Die sieben Sonnen

The City and The Stars is a science fiction novel by Arthur C Clarke.

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 technologically advanced, but stagnant city. Alvin was the only denizen of Diaspar who had a courage to go out of the city, and he finally succeeds in leaving Diaspar. He found that the reality was very different from how everybody thought it was. People who were not stagnant, went to a better place a long time ago, to other stars. People in Diaspar did fear many things, but there appeared to be another danger, of which nobody knew. A real danger, Mad Mind, who was destroying the Universe. To win Mad Mind, people created Vanamonde, the development was started in the end of the 20th century, but nobody knew it then. Vanamonde was very childish, it was bodyless and could move instantly where the objects came. It was supposed to develop, until it can fight Mad Mind.