This is certainly one of my favorite themes in SF: huge ships needing to travel for decades, if not centuries, before reaching their destination, with the original crew knowing they will never see the planet chosen for the new colony but trusting that their descendants will be able to fulfill the dream.
Of course there rarely is a story about a generation ship that does not include some kind of problem, the most frequent leading to the population forgetting that they are on a space-faring vessel and believing that that microcosm is the whole world.
Here a Wikipedia list – that I hope is comprehensive – of the works of fiction, in several mediums, focused on generation ships.
I have not read as many novels with this theme as I would have liked, but the first one I encountered, a long time ago, was
ORPHANS OF THE SKY, by R.A. Heinlein (1963)
It tells the story of a generation ship where a mutiny obliterated most of the passengers and the reasons for the voyage have become more myth than actual knowledge. The remnants of the crew still perform the required maintenance operations, but such actions have become a matter of religious ritual rather than anything else, while in the less radiation-shielded parts of the ship a number of mutants lives in harsh conditions.
Another example of generation ship can be found in
CHILDREN OF TIME, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)
in which what remains of humanity, after the collapse of Earth and its civilization, travels in old ships, practically falling apart, toward the only habitable world discovered by their ancestors, unaware of the fact that a race of intelligent spiders has created a civilization there and is less than sanguine in being invaded by these… strange aliens.
And again, the theme is explored in a novella:
ACADIE, by Dave Hutchinson (2017)
This story features the society built by a group of humans who wanted to build an environment in which they could expand their potential through genetic modifications, long banned on Earth, whose authorities still hunt for them. It’s not exactly a generation ship story, but the colonists live in movable arcologies, and that’s close enough to the trope that I felt it could be easily listed here.
As far as shorter stories go, I would be remiss if I did not quote
MONO NO AWARE, by Ken Liu (2012)
A poignant tale of refugees from Earth, facing a centuries-long voyage toward a distant start after our home planet has been destroyed by the impact with a comet. A damaged propulsion system will force the story’s main character toward a difficult, hearth-breaking choice.
Generation ships have also featured in movies and television: I remember, for example, that there was one episode in the original series of Star Trek featuring such a society that had forgotten its past and whose ship was headed toward mortal danger. In more recent times there have been a few examples of the theme as well:
PANDORUM (2009)
a movie that was more horror than SF, in which a few individuals are awakened from cryo-sleep only to be confronted with mutated people turned cannibals.
ASCENSION (2014)
a TV series about an ark ship launched by no other than President Kennedy at the height of the Cold War, to preserve humanity against nuclear holocaust. Only, things are not exactly as they appear…
PASSENGERS (2016)
a movie exploring, in a far less gruesome way than Pandorum, the consequences of an unplanned re-awakening from hibernation.
And this list would not be complete without mentioning a movie I love:
WALL-E (2008)
showing what happens to humanity after the generation ships in which it has taken refuge have chosen to satisfy every need people have, without them moving from their seats or making any kind of effort.
Do you have any suggestions for other titles featuring generation ships? I am looking forward to them, and will brace my overworked TBR accordingly… 😉
This is a great prompt and I love that you included Wall-e.
Lynn 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a movie that I adore and rewatch from time to time because it’s simply delightful… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed and I also rewatch it from time to time.
Lynn 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
I absolutely love this prompt! I may have to make my own list of generation ship stories someday. I love your list and I have three more to add: Do You Dream of Terra Two by Temi Oh, Goldilocks by Laura Lam and Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
I have Six Wakes on my TBR (and it’s making sad eyes at me because it’s been there a long time), and I set my sights on the other two because i’ve read some very intriguing reviews about them.
Thanks! 🙂
LikeLike
Heck yes, as you know I did my list last week – I have to add a couple more to my tbr, looks like! I want to watch Passengers, and you reminded me, despite my skepticism for short stories, I did enjoy MONO NO AWARE 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Passengers is an ok movie: the story is fairly predictable, but the visuals are nothing short of amazing: that ship is just incredible and I can advise you to look out for the scenes of the swimming pool 🙂
LikeLike
Aurora! I thought you’d read that?
Eon by Greg Bear, even though I haven’t read that myself.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I marked the first one for a future read and now I’m adding the second one as well. Maybe soon… Hope springs eternal 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, I am only familiar with Wall-e and Passengers haha. I love the idea of generation ships but somehow have only read one or two books featuring them–I think I’ve seen more movies with them than read books!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Same for me, but thankfully I’m getting a few good recommendations on the theme and I’m positive I will fill this… missing space in my reading thanks to them 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero and Ursula Le Guin’s novella Paradises Lost spring to mind in this connection.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you! 🙂 Tau Zero caught my eye as I was looking at a list of titles for this theme, and it might be high time I read something from Le Guin…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s a great prompt! And I love Wall-E!!! And Eve 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wall-E is nothing but adorable and that was one of the most poignant animated movies I ever saw… 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s funny, despite also loving this theme I can’t think of one example of it that I’ve read or watched… I feel like there has to have been something. Oh well, I guess it’s time to fix that by picking out something from this list and starting to read (or watch)! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
The sky’s the limit, indeed! 😉
And you can also take your pick from some of the very interesting suggestions I’ve received from other fellow bloggers…
LikeLike
This is a fascinating list! I haven’t read any of the books you mentioned but I am working toward them!!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Too many books, too little time… And SciFi month is turning my TBR into an even more unmanageable mess! 😀 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mine too!!!
LikeLiked by 1 person