Cities in Flight

Cities in Flight is on the SF Masterworks and The Classics of Science Fiction lists. I found it just so so. I was prompted to read this having read an outstanding short story by James Blish, written much later than Cities in Flight, published in Harlan Ellison's anthology Again Dangerous Visions. I think he must have honed his writing skills in the intervening years. Cities in Flight is a collection of four novels written mostly in the 1950s. I think they weren't written in the order in which they occur in the series. The writing is uneven, and overall I'd rate it mediocre. The second book, A Life for the Stars, written in 1962, the latest publication date, was the best of the bunch.

The four books are:

1 - They Shall Have Stars, 1956

2 - A Life for the Stars, 1962

3 - Earthman, Come Home, 1955

4 - The Triumph of Time a.k.a. A Clash of Cymbals, 1958