Space Opera series. Gigantic spaceship passes through our solar system, ship's builders are assume long gone. Delegation from Earth visits ship. Read around 1998-2003.

[Marlene Orton]

I'm looking for a book that I read about 20 to 25 years ago. A gigantic spaceship Passes through our solar system on a journey whose beginning and destination are unknown. The ship's builders are unknown and assumed to be long gone. The distance when it passes closest to earth only allows for a one way visit from earth. When the delegation from earth arrives they discover that over millennia parts of the ship have been colonized by multiple alien species. The earth people establish their own habitat and establish relations with the other species.

Please know that this is a really, really big ship. Thousands of miles across. Even though it is heavily colonized it is mostly empty space.

There is also a sequel where one faction of the humans is exiled into an area in the center of the ship in hell like conditions.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

It is mandatory to include genre and plot details in your topic header, as per the Group Rules.

Because this group is so huge, we will close threads that don't adhere to this requirement.

Please add more plot details to your topic header from what you've already written.

[Kris]

Marlene, I copied book details to the topic header. Feel free to edit it.

Do you learn early in the book that multiple alien species have colonized the ship - or is this a spoiler?

Is this book for adults or teens? Who is the main character?

[Kris]

Marrow (book 1 of the Great Ship series) by Robert Reed?

Google Books preview:

- https://books.google.com/books?id=7pc...
- There are different cover images.

Google search of Goodreads:

site:goodreads.com "space opera" huge spaceship alien species delegation earth

[Alan]

Rendezvous with Rama has some similarities, but not the giant size. Besides, anyone who has ever read SF knows 'Rama'.

'Rama' does have some (much later) sequels. I think Rama II has human colonists / settlers making contact with other aliens who have settled there, while The Garden of Rama may have a dysfunctional human society (though I don't really recall). There is also Rama Revealed, but I don't remember much about it (I read them 30+ years ago). May be worth investigating.

[Genesistrine]

Some similarities to Take Back Plenty and its sequels by Colin Greenland; take a look at that too.

[Andrew]

Marlene Orton wrote: "I'm looking for a book that I read about 20 to 25 years ago. A gigantic spaceship Passes through our solar system on a journey whose beginning and destination are unknown. The ship's builders are u..."
Pretty certain you are looking for one of the The Greatship books by Robert Reed.
There are a number of books in the set, but the first, Marrow was published in 2000.