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looking for book recs with unusual spaceships
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What about Marrow?
Doesn't *exactly* fit your descriptor, but I read it a few years ago and remember liking it. A generational spaceship, but it's no ordinary generational spaceship.
And some early Alastair Reynolds might kinda fit the bill too. Revelation Space
with the melding plague and Captain Brannigan. I think that's the one??? (Sorry, it's a while since I read this fabulous series.)
An early Anne McCaffrey is The Ship Who Sang and a couple of subsequent ones.Also, if you don't mind military SF there's Embers of War
The ships in Ninefox Gambit are live, called moths. There is no squish factor though, and most of the cool ship stuff is in the third book.Aliette de Bodard's Xuya universe has living mindships, the most popular one is On a Red Station, Drifting. Again no squish that I can remember.
The Binti series has more about the ships, although not nearly as squishy as Stars Are Legion, but there's cool biological stuff going on.
Becky Chambers has interesting ships(or interesting ship computers) in A CLOSE AND COMMON ORBIT and A LONG WAY TO A SMALL, ANGRY PLANET.
The short story Boojum features an organic ship as a main character. You can read it online here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fic... I like the fact that organic ships can eat metal ships, as well as... other things. You’ll see. Mwa-hahaha! (I think there are other stories using that setting, too.)Angel Station by Walter Jon Williams features organic spaceships, who basically run an alien culture. I don’t recall them having a huge part of the story, but the liveship Beloved was the bossmother of the trader interacting with the main characters.
The alien ship Haviland Tuf finds in George R.R. Martin’s Tuf Voyaging is alive but not sentient.
A couple of Doctor Who Target novels, Doctor Who and the Loch Ness Monster (aka Terror of the Zygons) and Doctor Who and the Claws of Axos both contain organic living spaceships.
The Ancillary books by Ann Leckie (Imperial Radch series). Ancillary Justice, Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy. The ships are sort of alive. They’re AI. Also the Illuminae Files by Aime Kaufman and Jay Kristoff. Illuminae, Gemina and Obsidio.
thanks to everyone who added a rec :) i have already read some (Ninefox Gambit and Ancillary Justice) and will take a look at the other ones!Also @Trike haha squishy was exactly the word I was looking for to describe my preference of spaceships
Trike wrote: "We share a brain, so it’s all good."This explains why I sometimes post while sleeping.
The Night's Dawn Trilogy ... super big read, but if you can overlook a lot of bloat, it's a great series with sentient organic ships and a whole lot more.
Ine wrote: "Sorry for the vague title, I didnt know how to sum it up in a more concise way.Im looking for books with organic spaceships! I absolutely loved the worldbuilding in The Stars Are Legion.
The only one I can think of off-hand (and I am sure I've read others) is the y/a Leviathan series starting with Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld.
As for Long Way to an Angry Planet, the ship isn't organic, but it has a sentient AI.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember the title or author of a short story that features organic spaceships gengineered from dogs. It was a bit on the lighter side, as I recall. I think the last line was “Fetch!” It’s been at least 25 years since I read it, so it’s not recent.
Kaa wrote: "If you're willing to consider graphic novels, in Saga, Vol. 1 they travel in a rocketship tree."Boy, do I feel dumb forgetting that one. And I just read the latest volume last week or so.
Trike wrote: "I’ve been wracking my brain trying to remember the title or author of a short story that features organic spaceships gengineered from dogs. It was a bit on the lighter side, as I recall. I think th..."Not the same book, but....Alastair Reynolds Pushing Ice
in one section has a 'gristle and spit' type space ship 'manned' ('dogged'?) by dog-like aliens. But it's not a sentient spaceship, or even living, I don't think. Just made of organic materials.And what about Dan Simmons Hyperion series with their spaceships built around giant living trees. (I may have that wrong - it's a while since I read them.)
This is an interesting thread. Who knew there were so many of these kinds of variations on imagined spaceships?
Not a book, but the TV series Farscape featured a sentient biological starship called Moya. In the show's universe, the biological starships are captured and enslaved by the dominant humanoid culture for their abity to travel interstellar distances at FTL speeds.
Michael wrote: "Not a book, but the TV series Farscape featured a sentient biological starship called Moya. In the show's universe, the biological starships are captured and enslaved by the dominant humanoid cultu..."That's what came to my mind too. :)
No-one mentioned Iain M Banks yet? Excession is an excellent book that answers the question about what massively powerful AI ship minds do with all their porcessing power left over after looking after the ships and the millions of lives on them. They do deep maths, as a pastime.
