<p><b>Clarke''s masterful evocation of the far future of humanity, considered his finest novel</b><br><br>Men had built cities before, but never such a city as Diaspar. For millennia its protective dome shut out the creeping decay and danger of the world outside. Once, it held powers that rule the stars.<br><br>But then, as legend has it, the invaders came, driving humanity into this last refuge. It takes one man, a Unique, to break through Diaspar''s stifling inertia, to smash the legend and discover the true nature of the Invaders.</p>