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jmz1978
March 30th, 2005, 04:51 PM
I have been trying to find a book I read about 13 years ago. I can't remember who wrote it or what it is called, so I'm having a rough go of it.

It's about a society that lives on an enormous spacecraft, although they do not know it's a spacecraft, they think it's their world. Thousands of years beforehand the society had to leave their home world for some reason, and they all boarded this spacecraft in order to get to a new one. However, the journey was going to be so long that they had to plan to be on this ship for thousands of years. But what happened was that so much time went by that eventually the new generations on the ship never even learned they were on the ship, they just assumed this was their world.
There's a boy in the story, and also monsters of some type that live in the bottom levels of the ship. I believe the boy befriends the monsters and they begin to unravel the true story of the ship.

Any ideas? I'm desperate.
KatG
March 30th, 2005, 06:08 PM
Well, it could be a different story/series, but I'll guess Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Book of the Ur-Sun books, a sf classic series.
jmz1978
March 30th, 2005, 07:18 PM
Well, it could be a different story/series, but I'll guess Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun and Book of the Ur-Sun books, a sf classic series.


I just researched those books, and that's not the story I'm thinking of unfortunatly. But thanks anyway! Any other ideas?
Lowlander
March 31st, 2005, 01:18 AM
I'am almost sure this is "Orphans of the Sky" by Robert Heinlein.
Yobmod
March 31st, 2005, 06:14 AM
Non-stop by aldiss has a generation ship with the inhabitants regressed and 'giants' living underground. But the main character isn't a kid...
Lowlander
March 31st, 2005, 07:45 AM
You're right about the Aldiss book. But if I'am not mistaken the book was called "Starship" in the US edition. It happened frequently in the 60's British novels were given different names in the US.

Orphans of the Sky tells the story of Hugh Hoyland, a young novice of the ruling class who goes exploring other levels and meets "monsters" (who are actually mutants) and so on...
raggedyman
April 3rd, 2005, 06:49 PM
The book you described sounds like "The World And Thorinn" by Damon Knight. Its been a long time since I read it but from what I remember it seemed to be a homage to Heinlein's "Orphans".
jmz1978
April 4th, 2005, 04:50 PM
I think Orphans of the Sky is it!!!! I'm going to go out and buy it tomorrow to be sure, but I just read the summary on amazon and it sounds like it! Thank you guys so much!