What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

Looking for sci fic reader to hopefully help me find the name of a book!
Trying to find a book my brother read and can't remember the title. Galactic civilization has failed. Many different cultures traveling on an advanced spaceship. He thinks the ship is called "the Infinity Ship". One line from the book he remembers is "So now the monster is me"

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin? The spaceship is called the Integral.

Sadly not the right book :( However "We" DOES sound like a great book for me lol!! Thanks anyway.

Revelation Space has a ship called "Nostalgia for Infinity," although the other plot details don't sound promising.

Drat! Not that one either :( Thanks though.

About how long ago did your brother read his book Burnt? And did he think it was new or older or even OLD then?

I am almost positive that I remember that book, but it was a LONG time ago, if it is the same one. (By a long time ago, I mean late 60's to the 80's.) And it could have been even older than that when it was published.

Well he regularly buys books from thrift stores so it could be an older book.

I spoke to my brother and he did remember something else but it may not be much help. He says ther w2as, amoung the many different cultures aboard the ship, a caveman or similar character. I hope someone can help me find this for my brother.

Your comment made me think of Waiting for the Galactic Bus by Parke Godwin.. but I don't think it's the one you are looking for, since it involves extraterrestrials coming to Earth and providing the impetuous to create religion.

drat :( Sounds like a good book though :) Thanks.

It is!

Well if you like very broad biting satire

lol I think I will like it a lot!!

Brian W Aldiss' _Non-Stop_ has a generation ship.

Thanks I'll check that out.

Sorry not that one either :( Thanks though. I wish he could remember a name or something else from the book. It just isn't much to go on.

Here's another large Dyson sphere that I think this request is not. Shaw's _Orbitsville_ (also a trilogy)

Another bunch of books that I suspect it is not, but does involve a generation ship ("Whorl") is the award-winning & acclaimed Solar Cycle by Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (4 vols) The Book of the Long Sun (4 vols) & The Book of the Short Sun.

Heinlein's _Orphans of the Sky_ has a generation ship named "Vanguard" (which was rarely used in the book), but is also not the book you're looking for.

Thanks sweetie Ill check those out! They sound interesting enough to add to my booklist lol

Destination: Void", by Frank Herbert. Although the monster is the ship.

He says its definately not a generation ship, and there are not very many people on the ship together. Maybe just a handfull.

Okay, so all of these cultures have been recently taken on-board this ship?

There's _Manhattan Transfer_, but for some species/cultures that ship was a generation ship.... And I don't recall that line anywhere in there, nor were there any cavemen (were these cavemen human?). Also, a lot of people (all of Manhattan for human species, and likewise for each alien culture) in the ship, not a 'handful'. (btw, how does a 'handful' of people (also, is your brother qualifying aliens as people?) represent a lot of different cultures?)

Aparently what he meant to say to me was - a handful of people (aliens included) from different galactic cultures are traveliing on the infinity ship after the galactic civilization has collapsed. Not sure if the cavemen were human, I think he just called them that for lack of a better description. I am working my way back through all the books I had already looked at and dismissed because I thought there would have been a LOT of "beings" aboard the ship and dismissed some for having only a few beings. Sorry for the confusion. I keep hoping he will remember more but no luck so far. I assume each of the travelers would be from a different place or planet and thats what he means by "many cultures traveling together"

Space Skimmer by David Gerrold?
http://www.amazon.com/Space-Skimmer-D...

Sorry sweetie not the right one :(

Well now I am intrigued and want to read this as well! Hope you find it.

LOL me too!

I hate to say it but I may just have to give up. I have been searching for a month and am no closer to locating this book :(

Pftt, break a sweat kid. My first one took almost four years to find.

Psssh. Short-timers. I've gone longer on searches that eventually turned up successful. And I've also got searches that're still waiting for successful resolutions.

Just put it on your monthly calendar, and come back and check up on it.

Be sure to ask your meat-search-engines. Your local librarian, your local bookstore (who will also know your local bibliomaniacs, who may know what you're looking for).

Good idea! See you in a month.

Something by Brian Aldiss? It rings just the tiniest of bells and that name seems to be associated with it

I found what I thought maybe it was, Non Stop

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Stop...

but I don't think this matches all of the OP's plot

Or maybe Heinlein

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphans_...

Again not an exact match, but in the right area that its worth mentioning just in case

This is a real long shot, but it reminds me very strongly of an old TV show called "The Starlost", from at least the early 70's. Is it at all possible he read a novelization of it? (The show itself was Harlan Ellison, but any tie-in novel would probably not be - according to wikipedia he disowned it before it aired, but it was reading an Ellison biography that jogged my memory anyway.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Star... - if you look at the episodes, pretty much everything you mentioned is in there, from the crew not being aware of the generation ship itself, to cavemen.

Thanks for the bump :) Sadly I still have not been able to locate the book :( The suggestions that have been posted have had me reading things I never thought I would though lol! I am still searching and I hope I can one day find it for my brother. He did tell me that he read it when he was rather young (he was born in 1962) and the book was an old one even then. I am hoping for a visit to a larger library (ours is the size of my bedroom) for more brain picking. Thanks everyone.

Ok, NOT set on a space ship, but in some ways it kind of reminds me of the book Retread Shop. But only in some ways--the Galactic Civilization and it collapsing is part of the theme of this book--but it deals with multiple collapses and then re-rising of civilizations. In fact, the Retread Shop of the title is a space station that was created billions (and yes, that IS with a "B") of years ago and yet is found and re-used by the intervening Civilizations.

I really don't think that that's it, but thought I'd toss it into the hat, just in case. . .

Sounds like a great book though! Thanks for trying :)

This rings a bell. I read a book a few years ago which had a bunch of various races on a huge spaceship. There was some sort of conspiracy against the captain (who I think was a woman) and it turned out that there was an entire planet contained within a sealed off part of the ship, which may have had something to do with powering the vessel. Some of the story then took place on the surface of this planet, which was at a much lower technological state than the rest of the ship.

Very interesting! I will relate all that to my brother and see if it sparks anything! Thank you.

BTW, I remembered the book I was reminded of - it is Marrow by Robert Reed.

Perhaps not the one you're looking for - doesn't match all the story elements but quite an interesting concept, even if it wasn't totally successful as a novel.

There was a sequel too - The Well of Stars.

How about The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson? In it, some humans are born immortal, and end up on a spaceship, exploring space.

_Boat of a Million Years_ has a ton of earth-people on it (but only the initially immortal characters are of any importance), but no other cultures (view spoiler)[the only other culture is one they meet on the way. (hide spoiler)]

Checked these but still no go :(

Bumping

Mixed cultures starship. Infinity Starship.

Bumping this back up because I'm still curious.

You're really sure it's not Space Skimmer? That has both the right plot and the line "now the monster is me".

In Pathfinder by Orson Scott Card there is a side story that runs at the beginning of each section about the astronaut that piloted one of the infinity ships heading to the new planet. For some reason the quote 'Now the monster is me' made me think immediately of this book. I have no idea if it is what you are looking for but worth a shot. Again..it's totally not the main story but a side/back story that explains why things are the way they are on the new planet.

Space Skimmer for Daphne's link

Space Skimmer has this line, too:

...you did nothing to make yourself free-
so slaves you'll remain for all your days-
only now, the monster is me!

Marla, was Space Skimmer it?

I'm so sorry that I haven't been checking in her for a long time! Calling my brother right now with that quote.........
OMG!!!! That's the book!!!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! Hugs all around!!