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Need help identifying an old Sci-fi book? (generation ship)
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That sounds similar to a book I either read or heard about too. I don't know the title, but hopefully the others can let us know so I can read it!
I am wondering if anyone could help me identify a Sci-fi book I read back in the early 1960's."
Hi, Ken, and welcome to the group.
I wish I had a good answer to your question. Two generation ship stories from the 60s came to mind, but neither are perfect fits:
In Panshin's Rite of Passage, the ship is indeed divided into four sections (engineering, administrative, agricultural, residential.) And there is a journey required as a rite of passage. Except, the rite of passage is conducted on the surface of the planet, not in the generation ship, and the ship doesn't require a course change.
On the other hand, the TV series The Starlost concerned a Generation Ship and a young man who exits one of the biospheres and discovers he needs to find the bridge to start deceleration as it approaches the destination star, and he has to pass through a lot of other biospheres on his search. But there are far more than four biospheres, (The TV series was basically a "biosphere of the week" show). The original TV series was created by new wave author Harlan Ellison, who became totally disenchanted with what the producers decided to do with his baby. He later co-authored a novelized version of his original screenplay as Phoenix Without Ashes.
If you shuffle the pages of both these books together, you might get something like you were looking for. :) Sorry.
Hi, Ken, and welcome to the group.
I wish I had a good answer to your question. Two generation ship stories from the 60s came to mind, but neither are perfect fits:
In Panshin's Rite of Passage, the ship is indeed divided into four sections (engineering, administrative, agricultural, residential.) And there is a journey required as a rite of passage. Except, the rite of passage is conducted on the surface of the planet, not in the generation ship, and the ship doesn't require a course change.
On the other hand, the TV series The Starlost concerned a Generation Ship and a young man who exits one of the biospheres and discovers he needs to find the bridge to start deceleration as it approaches the destination star, and he has to pass through a lot of other biospheres on his search. But there are far more than four biospheres, (The TV series was basically a "biosphere of the week" show). The original TV series was created by new wave author Harlan Ellison, who became totally disenchanted with what the producers decided to do with his baby. He later co-authored a novelized version of his original screenplay as Phoenix Without Ashes.
If you shuffle the pages of both these books together, you might get something like you were looking for. :) Sorry.
Intriguing. So close...No, this one would have had to have been first published before 1965/66.
Thanks,
Ken
It sounds a little like Robert A. Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky which was done in the 50's, I think. That is a generation ship where the kid figures out they need to decelerate, but I'm not sure there is a rite of passage nor do I remember the strict compartmentalization, although there was some sort of status structure among the humans. Much of the ship was taken over by muties. The kid winds up making the first peaceable contact with them in generations.There is a group devoted to finding books for people. It's "What's the Name of That Book", I believe. Nice people, very helpful, unbelievably talented at this.
Jim wrote: "It sounds a little like Robert A. Heinlein's Orphans of the Sky which was done in the 50's, I think. That is a generation ship where the kid figures out they need to decelerate, but I'm not sure t..."
I had that same thought, but my memory wasn't as clear as yours, so I yanked mine off the bookshelf and re-read it just now. (It's only 126 pages; it'd be called a novella these days.) It's a 1951 novel combining two of Heinlein's 40s short stories; my edition has a 1963 printing date.
Heinlein's generation ship gets messed up when there's a mutiny, and everyone forgets it's a ship. (The Ship is the world, and the Trip they are on according to Jordan's Plan, is seen as a religious metaphor, Jordan having been the legendary being who created the Ship.) The main character, Hugh, is indeed training to become a Scientist (I don't think it enumerated the possible careers, but all the humans live together, not separately.) Hugh is on a "mutie hunt" with his buddies (an apparently regular occurrence, not any special ritual) when he's captured by muties (which doubles for both "mutineer" and "mutant" - the head mutie, ahem, actually has two heads and is named Jim-Joe (Jim is the smart one and Joe is the handsome one.) Hugh gets to see the Master Control Room and the Captain's Veranda, from which he can see the stars, which dramatically expands his worldview because they might be thousands of miles away and almost as big as the Ship itself.) Hugh and palls do eventually decelerate and leave the Ship in some sort of shuttle and land on a planet, but most others stayed behind on the Ship.
I had that same thought, but my memory wasn't as clear as yours, so I yanked mine off the bookshelf and re-read it just now. (It's only 126 pages; it'd be called a novella these days.) It's a 1951 novel combining two of Heinlein's 40s short stories; my edition has a 1963 printing date.
Heinlein's generation ship gets messed up when there's a mutiny, and everyone forgets it's a ship. (The Ship is the world, and the Trip they are on according to Jordan's Plan, is seen as a religious metaphor, Jordan having been the legendary being who created the Ship.) The main character, Hugh, is indeed training to become a Scientist (I don't think it enumerated the possible careers, but all the humans live together, not separately.) Hugh is on a "mutie hunt" with his buddies (an apparently regular occurrence, not any special ritual) when he's captured by muties (which doubles for both "mutineer" and "mutant" - the head mutie, ahem, actually has two heads and is named Jim-Joe (Jim is the smart one and Joe is the handsome one.) Hugh gets to see the Master Control Room and the Captain's Veranda, from which he can see the stars, which dramatically expands his worldview because they might be thousands of miles away and almost as big as the Ship itself.) Hugh and palls do eventually decelerate and leave the Ship in some sort of shuttle and land on a planet, but most others stayed behind on the Ship.