Not organic again but AI using a human brain. Well not the actual brain in a jar or whatever but everything is extracted from it and turned into a computer. We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E Taylor. Rather fun book. There are three in the series.
This won't be out for almost a year, but it sounds like you might love it!"Escaping Exodus is a story of a young woman named Seske Kaleigh, heir to the command of a biological, city-size starship carved up from the insides of a spacefaring beast."
Peter F Hamilton’s reality dysfunction has living starships as far as I recall.
I can recommend Neal Asher's Transformation series, starting with Dark Intelligence. It's all about AI, and is one of the best to deal with how they think, from drones, to ship AI's to planetary wardens. Good stuff. I mention it here because of the massive factory ship whose Ai has gone mad, and also the excellent prador ships.
I see some already mentioned We Are Bob, one of the best trilogies if you ask me.But when it comes to unusual space crafts, I'm a bit lost, as we don't know what's usual other then our very limited ones. If we're talking evolution of them during a series, maybe the Hero at the Gates series?
I'm not sure what the right books for you really. It's going to be an oddball, but We Are Bob is awesome!
Scales of Empire. id not reccomend reading the reviews yet since a lot of them are from fans of her previous series. there are a few different space ships in it the ones that are best described are controlled through direct interface with pilot. relatively good pllot only real complaint is t felt as though it should have been either longer or a couple of books.
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Ines wrote: "If you're into Star Wars, check out the 'New Jedi Order' series. Vector Prime is the first book."Star Wars has organic spaceships? What are they?
Decades ago, I read a book from the Bob Morane Series, written by French author Henri Vernes. In it, an organisation from the future used as a spaceship a living being, a sort of gigantic blob that was intelligent and could propel itself through space by the power of its thoughts. Unfortunately, I just can't remember the title.
In the vein of the Legion of Bob books, there's a ship in the The Chronicles of Old Guy series called Space Battleship Scharnhorst. Not the main character, but plays parts in several of the books. Really, the entire series is fun and an interesting take on what humans' tools do after the human singularity. A good portion of the series is serious, but some parts are just fun and feel like what I remember Saturday morning cartoons feeling like.
I can't recommend this series enough. It's easily a top 5 series for me.
A short story with low squish but it's free online: The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck (link on book page)
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She also has living ships in Ancestral Night
Anna wrote: "A short story with low squish but it's free online: The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck (link on book page)"That was a good one and it's in this book as well and it's free
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2019 Edition
or
Some of the Best from Tor.com: 2019 Edition
the second link works for me the first one gives me a page not found. it was one of my favorites from that collection
Mary wrote: "Binti by Nnedi Okorafor shrimp ship!"I have this hear but haven't read it yet. Now you have my curiosity peaked!
Anna wrote: "A short story with low squish but it's free online: The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir by Karin Tidbeck (link on book page)"Does she have any books in hard copy?
I can't think of anything that will fit your description. But have you read James Follet's Earthshearch . It is about four people living in a ship that is ten miles long ,
The classic organic spaceship story is Star Trek's Encounter at Farpoint.Have you read books with other spaceship types, like Gil's World (machine intelligence), Deepwater Black (ark ship), Eon (asteroid ship) or Atmosphere: We Don't Orbit But Fall The Same (alien thinking)?
I don't know if the OP is still following this, but the request is clearly for *organic* spaceships, so let's stick to those, unless we hear otherwise! :)
It's a bit peripheral to the main story, but I think Dan Simmons' Hyperion had tree ships used by, I think, the Templars? (sorry, it's been a few years since I read this great series. Might need to read again...)
For anybody who doesn't mind gay characters and a bit of romanceTap-Dancing the Minefields is partly set at a military base built around and within a massive living ship that crashed in Alaska -with some pretty weird and uncomfortable quirks due to being organic.
Hmm. Zita the Spacegirl and its sequels have some --interesting ships, but I'm not sure if the ships themselves are alive.
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Zita the Spacegirl (other topics)Tap-Dancing the Minefields (other topics)
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The Last Voyage of Skidbladnir (other topics)
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Karin Tidbeck (other topics)Nnedi Okorafor (other topics)
Karin Tidbeck (other topics)
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Im looking for books with organic spaceships! I absolutely loved the worldbuilding in The Stars Are Legion
The fleshy-ness. Not sleek and shiny and metal but alive instead, with all the grossness that comes with an organism the size of a worldship!
Do you know something similar? Please recommend away even if it only fits my criteria loosely, Ill take a look at anything :)
(A long time ago I read a blurb about a woman also in some kind of horror living ship, I cant remember anything more and I know thats too vague so Im not trying to find that book specifically)
Thanks a lot!