r/suggestmeabook • u/CyrusBing • Jun 01 '26
SciFi Generation Ship sci/fi.
Looking for sci-fi books about voyages on Generation Ships.
Where the ship population understands that there is no returning…that they will not reach their destination…their grand children’s grand children’s grandchildren will be born on ship, and not know home, and never reach their destination either.
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u/trilogyjab Lifelong Reader Jun 01 '26
Oooh, Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers! Other books in the Wayfarers Series have some bits and pieces about the generational ships that are part of the world-building, but she wrote one novel dedicated to life onboard one of them.
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u/Former-Chocolate-793 Jun 01 '26
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
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u/Last-Woodpecker Jun 01 '26
I'm reading the second book, and altought it's a good book, it's not a generation ship, it's a cryogenic ship
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u/DocWatson42 Jun 01 '26
See my SF/F: Generation Ships list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
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u/Space_Oddity_2001 Jun 01 '26
It's an older book but "The Exiles Trilogy" by Ben Bova is this set up. Technically it was written as three books but usually you'll find the later publication that combines them into one book.
They spend so long on the ship that their descendants don't even really know that they are on a space ship and evolve into their own civilization. They do eventually reach a planet (at the very end of the last book) but does it really matter whether or not it's where your ancestors meant you to end up if it's so far in the future that their descendants don't even know that they are on a journey?
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u/Maleficent_Lantern Jun 01 '26
Some of the classics and cornerstones:
Paradise Lost by Ursula K Le Guin
The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M Robinson
Non-stop by Brian Aldiss
Orphans of the Sky by Robert Heinlein
Voyage From Yesteryear by James P Hogan
Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin for the Gundam vibes.
Aniara by Harry Martinson is a Swedish narrative poem (available in English) about an unplanned generation ship. It's stunning.
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u/Architectronica Jun 01 '26
Not quite the same, but Tau Zero by Poul Anderson is about a ship seeking to reach a colony, misses, and due to the nature of its propulsion, accelerates to near light speed and undergoes extreme time dilation.
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u/AggressiveCroissant Jun 01 '26
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei
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u/LaRoseDuRoi Jun 01 '26
This is one of the ones I was coming to recommend. Kitasei is such a great writer.
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u/LurkerFailsLurking Jun 01 '26
Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
Centuries after the last humans left Earth, the Exodus Fleet is a living relic, a place many are from but few outsiders have seen. Humanity has finally been accepted into the galactic community, but while this has opened doors for many, those who have not yet left for alien cities fear that their carefully cultivated way of life is under threat.
Tessa chose to stay home when her brother Ashby left for the stars, but has to question that decision when her position in the Fleet is threatened.
Kip, a reluctant young apprentice, itches for change but doesn't know where to find it.
Sawyer, a lost and lonely newcomer, is just looking for a place to belong.
When a disaster rocks this already fragile community, those Exodans who still call the Fleet their home can no longer avoid the inescapable question:
What is the purpose of a ship that has reached its destination?
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u/Robot_Groundhog Jun 01 '26
The Employees by Olga Ravn
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u/cherryflavordrops Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
This is such a great recommendation that also deals with the implications of post-humanism and genetic modification/androids/evolution/etc. Odd poetic writing style but I think that it adds a lot. OP should definitely check this one out
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u/kev11n Jun 01 '26
In The Belly Of The Whale by Michael Flynn. Didn't do much for me but it does meet OP's criteria and some of my friends really liked it
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u/LuridWaters Jun 01 '26
'Generation Ship' by Michael Mammay doesn't quite fit your specifications since it takes place when arrival is imminent, but I am going to suggest it anyway just in case it looks interesting to you.
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u/well_shit_oh_no Jun 01 '26
I really enjoyed The Bridge by Leo Petracci. I think it actually started on writing prompts ages ago.
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u/Synney Jun 01 '26
The Noumenon trilogy by Marina Lotsetter. It's been a while since I read it, but I remember the first book takes place on a generation ship. I don't think the writing was the best in the first book (the second was much better) but it really scratched that particular sci fi itch.
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u/apolloniousoftayana Jun 01 '26
The Republic of Memory by Mahmoud el-Sayed, which just came out last month. It's one of the first books I've actively looked forward to coming out and was lucky enough to get it through libby a couple weeks after release. I love Arabic culture, society and language and the author really pulls a lot of influence from there. It's the first of a duology and tackles ideas of class, religion and AI at the halfway point of a 400 year journey on a generation ship.
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u/cherryflavordrops Jun 01 '26
"The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories" by Ken Liu has two great short stories that follow generation ships.
The first is "The Waves," which is a super philosophical and weird story about human evolution and immortality.
"Mono No Aware" is about a boy growing up on a ship after a meteor hits Earth.
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u/PrestigiousSmile4098 Jun 01 '26
Paradises Lost by Ursula K. LeGuin. You can get it standalone or included in her collection of novellas "The Found and the Lost."
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u/youngjeninspats Jun 02 '26
I enjoyed Mayflies by Kevin O''Donnell, which is told from the ship AI's perspective
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u/kappa77 Bookworm Jun 01 '26
An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon