Help me find the name of this science fiction book!

May 24, 2021 10:25 AM

Details below.

Please help my friend remember the name of a science fiction book she read many years ago! Details are sparse, but here is what she can recall:

- The cover was pink and purple, maybe with some yellow
- Main character is a (female?) astronaut
- The astronaut was kept in suspended animation while on board a space ship that left and then returned to earth hundreds or thousands of years later
- When she returned, she had to trek up a mountain to find someone who was able to tell her what happened to humanity while she was away

Thank you so much, everyone!

posted by aquamvidam to Grab Bag (4 answers total)

Possibly Portal, the novelization of the Infocom game. The astronaut returning to an empty earth matches, and the cover was bluish-purple. However, the astronaut wasn't a woman. This page has a cover image.
The text of the novel is available here under a CC license.

If the name "Peter Devore" rings a bell, that's Portal.
posted by Bryant at 10:41 AM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

None of these are exact matches to your description, but similar:
Lockstep by Karl Schroeder
Hurricane Moon by Alexis Glynn Latner
Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon
posted by AdagioCantabile at 9:03 PM on May 24, 2021 [1 favorite]

No immediate thoughts, but do you have any idea how many years "many years" might be? - are we talking ten, twenty, fifty years ago? Also, given the cover details, it might be helpful to know which country your friend read it in, and if it was a paperback or a hardback.
posted by ManyLeggedCreature at 8:02 AM on May 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thank you all, and apologies for my delayed reply.

Unfortunately, it was not Portal.

It was a paperback. She read it in the USA in childhood - so, approximately 20-25 years ago.
posted by aquamvidam at 2:37 PM on June 26, 2021