SOLVED. Science fiction with Dyson shell-type world found by humans and aliens sharing tech--all spoilers [s]

[Gaby]

Spoiler alert: I only really remember the ending!

I think this is a series, but I don't fully remember.

An expedition finds a left-behind Dyson shell-type planet--mechanical on the outside and a liveable area on the inside. The aliens who made this have abandoned it. Somehow the humans and aliens are able to make contact and the aliens and female main character(scientist of some kind) become good friends and share technology.

The aliens bring humans to their current location light-years away by putting them in stasis for the journey.

At the end, the scientist--now a very old woman--makes the journey one last time after her husband dies. The aliens, upon waking her, tell her she is very sick and had two heart attacks while in sleeping through the journey. She asks to die with her family surrounding her.

When she has another heart attack, she alerts the aliens and staggers to a holodeck-type room. The aliens create holographic projections of her husband and children and she passes away.

I have been searching for books involving Dyson spheres and haven't found anything. Hopefully you all can help.

[Andy]

I can say that it's not "Orbitsville" by Bob Shaw. Here's a list of Dyson Sphere stories http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php... and another such list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sp...

Hope that helps.

[Dawn]

this is the last book of the Rama series by arthur C clark,

Rama Revealed

[Ann aka Iftcan]

The "biggest" of the Dyson's sphere books/series that I know of are the Ringworld series by Larry Niven. I haven't read all of them, but of the ones that I've read, none match your theme. But you can put them in and then do a search based on the "if you liked X, you might like Y" thing.

[Andy]

Dawn wrote: "this is the last book of the Rama series by arthur C clark,

Rama Revealed"

That could be right - if it was, then the aliens were "Octospiders," which might ring a bell for Weetz

[Dawn]

the alien at the end was The Eagle :)

[Gaby]

Pretty sure I'm thinking of the Rama series. Thanks, everyone! I'll move the topic once I'm at a PC.