On the Clarkesworld Magazine website to read here, which I recommend you find the time to do.
The story starts of with a bang – one at the top of a space elevator on Earth in a couple of decades time. However the rest of the story is much more sedate, looking through the eyes of a number of linked characters. The theme of the story is the earth of the Earth, the link to Earth and to humanity, and the competing call to reach for the skies and to leave Earth.
The story is set in Eastern Europe, with a son breaking the soil with his bare fingers to bury his recently departed father, and Clarke very much keeps a similar grip throughout the story.
