I read a book more than half my lifetime ago, can you tell me what it was?

March 26, 2008 9:39 PM

I read this book when I was 12 or so and all I remember -- yes, one of those questions -- was that a sentient space born creature that served as a space craft (one of many, or maybe the only one, I don't recall) to a somewhat mysterious galactic culture, a culture in which humanity was a junior and insignificant member, harbored an old human male who had been hiding out in it's guts since the forced evacuation of the earth.

There is a love interest, I think, and the usual obstacles to be overcome; all against a galactic backdrop; suffused with a sense of wonder; culminating in a final flight through the blinding blackness of space wounded and pursued etc; standard fare I suppose and my memory is somewhat fragmented at this point, it is at least 14 years ago that I read it, but somehow some of it stays with me.

The book -- a paperback about 300 pages long read in lieu of love by a lonely child in the backwater library of Duxbury, MA one blistering summer day -- ends with the two making it back to earth and discovering the aliens had lied and the place was habitable. The cover had an organic looking golden glowing space creature on it. It was good escapist stuff but serious too, in a simplistic way, and I remember enjoying it. It may be crap; I'd like to find out. Any ideas what I read in those happier times, many summers ago?

posted by Grod to writing & language (6 comments total)

Tin Woodman, by David F. Bischoff and Dennis R. Bailey:

... a strange and apparently sentient object discovered by the starship Pegasus in the vicinity of Aldebaran, defeats all efforts at communication until the arrival of Div Harlthor, a powerful telepathic "Talent." Achieving a nearly instant symbiotic union, Div and Tin elope to another continuum while the ship's commander, a snarling megalomaniac with even more than the usual "Normal's" hatred of Talents, gives unauthorized chase, provoking the crew to mutiny. This might have been the makings of a decent story. But Bishcoff and Bailey fumble it all in a haze of execrable prose ("There was a melding of spiritual juices that felt like tongues of cool fire licking at her soul"), see-through characters, and vapid parrotings of scientific terms.

Google Books, Amazon. It was the basis for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Tin Man".

I guess it could be the wrong one, but it would be weird if there were more than one...
posted by blacklite at 2:16 AM on March 27

Oh wait, there's no old human male on board there... so maybe there is more than one story about an organic spacecraft. Huh.
posted by blacklite at 2:17 AM on March 27

(yep, more than one. I was a little too quick on the draw, I guess.)
posted by blacklite at 2:29 AM on March 27

Hmm, sounds vaguely like Alien Earth by Megan Lindholm (aka Robyn Hobb.)
I haven't read it for many years, though.
posted by Griffynn at 5:17 AM on March 27 [2 favorites]

Of course it's not the book, but I can't help but notice how many of those concepts made it into Farscape.
posted by Caviar at 6:33 AM on March 27

Griffynn, spot on, thanks! I think I may be combining the plots of more than one story but that is definately the cover I remember and the customer provided summaries jar, too, excellent. Now that I think about it I there was a similar feel to the style (a slowness, perhaps?) that I got from Robin Hobb's Farseer books. The serious/simplistic I'm remembering must have been the whole ecology plot.

Blacklite, organic (and sometimes sentient) spaceships crop up in SF pretty frequently. I think the ship in The Claws of Axos (a Jon Pertwee era Doctor Who episode) was meant to be alive. There are a couple of books the titles of which escape me at the moment where the ships are definitely organisms.
posted by Grod at 6:43 AM on March 27