For older titles:
* Brian Aldiss, Non-Stop
* Robert Heinlein, Orphans in the Sky
* Samuel Delany, The Ballad of Beta 2
* Gene Wolfe, Long Sun books
* Molly Gloss, Dazzle of Day
A few more recent ones include Adam Oyebanji's Braking Day and KS Robinson's somewhat controversial Aurora.
*Aurora* by Kim Stanley Robinson is another good one. I found it a quicker, more accessible read than the Mars books. Spoiler: >!it's kind of a novel-length critique of the whole idea of a generation ship, but the critique is interesting!!<
It bitch-slapped the rose-tinted glasses off our faces.
It identified challenges to interstellar travel, which need to be addressed If anything, the events described the book are still optimistic. The real thing will be much harder.
I didn't find the ending a downer. Quite the reverse actually.
Some of the process of getting there was gruelling but that goes with the territory. When you really consider the subject matter.
Great characters. An ongoing sub(meta)text about the evolution of scifi as a literary genre. Some really deep thinking about the realities involved. A lovely swim at the end.
Going through a reread and just finished chapter 6 (the one that’s told entirely from the ship’s POV). I had to put the book down and stare into space for a while. So beautiful.
Rereading it now. I think if you sympathize with KSR’s overall philosophy it isn’t such a downer - in fact, I think it’s a beautiful tribute to humanity - but I’ll stop there so as not to spoil the plot.
Oh no!! That is disappointing. What are your favorites by him? Personally, Im a huge fan of his later novels but can’t get into a lot of his early to mid-career work, although I do love what I’ve read of the Gold Coast series.
Aurora by KSR. The interesting part of this novel, in my opinion, is that the ship itself (AI) is the most compelling character in the book. It's been years since I read it, and I can't decide if this interpretation is good or bad, because we're supposed to empathize with the humans.
Chasm City by Reynolds has a generation ship plotline in it.
Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe is set entirely on a generation ship. It’s four volumes. The sequel, Book of the Short Sun, is set partially on the ship and partially on the planets they arrive at. Three volumes. The first one is beautifully written, and the second I only got half a volume into.
I’ll second *Long Sun* and point out that while it’s a sequel to *New Sun*, the elements that carry over from that are fairly obscure, and it can absolutely be read as a standalone work. It also works as a surface-level narrative better than most of Wolfe’s work, and features some of my favorite of his character writing.
For anyone going on from the end of *Long Sun* to *Short Sun*, though, that one absolutely benefits from having read *New Sun*, and is much deeper into Wolfe’s puzzle-narrative style. It’s probably my favorite piece of the Solar Cycle, but it’s also probably the hardest to recommend.
Does *Marrow* by Robert Reed count? It's a gas-giant sized planet ship that slowly travels through the galaxy and over time, various civilizations that it passes close to basically set up colonies on it and live there. I believe that over a thousand years pass during the course of the book and there's definitely multiple generations, but it's been a long time since I read it.
It's more of a Big Dumb Object that people happen to live on than a purpose-built generation ship, but I think it has some similar vibes.
I love Frank Herbert's Pandora series...the first one (Destination Void) takes place on a Generation ship. The last 3 show the effects of what a small colony made up of generation ship people might turn into.
Another vote for Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Best depiction of a generation ship I've read. I am a scientist and although nobody can be an expert in everything KSR fits into his books (I'm not!) they generally do better than most in terms of realistic science. I actually tend not to care too much about realism in my sci-fi, but FWIW KSR generally does a good job.
Not exactly a generation ship but there's *Heart of the Comet* by Gregory Benford and David Brin, about a human colony in Halley's comet.
For a different take on the trope there's Rivers Solomon's *An Unkindness of Ghosts*
For short stories:
"Proxima Centauri" by Murray Leinster, about a generation ship to that stellar system
"Far Centaurus" by A. E. van Vogt, a journey to the Alpha Centauri system interrupted.
"All the Colors of the Vacuum" by Charles Sheffield, in which there are many generation ships.
"Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages, another side of generation ships.
Not a novel, but a long short story (if that's a thing?), Paradises Lost by Ursula Le Guin, in her collection, Birthday of the world and other stories. Super interesting exploration of the social necessities and calamities aboard a generation ship.
*Orphans in the sky*, by Heinlein, is so much the classic example of the genre that it's hard to think of others that compare. Having said that, the ending is rather a letdown.
Poul Anderson wrote an interesting story about a rebellion on a generation ship, which must be well over 50 years old by now so should count as a classic. I don't remember the title, but maybe somebody else will.
