Questions tagged [space-colonization]
Space colonization is the permanent human habitation outside of Earth.
138
questions
22
votes
2
answers
4k
views
SciFi book, about a human colony on the moon. A central computer becomes sentient and forms an alliance or teams up with the main character
SciFi book, about a human colony on the moon. A central computer becomes sentient and forms an alliance or teams up with the main character.
Read 40-50 yr ago. Maybe school suggested it for general ...
5
votes
2
answers
230
views
Science fiction story about settling a planet with Adam and Eve
I read the story in a science fiction anthology in the early 80s. Two human forms, one male and one female were put on a planet by an advanced technology starship. A plot of the planet was made ...
8
votes
1
answer
232
views
A touching short story about two women leaving Earth forever, one of them to join her husband
I know with some precision when I read this story: while I was a student in the US, between September 75 and June 79. I read it in a collection, but there were so many in that library I cannot ...
17
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Old sci-fi episode/movie: man on a spaceship replaced his dead wife and kids with robot replicas
A man is in a spaceship with only his family (wife and kids) on another planet. I believe it was for some sort of mission, or maybe Earth was dying and they were trying to recolonize or something.
One ...
13
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Planet is settled by people who want to recreate their ancestors' African society. A very intelligent girl is not allowed to learn to read and write
I read this short story in about 2010. A planet has been settled by people from an African society. They want to live the way their ancient ancestors long ago on Earth used to live.
The people on the ...
14
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Sci-fi short story about a human ship discovering a lost colony of genetically modified humans who find pleasure in self-sacrifice
I'm searching for a sci-fi short story I read years ago (I think in an anthology) about a human ship discovering a lost colony, possibly on a death world or asteroid. The harsh conditions forced the ...
8
votes
1
answer
349
views
SF book with alien planet, whose plant life lacks chlorophyll / is not green and is being outcompeted by Earth plants
Does anyone happen to recall the title or author of a science fiction novel with the following major plot elements?
My recollection, not a quote:
On an alien planet, whose plants are not green (...
10
votes
1
answer
371
views
Sci fi short story where an American mother on her mid-western farm realises she is the male co-pilot of a crashed ship on an alien world
The short story is seemingly a domestic drama, set in a Mid Western farm, narrated by a dissatisfied, hard-working woman. She has a difficult life looking after her white-picket homestead, trying to ...
7
votes
1
answer
844
views
Sci-Fi About Colonizing Planet With Dumb Humans [duplicate]
The beginning of the book is a little fuzzy to me but here goes. Humanity is intergalactic sometime far in the future. The main character from what I can remember isn't one of the rich elite, but he ...
9
votes
0
answers
132
views
Sci-fi novel about a war between humans and bipedal alien deer
I read this maybe 30 years ago. but to be safe let's say somewhere between 1986 and 1995, but probably right in the middle of that span.
Science fiction paperback, average length. I don't recall ...
16
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Military commander tries to sabotage nascent asteroid belt colony
I'm looking for a short story written before 2018, probably a few decades before. It has strong Randall Garrett vibes, but I've drawn a blank searching his works in Gutenberg and my collection. Niven ...
16
votes
1
answer
437
views
Sci-fi book from 90's-ish about aliens and apathy and weird souls
I couldn't tell you quite when I read this.. I would guess somewhere mid-late 90s. (Possibly as late as the early '00s, but I'm pretty sure it was the 90s.) I think it had a blue cover on it, and it's ...
10
votes
1
answer
440
views
Young adult science fiction book about unique children born on a new colony
I read this book back in early 1980's. Can't remember the title or author.
Colonists to a new planet. Unable to have children until 6 children were mysteriously born. 3 males and 2 females. 1 child ...
14
votes
1
answer
515
views
Looking for a coffee table book with speculative essay by Isaac Asimov about asteroid settlements dispersing slowly through the universe
In the 1970s (or possibly early 1980s), some relatives had a coffee table book about space science, which (if I recall correctly) ended with an essay by Isaac Asimov which speculated about asteroid ...
10
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Book about a boy on a colony planet who flees the male-only village he was raised in and meets a girl who arrived in a scout ship
Read around 2012-2016, written probably within ten years before that - likely less. First in a series, I believe.
The book is set on a planet where every animal that lives on or lands on the planet (...
7
votes
1
answer
177
views
Story ID: AI colony ship forgets its mission [duplicate]
I've just read John Scalzi's newly-published story "Slow Time Between Stars", and I was reminded of a similar story which I read 30 or more years ago but I can't now remember the title.
