes a dazzling adventure of exploration and paradise lost.

Just a few islands in a planetwide ocean, Thalassa was a veritable paradise--home to one of the small colonies founded centuries before by robot Mother Ships when the Sun had gone nova and mankind had fled Earth.

Mesmerized by the beauty of Thalassa and overwhelmed by its vast resources, the colonists lived an idyllic existence, unaware of the monumental evolutionary event slowly taking place between their seas. . . .

Then the Magellan arrived in orbit carrying one million refugees from the last, mad days on Earth. And suddenly uncertainty and change had come to the placid paradise that was Thalassa.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Author's Note
• I Thalassa
• 1 The Beach at Tarna (p. 3)
• 2 The Little Neutral One (p. 7)
• 3 Village Council (p. 9)
• 4 Tocsin (p. 15)
• 5 Night Ride (p. 18)
• II Magellan
• 6 Planetfall (p. 31)
• 7 Lords of the Last Days (p. 37)
• 8 Remembrance of Love Lost (p. 43)
• 9 The Quest for Superspace (p. 47)
• III South Island
• 10 First Contact (p. 55)
• 11 Delegation (p. 61)
• 12 Heritage (p. 70)
• 13 Task Force (p. 74)
• 14 Mirissa (p. 76)
• 15 Terra Nova (p. 81)
• 16 Party Games (p. 84)
• 17 Chain of Command (p. 91)
• 18 Kumar (p. 96)
• 19 Pretty Polly (p. 98)
• 20 Idyll (p. 109)
• IV Krakan
• 21 Academy (p. 119)
• 22 Krakan (p. 131)
• 23 Ice Day (p. 138)
• 24 Archive (p. 142)
• 25 Scorp (p. 151)
• 26 Snowflake Rising (p. 157)
• 27 Mirror of the Past (p. 162)
• 28 The Sunken Forest (p. 166)
• 29 Sabra (p. 172)
• 30 Child of Krakan (p. 175)
• V The Bounty Syndrome
• 31 Petition (p. 187)
• 32 Clinic (p. 191)
• 33 Tides (p. 194)
• 34 Shipnet (p. 196)
• 35 Convalescence (p. 200)
• 36 Kilimanjaro (p. 203)
• 37 In Vino Veritas (p. 206)
• 38 Debate (p. 211)
• 39 The Leopard in the Snows (p. 220)
• 40 Confrontation (p. 224)
• 41 Pillow Talk (p. 228)
• 42 Survivor (p. 231)
• 43 Interrogation (p. 236)
• VI The Forests of the Sea
• 44 Spyball (p. 245)
• 45 Bait (p. 248)
• 46 Whatever Gods May Be... (p. 253)
• VII As The Sparks Fly Upward
• 47 Ascension (p. 263)
• 48 Decision (p. 271)
• 49 Fire on the Reef (p. 275)
• VIII The Songs of Distant Earth
• 50 Shield of Ice (p. 281)
• 51 Relic (p. 284)
• 52 The Songs of Distant Earth (p. 286)
• 53 The Golden Mask (p. 291)
• 54 Valediction (p. 301)
• 55 Departure (p. 303)
• 56 Below the Interface (p. 308)
• IX Sagan Two
• 57 The Voices of Time (p. 313)
• Chronology (p. 314)
• Bibliographical Note (p. 316)
• Acknowledgments (p. 317)