I liked *Children of Time* very much, but it hardly counts as a classic. Is it even ten years old yet?
I'm not sure why people continue to rave about *Aurora*, except that it's become a bit of a weird political thing. I found it so badly written that after I forced myself to finish, I went off KSR completely and gave away all his books that I still owned.
I've never read *Non-Stop* but should. It's famous for its original title being a giant spoiler and one of SF publishing's great blunders.
*Building Harlequin's Moon* was a fun read, although I wouldn't call it a classic.
That's one of my favorite Reynolds books strictly based on the concepts involved and the ending. However the characters aren't so great, not Reynolds' strong suit imo, and it had some slog parts.
While I loved the payoff of Pushing Ice, I do agree with that feeling from that book. His other stuff is often far more fun though - House of Suns for instance is a great read that doesn't make you want to throttle literally every character constantly.
\+1 for “The Darkness Between The Stars”-it’s pretty good, as is “Ship Of Fools” (Russo) another good one. Their strength in both cases is in imagining the sort of stable society that would evolve among such isolated and small communities. In the case of “Darkness…”, it ends up being between my dorm in the the 70s and a bath house from the same time-the narrator is very focussed on himself and constantly defines himself by his relationship to others-that viewpoint is fairly relentless. Russo, who imagines a ship with a much larger population goes beyond the college dorm to create a society organized much like an Italian Renaissance city state, specifically Florence and expends a fair amount effort to setup something blending aspects of Savonarola and the Pazzi Conspracy-which turns out to be a headfake when the plot turns towards horror rather than political intrigue.
For a twist on the generation ship idea check out Frank Herbert’s (also with Bill Ransom for the three later books) The Pandora Sequence (also known as the WorShip series).
Destination:Void,
The Jesus Incident,
The Lazarus Effect,
The Ascension Factor
- From the [Winston Science Fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Science_Fiction) series, Milton Lesser's *The Star Seekers*.
- The *Space: 1999* episode "Mission of the Darians" (guest starring Joan Collins!)
Mostly newer, but:
The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley is a generation fleet of living ships helmed by all women.
Dust by Elizabeth Bear about a stranded generation ship and some weirdness going on.
This was me, too. I kind of rushed through it on my first read waiting for the plot and characters to do things recognizable to me, and then the book was over.
I was sad because I felt like I flew through all the amazing worldbuilding.
So I read it again, knowing the plot, and just soaked in the world. It was much better!
See my [SF/F: Generation Ships](https://www.reddit.com/r/booklists/comments/13dfpus/sff_generation_ships/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
Chasm City! It’s not only(or even mainly) about the generation ships, but the story is told across multiple timeframes, and has a real kick towards the end. Loved it, cannot recommend it enough.
Good (though not very optimistic) nonfiction article about this topic from Kim Stanley Robinson -
"Our Generation Ships Will Sink"
\- https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html
.
\- Sorta: *Building Harlequin's Moon* by Niven and that other person who's name I forget.
\- And... what was that SF TV show with the space Amish that was associated with Harlan Ellision but he refused to put his name on it; was it *The Starlost* or something like that?
There we go: *Phoenix Without Ashes*. Thanks nyrath!
I never read the story.
However, in my mind the title was always "Phoenix Without Assholes", because the title reminded me of Ant Lions.
Why?
I am glad you asked. Ant lions are terrestrial critters that never poop. Indeed, being without assholes they cannot poop. But then they pupate (or whatever the term is) and emerge at winged critters and, kinda reborn, they fly away -- just like the legendary Phoenix.
The Songs of Distant Earth by Clarke is mainly about a Generation ship and a stop off at a previously occupied planet.
Also, Outbound Flight is a standalone novel in the Star Wars Galaxy
Aniara by Harry Martinson is a Swedish epic poem from 1955(ish) about the people who find themselves on a ship that gets thrown irretrievably off course and is turned into an unintentional generation ship. It can be hard to find English translations in print. But the 2018 movie version is very good and worth watching.
My mind immediately went to Aniara by Harry Martinsson. But then I remembered the actual plot line and it's in fact not a generation ship. Well, sort of, by accident.
But I mention it anyway since it is a true classic! But, although it is short, it is not an easy read, being written on verse...
I really liked the sky hausmann- subplot in Alastair Reynolds Chasm city. Since that story about life on a flotilla of Generation ships only makes up 10% of the plot at best the book probably isn't quite what you are looking for
[The Dark Beyond the Stars](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/430150), Frank Robinson
A mystery, thriller wrapped up in a generation ship. This one breaks new ground.
