YASID: living ship with grotesque pilot
David T. Bilek
---------
I read it sometime in my early teens (I'd say between '94 and '99),
though the book itself--a mass market paperback from the
library--seemed a bit older. As far as I can recall, the cover
featured a large, pink, jelly-fish like spaceship.
The ship, which was a sentient alien a la Farscape or Lexx, was one of
the primary characters. It was definitely female, and she may have
appeared at the end of the novel in a bipedal form, perhaps in a
vision of the main character.
The main character, a male, was her pilot. He may- or may not have
been telepathically/psychically bonded to the ship. In this novel,
those who piloted these kinds of ships would enter some sort of
cryosleep during travel. They were very long lived--I think the main
character was in his seventies, but (perhaps due to drugs they took to
prolong their lives?) had the stunted height of children. However,
they were unable to stop aging completely, so their noses and ears
would continue growing. I remember the pilot (and, I think another
female pilot?) being described as pretty grotesque looking.
. . . aaand, that's about all I remember. I know that it was not Anne
McCaffrey's Ship Who . . . series. This living ship was definitely
alien, and the ship itself was definitely her body. Oh, and I've
checked the wikipedia entry on bioships and tvtropes entry on living
ships, and, as far as I can tell, it's not listed there.
If you have any idea, let me know!
----------
I'll relay the answer if anybody knows it. C'mon, RASFW, our
reputation is on the line.
-David
William December Starr
David T. Bilek <david...@att.net> said:
> Posting for somebody else since y'all aren't fit for polite company:
> ---------
> I read it sometime in my early teens (I'd say between '94 and '99),
> though the book itself--a mass market paperback from the
> library--seemed a bit older. As far as I can recall, the cover
> featured a large, pink, jelly-fish like spaceship.
>
> The ship, which was a sentient alien a la Farscape or Lexx, was one of
> the primary characters. It was definitely female, and she may have
> appeared at the end of the novel in a bipedal form, perhaps in a
> vision of the main character.
>
> The main character, a male, was her pilot. He may- or may not have
> been telepathically/psychically bonded to the ship. In this novel,
> those who piloted these kinds of ships would enter some sort of
> cryosleep during travel. They were very long lived--I think the main
> character was in his seventies, but (perhaps due to drugs they took to
> prolong their lives?) had the stunted height of children. However,
> they were unable to stop aging completely, so their noses and ears
> would continue growing. I remember the pilot (and, I think another
> female pilot?) being described as pretty grotesque looking.
I think that the description has enough elements in common with
ALIEN EARTH, a 1992 paperback by Megan Lindholm (who writes these
days as "Robin Hobb") for it to be worth the queryer's time to check
it out.
Despite the book's title, the vast bulk of the story takes place
on a (living) ship en route to long-abandoned Earth.
-- wds
David T. Bilek
Starr) wrote:
>In article <6i3vh45ggngg2bnp1...@4ax.com>,
>David T. Bilek <david...@att.net> said:
>
>> Posting for somebody else since y'all aren't fit for polite company:
>> ---------
>> I read it sometime in my early teens (I'd say between '94 and '99),
>> though the book itself--a mass market paperback from the
>> library--seemed a bit older. As far as I can recall, the cover
>> featured a large, pink, jelly-fish like spaceship.
>>
SNIPPAGE
>
>I think that the description has enough elements in common with
>ALIEN EARTH, a 1992 paperback by Megan Lindholm (who writes these
>days as "Robin Hobb") for it to be worth the queryer's time to check
>it out.
>
>Despite the book's title, the vast bulk of the story takes place
>on a (living) ship en route to long-abandoned Earth.
>
GOLD STAR for you, William. She says this was it. Multiple other
venues had failed at this identification.
RASFW proves its superiority once again. All hail RASFW.
-David
Kurt Busiek
And just to wrap it up:
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n2/n13746.jpg
...there's your pink-jellyfish cover.
kdb
DJensen
My copy has this cover, which isn't nearly as ridiculous:
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/8c/3b/18cfeb6709a0c8e31c990110._AA240_.L.jpg
--
DJensen