The ...
10
votes
1
answer
243
views
Looking for the title to very old SciFi book about space colonists who live in a tree and have to spit in the tree's flowers to get access
My dad gave me this book and my husband left it on a plane by accident.
A group of space colonists have adapted and evolved to fit into the planet where they live. The planet is largely trees. The ...
8
votes
1
answer
182
views
Novel about a human visiting a colonised planet where the natives are like humans with tails
There is a human from another long-colonized planet, visiting. He sees only female natives, who are being exploited. He finds the hidden males and discovers that they are human, descendants of a ...
3
votes
1
answer
211
views
Is most of the Star Wars galaxy colonized?
I watch all Star Wars TV shows and read all Star Wars literature. In these stories, characters go to tons and tons of new (relative to the audience) planets and it seems a majority of them have been ...
18
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Brain ship decides to restart the human race
This is a short story I read on the Internet, probably Project Gutenberg, in the last 15 years. It's likely to be much older - '60s maybe.
Humanity was at war with an alien race. The aliens had self-...
7
votes
1
answer
267
views
'80s science fiction novel involving dangerous crystal towers and weird little animals, both of which turn out to be sapient
I want to recommend this book to someone else but I can't remember the title or the author. Searching for it on the internet appears to be nearly impossible because it wasn't very successful and ...
6
votes
0
answers
118
views
Book or series about a group of teens in a space colony who discover telepathic creatures
I have been trying to find this series that I read in grade school. Some of the info I remember is:
They have hover technology, hover bikes that the kids hack to remove safety restraints, and hover ...
8
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Sci-fi youth novel with a young female protagonist who is watching over the development of another planet [duplicate]
It's a lovely romantic youth novel that I read many years ago in German. It's about a girl who is part of a crew that is observing the development of other planets. They are from a very well-evolved ...
23
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Old sci fi short story about weird acting rulers in a decrepit outpost and a lone bounty hunter that uncovers the truth, they are controlled by fungi
I think it is a classic 50's story because I think at the time I was reading a series of compilation books... Something like "50's greatest Science Fiction Stories" or maybe Award Winning ...
28
votes
1
answer
339
views
Story-id: “Lost in Space” novel (posted on USENET in 87-88) with an engineer and an AI trapped on a interstellar freighter and the other crew dead
This is an incredible long shot, because I read this in the late 80’s in a USENET newsgroup and I have no idea if it ever appeared in print.
In schoolyear 87-88 I had newsgroup access via my ...
14
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Novel with a modified space shuttle seeding a colony on another planet
I would have read this novel in the mid to late 1990s to the early 2000s. I believe it would have been before 2003 and the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
The story revolves around a space shuttle (I ...
10
votes
1
answer
488
views
Book series about a group of humans who colonise another planet after the Earth is destroyed by the Sun going nova
Trying to find a series - two books from memory - in which the Earth was destroyed by the Sun going nova. A smallish group fled to a science base to make it a colony. The world was not really suitable ...
20
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Ship's captain wakes colonist, turns out to be a convict working his sentence as a brain in a jar
I read this in the 90s. Probably older, probably a short story.
The main character was the captain and sole crew-member of a starship delivering a cargo of colonists in suspended animation to a remote ...
1
vote
0
answers
118
views
Could Buzz Lightyear's crew ever have returned to the world before their accident?
In Lightyear, Buzz's primary motivation is to help the crew of the Turnip return to their lives before the crash. However, it's unclear if the crew ever could have gone back to "life as normal&...
24
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Story where humans use aliens as machinery
Humans settle on a planet and use alien beasts instead of machinery. The beasts are in fact sentient and a contract is negotiated to allow the humans to use the aliens. I vaguely remember that there ...
6
votes
2
answers
336
views
Help with identifying a story with wooden sailing ships in space and with FTL(?)
While similar questions have been asked before none of them seem to be the series I am looking for, so I'll try to explain the little I remember of it. It is possible that I misremember some things ...
11
votes
1
answer
205
views
Short story about intelligence being only an evolutionary stage to ensure interstellar propagation [duplicate]
Main character is a schoolteacher on one of the first human colonies in space. He is puzzled over and concerned with the uniform lack of intellect he is observing in his students, especially since ...
16
votes
1
answer
620
views
Short story about alien creatures fleeing their home planet to terraform another
I read this many years ago in a collection of sci-fi stories - almost certainly Silverberg & Greenberg's Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century.
An cat-like alien race decides to terraform an ...
