"The songs of distant earth"

I've been wanting to write this for a long long time. I recently read a book by Arthur C. Clark, the books called "The songs of distant earth." actually, when i first saw the name, i thought it sounded a bit strange, anyways i had heard a lot about Clark, so i decided to buy it.
The book belongs to the science fiction genre but has so much more to it than just that. It tells the story of the universe in the 3500s, when the solar system has been destroyed. But man had known the exact date that earth and the rest of the solar system would be destroyed so the scientists developed different kinds of seed ships to seed and populate other planets outside our own solar system, in other planetary systems.
The story starts with the introduction of one such planet called Thalassa, that was seeded seven hundred years ago. The planet mostly consists of water but the small population that lives here is very happy. But then, they're visited by the last seed ship sent from the solar system The Megallan, which makes a stop over for some upgrade on the way to their own new world Sagan. From there the real story starts but i dont want to discuss that.
What made me think all through the book was the felt sorrow with which it was written. Like the writer really thought our home earth has been destroyed and he wants to mourn it silently. There was a strange sense of sorrow of despair in absolutely everything. The preparation of seedships firstly by people who knew they'd never hear from them again (each ship took centuries to reach the other planets and the people were put into artificial slumber mostly) and then in the last days, by people who knew they'd not be saved from their own doom by these very ships. They knew, they wouldn't be aboard the ship when the great exodus takes place, but still, they worked tirelessly to save the human race. And they just didn't want to save the race, they wanted it some chosen history as well. I say chosen because firstly they washed out the memories to eliminate the images of loved ones disappearing into to calamitous destruction of the solar system. They didn't leave a trace of religion, which in my opinion was really sad. Because that makes life totally pointless. But anyhow, what they did give to the new worlds was the art, music and literature from earth. They gave the glossary of all the important events and all the creatures that ever existed on earth. Despite being fascinating for a science lover like me ( the concept of quantum drive is just awesome ), it still managed to make me sad. It managed to make me mourn the death of our own world when i knew it never happened. Everything written in it sings a melancholy song of the death of the earth. And everything's about saving human race and what the last people thought was important to them. But when i imagined myself in the place of Megallanians or Lassans, it put me in an even deeper state of sorrow. Leaving everything, your family, friends and children to die just because you're important for the better survival of a new human society, is not an easy idea to reconcile with. And knowing so much about the world, and being put to artificial sleep for centuries, it all adds to the already bleak situation. And living in the last days when everyone knew the time they'd die with a bang wasn't easy. There was commotion and fearlessness all around and everything had gone berserk. On the other hand, living on Thalassa is sad too. They never saw earth, the planet where all life began. They just had images of it, and films ofcourse. They never saw the most beautiful of natural scenes, which existed before the last days. They had to start off the whole of the human society anew. And they still loved earth because they had marked the landing spot of their own mothership as holy. The talked and beamed signals to earth before the final destruction.
These were all feelings which i probably would never know, neither would anyone in this world. Because we never believed we'd go through all this. So all that was registered in my mind was a sense of sorrow. But there were some familiar feelings too. When it was time for the people of Megallan to continue their journey to their own new world, many goodbyes were said. Goodbyes to new best friends, to new colleagues to even new family members! Captain Lorenson even had to bid farewell to his unborn baby. He'd never hear from his wife or child ever again, because by the time Megallan reaches Sagan and Lorenson is roused from his artificial sleep again, atleast 3 generations would've passed! This humanly feeling of saying goodbye forever, is not only heartwrenching but also everyone can relate to. I hate goodbyes, but the book is full of them. But i still really like the book for all the feelings it conveys. And the realisation that leaving religion out of the seedships was a big big mistake.