Aha! Found it, Ken! The Star Seekers:
Mikal embarkes on the "Journey of the Four Circles" in which every 18-year-old must visit each of the Four Circles if he hoped to become an Engineer. But he unearthed startling truths that threw the starship into a state of chaos....Until you asked, I hadn't realized what a huge trope the "we forgot we're living in a starship" theme apparently is.
That was never one of my favorites by Heinlein, but your recap does make it clearer. Thanks. Congrats on figuring it out.
Jim wrote: "That was never one of my favorites by Heinlein..."
Far from one of my favorite Heinlein's as well. This discussion has given me an excellent excuse to re-read Panshin's Rite of Passage, though, which I do remember fondly.
Far from one of my favorite Heinlein's as well. This discussion has given me an excellent excuse to re-read Panshin's Rite of Passage, though, which I do remember fondly.
G33z3r wrote: "Aha! Found it, Ken! The Star Seekers:Mikal embarkes on the "Journey of the Four Circles" in which every 18-year-old must visit each of the Four Circles if he hoped to become an Engineer. But he une..."Wonderful. Now does anyone no how I might acquire a copy?
I found The Star Seekers on Abebooks.com, but the cheapest was $30+s/h, the same as Amazon.com. (I just prefer to give my business to small businesses.) http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookD...
Paperbackswap.com didn't know the book at all.
Bookmooch.com did, but has no copies.
The good news is you can borrow it from the Internet Archive for free here:
http://archive.org/details/starseeker...
Actually, they have a link to OpenLibrary.org for it. Both great sites, though.
If you have an author name, let me know and I'll check my inventory - I sell vintage paperbacks on eBay and Etsy. I'm out of town right now though (I still have a regular job) and should be home on Sunday.
G33z3r wrote: "Until you asked, I hadn't realized what a huge trope the "we forgot we're living in a starship" theme apparently is."
After I thought about this for a bit, I realized that the trope wasn't so much "we forgot where living in a starship" and was actually "we don't know the true nature of the universe we live in." And of course, this gives the author a chance to examine the idea of people who are struggling to figure out their place in the world. By making the starship a microcosm for the universe, it's easier to examine both the beliefs and struggles of the inhabitants, because the reader can comprehend the concept of a self-contained starship more easily than the entirety of the cosmos. And just as humanity once thought the world flat and that and figured out it was round, and as they thought the universe revolved around the Earth, and then realized Earth revolved around the Sun, and then that the Sun is revolving in a galaxy, so too can the protagonists of the generation ship explore and ever larger world and it's mysteries and purpose.
Is replying to your own post like talking to yourself? No, not at all. Good, I wouldn't want people to wonder about me. Besides, what's wrong with talking to yourself? A little odd, isn't it? Not at all. Perfectly normal. Trust me.
After I thought about this for a bit, I realized that the trope wasn't so much "we forgot where living in a starship" and was actually "we don't know the true nature of the universe we live in." And of course, this gives the author a chance to examine the idea of people who are struggling to figure out their place in the world. By making the starship a microcosm for the universe, it's easier to examine both the beliefs and struggles of the inhabitants, because the reader can comprehend the concept of a self-contained starship more easily than the entirety of the cosmos. And just as humanity once thought the world flat and that and figured out it was round, and as they thought the universe revolved around the Earth, and then realized Earth revolved around the Sun, and then that the Sun is revolving in a galaxy, so too can the protagonists of the generation ship explore and ever larger world and it's mysteries and purpose.
Is replying to your own post like talking to yourself? No, not at all. Good, I wouldn't want people to wonder about me. Besides, what's wrong with talking to yourself? A little odd, isn't it? Not at all. Perfectly normal. Trust me.
@Mathe It's "The Star Seekers" by Milton Lesser. Thanks!
Ken Howard (vicofnick)
Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy
Books mentioned in this topic
The Star Seekers (other topics)Rite of Passage (other topics)
The Star Seekers (other topics)
Orphans of the Sky (other topics)
Orphans of the Sky (other topics)
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I'm new to this group, but I am wondering if anyone could help me identify a Sci-fi book I read back in the early 1960's.
I don't remember anything about the title, but it is about a generation ship, going from Earth to (I think) a planet around Alpha Centuri. The ship is divided into four sections: Engineering, Agriculture, Recreation, and Science. At the start of the voyage, the people of the four sections interacted regularly, but by the time the reader picks up the story, the four sections have become isolated from each other, and there is no social contact between them. The exception is the Engineering section. Engineers, as a right of passage, must make a journey through the four sections and return. The story follows a young man as he makes this coming of age journey, finding out along the way that the time is rapidly approaching that the ship must decelerate, identify the habitable planet, and make the adjustments necessary to enter orbit around it, or the ship will fly into the star.
Anyone remember this book or have any ideas how I might find it?
Thanks,
Ken