Cities in Flight Blish's concern is Inhumanity as a whole and individual men and women are important only insofar as they initiate or participate in events which affect the destiny of the species. For this reason his characters tend to be fairly simplistic, verging on stereotypes. Bliss Wagoner of They Shall Have Stars (1956), along with most of the other heroes in the series, is a politically adept, lantern-jawed idealist with a strong faith in both humanity and technology. Crispin de Ford, the young protagonist of A Life for the Stars (1962), the second volume, is a bright young adolescent who shows a considerable potential for both political agility and lantern-jawed idealism. Blish's female characters tend to be spunky rather than lantern-jawed, but they too are idealists. Even John Amalfi, Mayor of New York, an important character in A Life for the Stars and the central figure in both Earthman...