SOLVED. exploring an abandoned alien spaceship, written by non-sci-fi author [s]

[Al]

The book is mostly a suspenseful exploration of an alien spaceship. We don't know anything about the aliens, but we can tell the ship is not human because of its dimensions and layout - things are too large or far apart. I think the tone is somewhat tense and serious as people get killed exploring the ship, and the ending leaves the mystery unresolved. We never find out who the aliens are or why the ship has been abandoned.

I think I read this book sometime between 1999 and 2006. I found it by browsing the science fiction shelf (or possibly general adult fiction) at the public library. The author was male, and it was a hardcover. I don't remember any character names, or even anything about any of the characters.

After reading this, I looked for other books by the author and found he had not written any other science fiction. His other books were general fiction, and I don't think he had written that many.

Every few years, I spend a few hours trying to find this book on the internet, but I never succeed. Perhaps this is because I can remember so little about it, but I'm hoping there's enough here that someone will recognize it.

[Susan]

This sounds like Sphere by Michael Crichton but he is famous and did more than a few in the Sci-Fi Genre. I'll keep thinking.

[Al]

Susan wrote: "This sounds like Sphere by Michael Crichton but he is famous and did more than a few in the Sci-Fi Genre. I'll keep thinking."

Thanks for trying! In the book I'm looking for, the ship was found drifting out in space rather than on the ocean floor, so it's not Sphere. But maybe I'll read that again in the meantime since it does sound quite similar and I haven't read it in over 20 years :)

[Pamela]

Sounds a bit like Richard Paul Russo's Ship of Fools (not to be confused with Richard Russo who wrote Empire Falls etc). The discovery of an abandoned ship is only part of this book but is pivotal and moves the book to the conclusion.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Ship of Fools for Pamela's link.

[Al]

Thanks Pamela and Lobstergirl! Ship of Fools is often the first thing I find when I try to search for the book with keywords. I'm pretty sure it isn't the book I'm looking for based on Russo's other books, though. After I read the book I'm thinking of, I read another of the author's books. None were sci-fi, and I don't remember much about the book I read, but nothing Richard Paul Russo has written fits.

It was a long time ago, though, so maybe I'm misremembering and mixing up two authors? Perhaps I'll read Ship of Fools just in case...

[Pamela]

It is a good book, well worth reading. I hope you enjoy it.

[Al]

Now I feel like a fool. I started reading Ship of Fools tonight, and it turns out I've read it before. I'm pretty sure it's the book I was looking for.

I also figured out my confusion: There's a Richard Russo who writes general fiction, so when I wanted to find more books by Richard Paul Russo, I must have ignored the middle name and ended up finding this other guy's books. I even read one, Nobody's Fool. I was so sure the book I was looking for wasn't Ship of Fools for that reason, so I've disregarded it each time I've searched in the past.

Thanks for helping me figure this out!

[Kris]

"Memory is a capricious and arbitrary creature."

[Pamela]

Hey, that makes me one for one!! Glad I could help!!