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I read this back in the 70's-80's. The story started with the abduction of a number of inhabitants of a planet by technologically superior aliens. I think the abductors and abductees were all human. They are transported by spaceships to an artificial mega-structure, a galaxy sized ellipsoidal object with an aperture at one end. The inner wall of the mega-structure is inhabited and apart from the aperture are isolated from the rest of the universe. The abductees are destined fight in some war or conflict in this enclosed habitat.

I seem to remember that the original builders were somewhat horrified by the primitiveness of living, unprotected, in the universe "at large". They, however, needed soldiers to fight in their unending conflicts.

There are many stars floating in the vastness of the structure's interior which is light-years in extent. The stars have been engineered and placed to provide energy for the galactic-sized inner living surface. The vastness of the structure is described in detail. It blew my mind when I read this and I still regard it as one of the most original books I ever read.

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  • Welcome to SFF.SE! Any details you can add, like when the book may have been published, language, or cover art work can help our story-id experts help you. Good Luck!
    – Skooba
    Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 20:50
  • Sounds like Bob Shaw's Orbitsville series.
    – user14111
    Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 20:52
  • Good suggestion. But that's not it. Megastructure in question is far bigger than Orbitsville's structure. I seem to remember that the original builders were somewhat horrified by the primitiveness of living, unprotected, in the universe "at large". They, however, needed soldiers to fight in their unending conflicts.
    – Karl Attrill
    Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 21:14
  • Assuming a galaxy sized megastructure wouldn't take all the matter in the universe to construct, it seems like an awful waste of space. If you put everyone who has ever lived on earth and scattered them around the inside, none of them would ever meet, or be able to communicate.
    – Seeds
    Commented Jan 5, 2017 at 21:21
  • 4
    Could that be Alistair Reynolds' "Pushing Ice"? Some of the details don't quite fit but a lot do.
    – Moriarty
    Commented Jan 6, 2017 at 1:52

1 Answer 1

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Could be Golden Sunlands (1987) by Christopher Rowley. First book of a series that was never continued.

The population of the colony world Calabel is abducted by the alien iulliiin and transported to the artificial universe of the Golden Sunlands to be slaves and warriors.

A land fifteen million miles across mapped on the inner edge of a discontinuity. An array of long-lived red dwarf suns light circular patches of habitable space - the sunlands.

book cover, orange background, characters outside an airship facing some kind of giant flying moth/fish hybrid

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  • The first thing that came to my mind, but I swear this has been asked before.
    – Spencer
    Commented Jun 26, 2020 at 17:23
  • Thanks Imaginary. After 7 years, I have the correct answer. Just reread it. It's funny how one's memory exaggerated certain aspects of the story when I compare it to the prose I have just read. Getting very old I guess. A shame Christopher did not carry on with the story. Its a great premise.
    – Karl Attrill
    Commented Feb 14 at 20:05

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