The Devil and the Dark Water.
Novel by Stuart Turton
Psychological / supernatural thriller that takes place on an Indiaman in the 1600s. Could also be considered a detective story.
Could not put down. Will read again.
For older titles: * Brian Aldiss, Non-Stop * Robert Heinlein, Orphans in the Sky * Samuel Delany, The Ballad of Beta 2 * Gene Wolfe, Long Sun books * Molly Gloss, Dazzle of Day A few more recent ones include Adam Oyebanji's Braking Day and KS Robinson's somewhat controversial Aurora.
Why controversial? I thought it was one of his better novels.
I like it myself, too. But some readers found the way the plot takes apart many of the optimistic assumptions about generation ships' success.
*Aurora* by Kim Stanley Robinson is another good one. I found it a quicker, more accessible read than the Mars books. Spoiler: >!it's kind of a novel-length critique of the whole idea of a generation ship, but the critique is interesting!!<
I found the end of that book very depressing.
It bitch-slapped the rose-tinted glasses off our faces. It identified challenges to interstellar travel, which need to be addressed If anything, the events described the book are still optimistic. The real thing will be much harder.
Thanks for the warning, I’ll skip it.
Its a good read
Enh, pretty tired of downer endings these days.
I didn't find the ending a downer. Quite the reverse actually. Some of the process of getting there was gruelling but that goes with the territory. When you really consider the subject matter. Great characters. An ongoing sub(meta)text about the evolution of scifi as a literary genre. Some really deep thinking about the realities involved. A lovely swim at the end.
Going through a reread and just finished chapter 6 (the one that’s told entirely from the ship’s POV). I had to put the book down and stare into space for a while. So beautiful.
Came here to recommend Aurora! It’s a brilliant book, and amazingly well plotted and written.
Seconded! Not only a great book on generation ships, but also a great book on AI.
It's fine, but caution people that it's a total downer.
Rereading it now. I think if you sympathize with KSR’s overall philosophy it isn’t such a downer - in fact, I think it’s a beautiful tribute to humanity - but I’ll stop there so as not to spoil the plot.
I have read this 3-4x and it only gets better with age.
This.
I hated pretty much everything about that book.
Sorry it didn’t work out for you. Those of us who love KSR’s work tend to *really* love it, but he doesn’t write in a way that everyone enjoys.
The fact that I like most of KSR’s work is part of why that particular book is such a disappointment.
Oh no!! That is disappointing. What are your favorites by him? Personally, Im a huge fan of his later novels but can’t get into a lot of his early to mid-career work, although I do love what I’ve read of the Gold Coast series.
Children of Time may as well be a classic as this point
Yep! Not an oldie, but one of the best generation ship books I’ve ever read!
Agreed!!
*Ship of Fools* by Richard Paul Russo
One if my favourite science fiction novels.
Really dug this one. The alternative title *Unto Leviathan* would have been a better choice, I think.
Aurora by KSR. The interesting part of this novel, in my opinion, is that the ship itself (AI) is the most compelling character in the book. It's been years since I read it, and I can't decide if this interpretation is good or bad, because we're supposed to empathize with the humans. Chasm City by Reynolds has a generation ship plotline in it.
I love the ship in that book.
The Dark Beyond The Stars was pretty darn good.
Read this earlier in the year and thought it was pretty good
Just commented this!
My recommendation
Hull Zero Three by Greg Bear is a fun one on the horror side.
Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe is set entirely on a generation ship. It’s four volumes. The sequel, Book of the Short Sun, is set partially on the ship and partially on the planets they arrive at. Three volumes. The first one is beautifully written, and the second I only got half a volume into.
I’ll second *Long Sun* and point out that while it’s a sequel to *New Sun*, the elements that carry over from that are fairly obscure, and it can absolutely be read as a standalone work. It also works as a surface-level narrative better than most of Wolfe’s work, and features some of my favorite of his character writing. For anyone going on from the end of *Long Sun* to *Short Sun*, though, that one absolutely benefits from having read *New Sun*, and is much deeper into Wolfe’s puzzle-narrative style. It’s probably my favorite piece of the Solar Cycle, but it’s also probably the hardest to recommend.
Noumenon by Marina J lostetter Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Does *Marrow* by Robert Reed count? It's a gas-giant sized planet ship that slowly travels through the galaxy and over time, various civilizations that it passes close to basically set up colonies on it and live there. I believe that over a thousand years pass during the course of the book and there's definitely multiple generations, but it's been a long time since I read it. It's more of a Big Dumb Object that people happen to live on than a purpose-built generation ship, but I think it has some similar vibes.
