About this title: The Jordan Foundation sponsored the Proxima Centauri Expedition in 2119, in attempt to reach the nearer stars of the galaxy. But that was far in the mythic past. The original purpose of the Ship's epic voyage has long been forgotten, and gor generations the ginat spaceship, lost between the stars, is the only world that the people aboard have known. A strange civilization has evolved, with its own superstitions, savage religion, rigid class structure and mutant outcasts. Then, one young man discovers the truth about the Ship and changes everything, for ever...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Medallion Book
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780425032176ISBN:0425032175
Description: Good. No marks, no writing, clean and clear text, tight binding, minor edgewear, creasing down spine, wear on covers, edges of pages are starting to tan. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Ace Books
Date Published: 1987
ISBN-13:9780441639137ISBN:0441639135
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Ex-library. Used; ex-library (school) with usual attachments and markings. Shelf and edge wear, still a good reading copy. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Signet, New York, NY
Date Published: 1963
Description: Good. Delamination front cover, 1/4 by 3/4 inch lower edge. Inside a spaceship, the savage remnants of the original colonists have forgotten about the external universe and believe that they are the world. A very good generation-ship novel. read more
Edition: 1st printing.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: New American Library, New York
Date Published: 1965
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 128 p.; 18 cm. A Signet book; D2618.. Originally published as a two-part serial in Astounding science fiction in 1941, under the titles: Universe and Common sense. Front cover photo by Sidney Kramer. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: NAL, NEW YORK
Date Published: 1965
Description: Fair. #D2618 (April 1965). Red crayon star at top corner of front endpaper else interior is unmarked with browning throughout. White covers have heavy rubbing, browning and light edge & corner wear. Still a very solid reading copy. (PB#1) read more
Description: VG Used, Very Good in VG jacket. PAPERBACK, VG/VG, Berkley, 1981, 1 in. H x 7 in. L x 5 in. W, 1.5 oz. This copy has visible but minimal creasing of the spine, is in otherwise Very Good condition. Special Notes on this book: light creases on rear cover Note: expect tanning of any paperback more than a few years old, regardless of condition. read more
Description: Fair. B000FLRR3W PLEASE NOTE: RELATIVELY POOR CONDITION BUT ACCEPTABLE READING COPY. 1965 Signet paperback. Cover is stained, very worn and creased. Pages tanned with age. About 10 pages have bent corners. Not ex-library. Text is unmarked. Reading copy only. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Berkley
Date Published: 1970-11-01
ISBN-13:9780425019085ISBN:042501908X
Description: Good. No names, no marks, no stickers. Text is clean, and unmarked with light edge tan. Has some back pocket warp. We recommend EXPEDITED MAIL for even faster delivery! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Date Published: 1970
ISBN-13:9780425019085ISBN:042501908X
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has minor wear, no folds or creases, pages are clean and unmarked except stamp/ink mark on top edge of pages. Mass-market paperback (US). Glued binding. Audience: General/trade. read more
"It took me awhile to read this book I must say, but I wouldn't blame it on the book. It's not exactly up my alley, but I did find it to have an interesting plot, so it might be one to consider."
"I've had bouncing around in my head for a few years now a story about a boy suddenly thrust into a position of responsibility on a generation ship. If I ever get around to writing the story, I want to avoid reinventing the wheel, wearing out already well-worn tropes, and treading over ground that has been well-trod before. So I've been trying to read every "generation ship" book I can get my hands on. (Next up is Non-Stop by Bryan Aldiss). If I hadn't set out on this particular quest, I probably never would have read Orphans of the Sky. I've read Heinlein before. In fact, I've read almost all of the books he's best known for (Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress), and they've all been good (especially TMIAHM), but I don't have time to read all of the "classic" sci-fi out there.
I'm glad I read it. It gave me plenty of ideas to use and to avoid (again, if I ever actually get around to writing the story I've been contemplating). But this certainly wasn't one Heinlein's best novels. In this one, woman are treated terribly (like chattels) without any commentary on how that is bad, there's no groundbreaking ideas, and the themes and motifs of the book are very simple. The main character is a young man living on the lower levels of a giant generation ship. There was a rebellion after a nuclear power accident centuries ago, and the mutants that resulted from the radiation leak live in the upper levels of the ship, where gravity is much lighter. The book tells the story of how the young man becomes a slave to one of the mutants (a two-headed man), discovers that the "world" is actually a ship travelling through space and will soon reach the destination to which it was initially intended to travel(concepts he barely grasps, if at all), and returns to the lower levels to convince people there to help him control the ship so that it will actually stop at its destination. He seeks the help of some of the lower level "scientists" (who are treated as and act like priests . . . something I was contemplating for my story, but since it's already been done, I'll have to rethink that), but is arrested for heresy. He escapes with the help of some mutants, and kidnaps the head scientist, showing him the control room of the ship and an observation deck where the stars can be seen. The scientist becomes convinced of the "truth" and he and the young man begin working to convince enough mutants and lower dwellers of that truth to allow them to control the ship.
They involve a politician from the lower dwellers, and he ends up betraying them. The young man is barely able to escape, with his friend and their wives, on a shuttle he finds. By sheer (astronomical, it seems to me) luck, he is able to land the shuttle on a planet orbiting the star that was their destination. Again, the story was okay. The political/religious commentary seemed simplistic (politicians are corrupt and can't be trusted . . . religion is based on the observable universe, but is often wrong). And the characters weren't well developed.
There were some ideas that I liked, however. The people weren't really aware of seasons, night and day, and the passage of time. The people were always putting all of their unused things and dead bodies into a recycler. The politician at the end basically staged another revolution, ousting the religious scientists, likely dooming the people to total and complete ignorance. The scientists explanation of scientific texts that survived the first revolt had fanciful and philosophical (and totally incorrect) explanations for concepts like gravity, molecular physics, etc."
"Say that humans figure out how to send people on multi-generational interstellar voyages. The people in one ship have been in this ship so long, they've forgotten that the outside world exists. Can one person set them straight?"
"This was one of the most important books of my childhood. The questioning of authority, existential inquiry and transcendence are just some of the themes that are explored."
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