Lost book for my father; sci fi novel; primitive tribes, jungle, spaceship

[A book away from an episode of hoarders]

I'd love to get my dad another copy of this book if possible.

So we were watching Snowpiercer a few days ago, when my dad said it reminded him of a book he read "a few years ago". My father is in his seventies and has said this could be pre-1975.

He said that apparently the sun was going to burn out so the whole world got together and build this massive spaceship to hold mankind so that we could survive until the ship found a habitable planet where we could stay and colonize.

There were primitive tribes and the whole ship had become overgrown into jungles because of some issue with the greenhouses. The main characters found a section of the ship that had no jungle and apparently that's when we realize they'd been on a spaceship all along.

There was a tunnel, and you find out the ship landed itself a while back and they were actually on a planet.

I should clarify; the people didn’t start out as primitive. They were modern when they boarded the spaceship. No one, during the story, had any idea that they were on a ship. It was just an overgrown jungle. He said he thought that the ship had left earth a LONG time before the story begins, possibly thousands of years.

And that the ship was programmed to find the habitable planet, and land, all on its own, which apparently it did, possibly even before the book’s beginning. It just didn’t let the people out for whatever reason.

*cross posted to the What's the Name of that Book group

[Richard]

Not sure on all the details as I read this many years ago, but Non-Stop byBrian W. Aldiss could be what you're looking for.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders]

Richard wrote: "Not sure on all the details as I read this many years ago, but Non-Stop byBrian W. Aldiss could be what you're looking for."

I'll check with him, thanks. It's possible some details got mixed up over the years. We read a lot. :)

[Raymond]

Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C Clarke. Which was about close to speed of light travel. The first group lived in the space ship that had been ensorceled by the jungle and had regressed where as the second group that had departed earlier got there much later.
Just a guess.

[David]

Assuming Non-Stop is correct, this sounds interesting... I might have to check it out.

Raymond wrote: "Songs of Distant Earth by Arthur C Clarke. Which was about close to speed of light travel. The first group lived in the space ship that had been ensorceled by the jungle and had regressed where as ..."

In The Songs Of Distant Earth, I seem to recall that the "first" ship contained only frozen embryos and no fully-formed humans. The embryos were grown by machines after they arrived on the planet, and had to build their civilization based on knowledge in their computers. I read that book while going through an Arthur C Clarke phase as a teenager.

[Raymond]

@David, you are probably right, I read it many years ago and I was not sure that I was not mixing it it up with a Robert Heinlein novel anyway. Like you I read them so long ago that I may well be making it up in my own mind and imagining things that were never written.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders]

Also, the book was originally released as Starship so I ordered that for my dad. I appreciate the help and I'll let you know when he gets it if it is what he remembers.

[Trike]

It could also be Universe by Robert Heinlein. It's a generation ship that's become overgrown with jungle and the passengers have reverted to a primitive people who don't realize they're on a starship. I believe that story and its sequel are collected in Orphans of the Sky.

There is a collection of Heinlein short stories called Expanded Universe, but it does NOT have the novella Universe and its sequel.

[Anil]

spoiler alert.









in nonstop, the humans speciate into two branches - one branch regress into rodent like creatures and the other branch in the other direction. this book might very well be nonstop which is its American name. original british name was different. author Brian aldiss.

[A book away from an episode of hoarders]

Update: it was non-stop. Thanks for everyone's help :)