Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
I'm tearing my hair out trying to find/remember the title of a book I read in high school. The plot centered on a ship made out of an asteroid which had been programmed to seek out human-habitable planets. It contained genetic information onboard and could recreate and raise human children, educating them and bringing them up to be colonists, and teaching them about the Earth they'd left behind. I also remember something about the hollow center of the asteroid being an artificial planet-like surface, I think called the Hollow.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
The concept of a robot seeding-ship is an old one. Notable examples I can recall are Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth, and, more recently, a mention of such ships used to colonise the planet Yellowstone in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space series of novels. Obviously the book you're trying to remember isn't these latter ones, which definitely didn't have the ship built into an asteroid; and I can't remember whether the one used in the former involved an asteroid or not.
Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
lol its not For the World is Hollow and I have Touched Myself in Public Places. I remember it involved cryogenic freezing of a generation of colonists when the first planet turned out to be not so habitable after all, and I know the concept of robot seed probes is old...but I remember this also had the people who sent the probe stowing away onboard; they turned out to be dissidents who didnt like the way the human race was becoming cybernetic, and tried to take over the soon-to-be-founded colony. Also the Hollow and the asteroid ship itself seem distinctive...but try googling hollow asteroid robot seed and nothing :-/
Registered: Jul 2005
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Da_bang80
A few sectors short of an Empire
Member # 528
posted
You could try heading down to the library or a decent bookstore and asking the clerk if they know of it. It's a small chance but you may just get lucky.
-------------------- Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. The courage to change the things I cannot accept. And the wisdom to hide the bodies of all the people I had to kill today because they pissed me off.
posted
Wasn't Hollow about the TARDIS astroid, the back end was never ending on the inside, or near enugh so? Had a little US/USSR space battle and all the fireworks...
It was nicknamed potato, the astroid was.
If Hollow isn't the name, anyone know what it is?
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
Registered: Sep 2000
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
That was Eon by Greg Bear, I believe. I haven't read it, but i know the Russians nicknamed the asteroid the Potato whereas the US called it the Stone. The bit of the interior that was larger than the exterior was called err the Way I think.
Also: BAHHHH! I GOT IT! Google Book Search showed me a tiny chunk of a book that reviewed the title I'm talking about, and I caught the name of one of the characters, Zoheret, which led me to a forum via Google where someone had asked the same question I did, with th exception that she knew the name Zoheret. (I *love* search hunts like that! When they work out anyway.) Anyway, its Earthseed by Pamela Sargent.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
Ben Bova's Exile's Series (I think it was that one) Dealt with a ship with the crew in cryosleep. The crew were programmed to wake up upon arrival at the new star system.
Something happened and the first location was not a good choice. The crew went into cryosleep and the ship went on its way to another location. During the voyage the ship impacted with a meteor and damaged several components. The adults were killed and the ship raised the children. Various social and cultural issues resulted.
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Ritten is indeed referring to Eon.It's a hell of a read- even with the whole cold-war backdrop it still works today, as the concept involves altering the timeline and probably making a new one (the "potato" is from the distant future). Really worth reading (though Bear really kicks ass with Anvil of Stars).
Never heard of Earthseed.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
Registered: Aug 2002
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Daniel Butler
I'm a Singapore where is my boat
Member # 1689
posted
It's part of a trilogy, but I only read the first one. I think it was aimed at highschool/middle school audiences. It's filled with frozen embryos that it births in artificial placentas and raises the children to be colonists. The Hollow was a giant spherical empty spot in the middle with an Earthlike environment used to train the kids to scratch a living off a planet. Then a prior group of colonists is unfrozen; something had wrong with the first choice. Again, various social issues result as both groups see the planet as 'theirs.' It's very good.
Registered: Jul 2005
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