5
votes
0
answers
152
views
Short story set in human colony on another planet about an old woman who takes in an android
I read a short story in one of those "best of the year" sci fi anthologies a year or so ago. It was about an old woman living in a human colony on an alien planet. She is a hermit and takes ...
6
votes
1
answer
197
views
Looking for a story with a man riding a mechanical frog in an alien swamp
I read this in the 90s, probably in an anthology of short stories (though it might have been a novelette), and it was not new then.
A ship carrying colonists had landed on a planet. The trip had ...
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Book featuring a computer that used pantropy to colonize worlds, and a girl with a socket in her head [duplicate]
I read a book about 20 years ago about a computer that used pantropy to colonize worlds with modified humans. I think that the purpose was to ensure that humanity would not go extinct. What I ...
5
votes
1
answer
256
views
I am looking for a book about four or five people leaving Earth
They left Earth because the sun was going into super nova.
Two men and two women go to one of outer planets, they eventually die. Over time they are bought back to life and 2 people (a man and a woman)...
6
votes
0
answers
319
views
Graphic novel about a spaceship crash landing on a planet, and the stranded inhabitants of the ship forming a colony and a new society there
I have been looking for this book for quite some time. I recall starting to read it in the late '70s. It was a color graphic novel.
At the beginning of the novel, there was a crash landing of a ...
9
votes
1
answer
298
views
A story (c. 2018) about interstellar colonization via nanomachines
This story has been visible on the internet, but likely no more because I cannot find it now with search engines despite a considerable effort. Written in English in 2017 or 2018 (or possibly one year ...
4
votes
0
answers
328
views
Sci-fi book about humans living on another planet and reflecting on Earth origins
I came across a book recommendation that really piqued my interest, and am having trouble remembering the details to sufficiently find it via search engines.
Here is what I can remember:
I remember ...
3
votes
1
answer
174
views
Young adult sci-fi novel about a young female human slightly modified to survive on on a jungle planet
I started a book where the main character was a young female human (school age) slightly modified to survive on a planet with only slightly more gravity than Earth. There is a non-modified boy that ...
9
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Obscure 90's movie/cartoon set in space, pioneer boy makes friends with alien [duplicate]
Way back in the 90's I watched a movie/cartoon on TV about a boy on an alien planet. He becomes friends with an alien called Willard or Wilbur or Willis or something like that. Towards the end the ...
8
votes
1
answer
611
views
Fantasy novel about a medieval society formed by the descendants of human colonists, on a planet that brings their nightmares to life
So here's what I remember;
It takes place on another planet, thousands of years after the colonists from Earth arrived. There is a prologue where they describe how the first colonists are attacked by ...
1
vote
1
answer
659
views
Trilogy in the 80’s about space travel to another world
Growing up in the 80's my mother introduced me to a trilogy she read. I don’t remember the name but they traveled to another world and worked to colonize it. 2064 or something idk. The books were ...
7
votes
1
answer
456
views
Book series: Space Navy based Space Opera, several alien species warring for generations
There’s a series of books I read, probably 10 years or more ago that I just can’t seem to pinpoint.
Here are some things I recall:
Space Navy based Space Opera
Space ships could jump between solar ...
13
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Story with a colonization ship that awakens embryos too early
I read this quite some time ago (I think around the '90s). I'm pretty sure the author is Orson Scott Card, but I looked through the bibliography and I couldn't find it.
The story is about a ship that ...
6
votes
1
answer
387
views
Book about human colonization of a planet without rain, youngest member names the planet and later narrates the story to children [duplicate]
During my elementary years, I remember a book about a group of humans venturing off of Earth to colonize a new planet.
One of the things I specifically remember is how they had the youngest member of ...
8
votes
1
answer
138
views
A story about Mars, authorities/new colonists("gringoes") vs "local"/old colonists(humans), and a search for a native aliens base/hideout
What I remember so far:
Medium-sized novel
Probably written before 90s (at least not later than 1998)
Male? author
All events happen on Mars (though it may be Venus or even something else)
There are ...
12
votes
1
answer
741
views
Sci-fi book series featuring insectoid aliens, motorized armor and main character in anabiosis [duplicate]
I remember not too much about this book series, but I know exactly:
It was written before 2000 (70-80's maybe).
Series includes at least 3 books, maybe more.
Space opera.
Main character is a male ...
7
votes
1
answer
265
views
SF colony novel, most likely from before 1972 [duplicate]
A librarian friend received the following query about a novel a customer read long ago. I hope somebody can help.
The situation is that it can be foreseen that the Earth will collapse/break down — ...