Family on spaceship
Dates: 4/3/02,4:06 PM through 4/4/02,6:11 PM (5 postings)
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Fiction_L Archives
Family on spaceship
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FROM: [removed]@boroondara.vic.gov.au
REC'D: 4/3/02, 4:06 PM
I have a patron who is trying to track down the author and title of a
science fiction short story. The story focusses on a multi-generational
family living on board a spaceship. They have been travelling in space for
the lifespan of one or two generations.
One day, one of the children on board discovers a hole in the side of the
spaceship. He finally gets through it to find that the ship is actually in
a hangar and not in space at all!
Thanks in advance for your help
Sue Gray
Adult Services & Balwyn Librarian
City Of Boroondara Library Service
Melbourne, Australia
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FROM: "Pat Ferguson" <[removed]@smlnet.sml.lib.la.us>
REC'D: 4/4/02, 9:01 AM
-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.webrary.org
[[removed]@maillist.webrary.org]On Behalf Of
[removed]@boroondara.vic.gov.au
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 4:04 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: Family on spaceship
Hi everyone,
I have a patron who is trying to track down the author and title of a
science fiction short story. The story focusses on a multi-generational
family living on board a spaceship. They have been travelling in space for
the lifespan of one or two generations.
One day, one of the children on board discovers a hole in the side of the
spaceship. He finally gets through it to find that the ship is actually in
a hangar and not in space at all!
Thanks in advance for your help
Sue Gray
Adult Services & Balwyn Librarian
City Of Boroondara Library Service
Melbourne, Australia
**********************************************************************
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they
are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify
the system manager.
This footnote also confirms that this email message has been swept by
MIMEsweeper for the presence of computer viruses.
www.mimesweeper.com
**********************************************************************
FROM: Cynthia Orr <[removed]@cpl.org>
REC'D: 4/4/02, 4:15 PM
That's definitely one of what some people call a "generation starship" book,
but I don't remember the hangar part. Also try
Captive Universe by Harry Harrison
Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss
Rogue Ship by A.E. Van Vogt
and more here: http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/thisthat.html#space
Cindy
---
Cynthia Orr
Collection Manager
Cleveland Public Library
17133 Lake Shore Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44110
(216) 623-2906
Fax - (216)623-2977
www.cpl.org
FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 4/4/02, 4:36 PM
The irritating thing is that I think I've read the story in
question (and it would be a short story, not a novel), but can't
remember what it is. The only semi-relevant one that comes to
mind is Robert Bloch's "The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton,"
which involves a fraud of sorts--the (one-person) inhabitant of
the ship, lacking any way of telling time, believes he is in
space for decades and grows old: in fact he has never left
earth and was enclosed in the ship for only a week or so. Same
general idea, but no children and no hole in the ship etc.
Many more stories (mostly novels, again) are cited in the entry
on "Generation starships" in the ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION,
but again none seem to match the hoax-revealed kicker described.
Pamela Sargent's EARTHSEED (a novel), which I haven't read, has
children as protagonists anyway...but rest does not seem to fit:
http://www.sff.net/people/PSargent/earthsee.htm
Sorry,
Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu
At 05:09 PM 4/4/02 -0500, you wrote:
>>I think this may be "Orphans of the Sky" by Heinlein.
>
>That's definitely one of what some people call a "generation starship" book,
>but I don't remember the hangar part. Also try
>
>Captive Universe by Harry Harrison
>Non-Stop by Brian Aldiss
>Rogue Ship by A.E. Van Vogt
>
>and more here: http://www.magicdragon.com/UltimateSF/thisthat.html#space
>
>Cynthia Orr
>Collection Manager
>Cleveland Public Library
>17133 Lake Shore Boulevard
>Cleveland, OH 44110
>(216) 623-2906
>Fax - (216)623-2977
>www.cpl.org
>
>
Hi everyone,
I have a patron who is trying to track down the author and title of a
science fiction short story. The story focusses on a multi-generational
family living on board a spaceship. They have been travelling in space for
the lifespan of one or two generations.
One day, one of the children on board discovers a hole in the side of the
spaceship. He finally gets through it to find that the ship is actually in
a hangar and not in space at all!
Thanks in advance for your help
Sue Gray
Adult Services & Balwyn Librarian
City Of Boroondara Library Service
Melbourne, Australia
FROM: Heuer <[removed]@itol.com>
REC'D: 4/4/02, 6:11 PM
--
Jeanne Heuer
Brown County Library
Green Bay, WI
[removed]@itol.com
"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, Art is knowing which ones
to keep." -anonymous
I agree that it is *not* ORPHANS OF THE SKY. From the "generation
spaceship" lists cited on the website Cynthia found, I can also
eliminate (I think) all of them--e.g., in none of these cases does
the space journey turn out to be a fraud. (In several, including
the Heinlein and the Harrison, the people involved do not realize
they are on a spaceship, but that's not the same as a book in
which think they are but find it to be a hoax.)
The irritating thing is that I think I've read the story in
question (and it would be a short story, not a novel), but can't
remember what it is.
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