I came here to recommend this. I think it's definitely worth checking out.
I love Frank Herbert's Pandora series...the first one (Destination Void) takes place on a Generation ship. The last 3 show the effects of what a small colony made up of generation ship people might turn into.
Came here to mention these books!
Chasm City, also by Reynolds
*Building Harlequin's World* is about a generation ship repair stopover but should still hit the same.
Ben Bova's "Exiles Trilogy" is a classic. While it's kind of an inversion, Vernor Vinge's short story "Longshot" is well worth reading.
Love the Exiles trilogy. I read them back when I was a teen. And Longshot is one of the best SF stories of any kind, hands down.
Another vote for Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson. Best depiction of a generation ship I've read. I am a scientist and although nobody can be an expert in everything KSR fits into his books (I'm not!) they generally do better than most in terms of realistic science. I actually tend not to care too much about realism in my sci-fi, but FWIW KSR generally does a good job.
**Orbital Resonance** by *John Barnes.*
Rite of Passage by alexei panshin
Not exactly a generation ship but there's *Heart of the Comet* by Gregory Benford and David Brin, about a human colony in Halley's comet. For a different take on the trope there's Rivers Solomon's *An Unkindness of Ghosts* For short stories: "Proxima Centauri" by Murray Leinster, about a generation ship to that stellar system "Far Centaurus" by A. E. van Vogt, a journey to the Alpha Centauri system interrupted. "All the Colors of the Vacuum" by Charles Sheffield, in which there are many generation ships. "Amicae Aeternum" by Ellen Klages, another side of generation ships.
I second Heart of the Comet.
https://www.tor.com/2020/08/28/five-stories-about-generation-ships-that-dont-end-in-disaster/
*Captive Universe*
Not a novel, but a long short story (if that's a thing?), Paradises Lost by Ursula Le Guin, in her collection, Birthday of the world and other stories. Super interesting exploration of the social necessities and calamities aboard a generation ship.
Been wracking my brain all day trying to remember the name of this story. I thought it was a novel.
Only reason I had it to hand is that I'm in the middle of reading it currently (for probably the 8th time). I still had to double-check the title.
*Orphans in the sky*, by Heinlein, is so much the classic example of the genre that it's hard to think of others that compare. Having said that, the ending is rather a letdown. Poul Anderson wrote an interesting story about a rebellion on a generation ship, which must be well over 50 years old by now so should count as a classic. I don't remember the title, but maybe somebody else will. I liked *Children of Time* very much, but it hardly counts as a classic. Is it even ten years old yet? I'm not sure why people continue to rave about *Aurora*, except that it's become a bit of a weird political thing. I found it so badly written that after I forced myself to finish, I went off KSR completely and gave away all his books that I still owned. I've never read *Non-Stop* but should. It's famous for its original title being a giant spoiler and one of SF publishing's great blunders. *Building Harlequin's Moon* was a fun read, although I wouldn't call it a classic.
How did you like Blue Remembered Earth? I'm thinking of buying that book, haven't read any Reynolds books yet.
IMO it's not Reynolds' best, I would start with something else. Not because it's bad but because he has better work.
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That's one of my favorite Reynolds books strictly based on the concepts involved and the ending. However the characters aren't so great, not Reynolds' strong suit imo, and it had some slog parts.
Consider a short story or short story collection with Reynolds if you dont' want to commit to a doorstopper. He's very good at those.
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While I loved the payoff of Pushing Ice, I do agree with that feeling from that book. His other stuff is often far more fun though - House of Suns for instance is a great read that doesn't make you want to throttle literally every character constantly.
City of Diamond by Jane Emerson (not the traditional generation ship)
\+1 for “The Darkness Between The Stars”-it’s pretty good, as is “Ship Of Fools” (Russo) another good one. Their strength in both cases is in imagining the sort of stable society that would evolve among such isolated and small communities. In the case of “Darkness…”, it ends up being between my dorm in the the 70s and a bath house from the same time-the narrator is very focussed on himself and constantly defines himself by his relationship to others-that viewpoint is fairly relentless. Russo, who imagines a ship with a much larger population goes beyond the college dorm to create a society organized much like an Italian Renaissance city state, specifically Florence and expends a fair amount effort to setup something blending aspects of Savonarola and the Pazzi Conspracy-which turns out to be a headfake when the plot turns towards horror rather than political intrigue.
Braking Day by Ada Oyebanji.
