What Will Future Cities Be Like?

(i) Cities spread, merge and cover the Earth which thus becomes a single city. Poul Anderson's A Stone In Heaven.

(ii) People live in isolated houses and villages, separated by grass and forests. However, transport and communication are so rapid that Earth is effectively a single city. Old style cities are reborn around spaceports on colony planets. Anderson's The Peregrine.

(iii) Few people remain on Earth. There are starport towns. In Niyork, a few groundcars and pedestrians move between empty, ivy- and lichen-covered towers. Anderson's World Without Stars.

(iv) Cities, burned and wrecked in the Doom, a nuclear war, are taboo to the tribes and mostly uninhabited. Although encroaching forest and incessant weather have almost destroyed the suburbs where wild animals now lair and prowl, central towers still stand with many fallen walls, rusting steel frameworks, empty windows and wind blowing through dusty rooms. Anderson's Vault Of The Ages.

We can rely on Poul Anderson for comprehensive coverage of every imaginable option.

Cities fly through space faster than light in James Blish's Okie series and there is a flying city in Anderson's Psychotechnic History.