SOLVED. Sci-Fi epic like the Cloud Atlas following aliens near Orion [s]

[Rachel]

I'm trying to find the name of a book my husband liked. It followed the history of an alien planet that was drifting towards the Orion nebula. The first part of the book was about an astronomer named Jing who discovered that in a few centuries their planet was doomed and after becoming the court astronomer, ended up dying to a plague. The book went on to describe a period some centuries later of global warming and frantic space-exploration, and ended with (view spoiler)[the aliens on a spaceship (hide spoiler)]. Jing became a religious figure at one point, and later in history was more of a swear word.

The aliens had unique appendages/expressions which my husband remembers being a remarkable depiction of a non-human race. Does that ring a bell for anyone? He said he read it maybe as late as 1997.

[Andy]

"The Crucible of Time" by John Brunner http://www.tor.com/blogs/2009/07/alie... http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/87...

[Rachel]

that sounds exactly right, thank you!

[Andy]

Glad to help