Home > The City and the Stars

The plot takes place mostly on Earth, in the far future. The novel's main character is Alvin, a denizen of the city of Diaspar. Diaspar is a technologically advanced but stagnant city. Alvin was the only denizen of Diaspar who had the courage to go out of the city, and he finally succeeds in leaving Diaspar. He found that the reality was very different from how everyone pictured it. Those who dared, had long since left for the stars. People in Diaspar did fear many things, but there appeared to be another danger, of which no one knew. A real danger, Mad Mind, who was destroying the Universe. To defeat Mad Mind, the people created Vanamonde, the development was started at the end of the 20th century, but nobody knew about it at the time. Vanamonde was very childish, it was bodyless and could move instantly to where the objects came. It was supposed to develop, until it could fight the Mad Mind.