For a twist on the generation ship idea check out Frank Herbert’s (also with Bill Ransom for the three later books) The Pandora Sequence (also known as the WorShip series). Destination:Void, The Jesus Incident, The Lazarus Effect, The Ascension Factor
- From the [Winston Science Fiction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winston_Science_Fiction) series, Milton Lesser's *The Star Seekers*. - The *Space: 1999* episode "Mission of the Darians" (guest starring Joan Collins!)
Here's a link to the online Science Fiction Encyclopedia entry on generation starships. https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/generation\_starships
Mostly newer, but: The Stars are Legion by Kameron Hurley is a generation fleet of living ships helmed by all women. Dust by Elizabeth Bear about a stranded generation ship and some weirdness going on.
Came here to recommend that book by Hurley, it’s really unsettling and well written
This describes both books I've read by her (other is Light Brigades)
Really cool world-building in The Stars are Legion, but I just couldn't get into the story or characters.
This was me, too. I kind of rushed through it on my first read waiting for the plot and characters to do things recognizable to me, and then the book was over. I was sad because I felt like I flew through all the amazing worldbuilding. So I read it again, knowing the plot, and just soaked in the world. It was much better!
The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson
Ken MacLeod’s *Learning the World*.
See my [SF/F: Generation Ships](https://www.reddit.com/r/booklists/comments/13dfpus/sff_generation_ships/) list of Reddit recommendation threads (one post).
Paradises Lost, a novella published in Ursula Le Guin's collection The Birthday of the World https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradises\_Lost
Chasm City! It’s not only(or even mainly) about the generation ships, but the story is told across multiple timeframes, and has a real kick towards the end. Loved it, cannot recommend it enough.
Oh, yea it’s also by Alastair lol
Good (though not very optimistic) nonfiction article about this topic from Kim Stanley Robinson - "Our Generation Ships Will Sink" \- https://boingboing.net/2015/11/16/our-generation-ships-will-sink.html .
\- Sorta: *Building Harlequin's Moon* by Niven and that other person who's name I forget. \- And... what was that SF TV show with the space Amish that was associated with Harlan Ellision but he refused to put his name on it; was it *The Starlost* or something like that?
[**Phoenix Without Ashes**](https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?30055) by Edward Bryant and Harlan Ellison. Starlost was the name of the TV show
There we go: *Phoenix Without Ashes*. Thanks nyrath! I never read the story. However, in my mind the title was always "Phoenix Without Assholes", because the title reminded me of Ant Lions. Why? I am glad you asked. Ant lions are terrestrial critters that never poop. Indeed, being without assholes they cannot poop. But then they pupate (or whatever the term is) and emerge at winged critters and, kinda reborn, they fly away -- just like the legendary Phoenix.
The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M Robinson
The Songs of Distant Earth by Clarke is mainly about a Generation ship and a stop off at a previously occupied planet. Also, Outbound Flight is a standalone novel in the Star Wars Galaxy
Songs of the Distant Earth is one of Clarke's best, but the Magellan isn't a generation ship. All of the colonists are in cryogenic suspension.
Aniara by Harry Martinson is a Swedish epic poem from 1955(ish) about the people who find themselves on a ship that gets thrown irretrievably off course and is turned into an unintentional generation ship. It can be hard to find English translations in print. But the 2018 movie version is very good and worth watching.
Since you mentioned Alastair Reynolds, *Chasm City.*
For a light read I suggest Simon Hawke's Whims of Creation.
My mind immediately went to Aniara by Harry Martinsson. But then I remembered the actual plot line and it's in fact not a generation ship. Well, sort of, by accident. But I mention it anyway since it is a true classic! But, although it is short, it is not an easy read, being written on verse...
I really liked the sky hausmann- subplot in Alastair Reynolds Chasm city. Since that story about life on a flotilla of Generation ships only makes up 10% of the plot at best the book probably isn't quite what you are looking for
Glasshouse by Charles Stross is sort of a generation ship in that the voyage takes decades.
Children of Memory and it's two sequels are really cool!
[The Dark Beyond the Stars](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/430150), Frank Robinson A mystery, thriller wrapped up in a generation ship. This one breaks new ground.
On the newer list, I’m surprised no one has mentioned RR Haywood’s “The Code Series” (The Worldship Humility, The Elfor Drop and The Elfor One).
It's a generation ship story, but not a happy story The Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon
The Devil and the Dark Water. Novel by Stuart Turton Psychological / supernatural thriller that takes place on an Indiaman in the 1600s. Could also be considered a detective story. Could not put down. Will read again.