# What are your favourite spaceships from literature?



## Mirannan (Feb 20, 2015)

In the vein of the similar thread on this subforum about TV ships; what are your favourite spaceships from literature?

I have two to start off the proceedings. From the Nivenverse and Ringworld - Lying *******. (Of course we don't have any weapons. We have a really good comm laser though!) And rather lower-tech; Michael from Footfall. 

Possibly applicable video of the latter:


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## Vince W (Feb 20, 2015)

Great topic. Where to being though?

Lying ******* - Ringworld (seconded)
Heighliner - Dune
Heart of Gold - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
GSUs/GSVs - Culture series (too many to name)
Nostalgia For Infinity - Revelation Space

...


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## Ray McCarthy (Feb 20, 2015)

Tricky. None are really memorable to me apart from Anne McCaffery's Brain & Brawn "ships" and Lying *******. Not much impressed with Heart of Gold.

I'm struggling with my own WIP ships to make them interesting.
Earth Visitor to the Alien Star Ship.
"This isn't a Starship, it's a hotel, office block or an Apartment complex."
Other Astronaut:
"No artificial gravity, no holodeck, no replicators, no transporter, no warp drive, no antimatter"
First Astronaut:
"But they do have Jump drive and an insanely natural five acre park!"


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## anno (Feb 20, 2015)

As a Banks and Gillan fan Clear Air Turbulence takes some beating...


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## Vince W (Feb 20, 2015)

I seem to recall some of the ships from Peter Hamilton's Night's Dawn trilogy being fairly interesting.


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## Rodders (Feb 20, 2015)

Nostalgia for Infinity from Revelation Space
The Dawn Treader from The Forge Of God
All the GSV's etc from Banks' Culture series. 
The Heart of Gold from HHGTTG. 

I almost put down the Discovery from 2001, but of course that falls in the movie category.


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## Venusian Broon (Feb 21, 2015)

The Abominator class _*Falling Outside the Normal Moral Constraints *_with its avatar Demeisen from Banks' _Surface Detail. 
_
By far the best character in the book.


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## BAYLOR (Feb 22, 2015)

*Battle for the Abyss* Ben Counter's Horus Heresy novel  The giant chaos spaceship *The Furious Abyss .    * What a truly monstrous and awesome ship .


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## BAYLOR (Feb 26, 2015)

Honor Harrington's   Mantioran Dreadnaught.


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## steelyglint (Mar 3, 2015)

I.M. Banks's R.O.U.s (Rapid Offensive Units). He got their personalities spot on.

Or

Jack Ketch from Neal Asher's Ian Cormack novels. I like the idea of a warship that collects examples of the machinery that humans use to execute each other.

Asher's equivalent of Banks R.O.U. personalities tend to be embodied in drones, usually war drones from the Prador war. Delightfully bloodthirsty and always up for a fight.

.


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## farntfar (Mar 4, 2015)

The Bistromath beats the Heart of Gold.
A spaceship powered by knowing who had the linguini.


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## BAYLOR (Apr 18, 2015)

The Star Empire in Diane Carey's star trek novel *Dreadnaught. *


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## Danny McG (Oct 30, 2016)

From the original Star Wars book - the Death Star ("not a moon")


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## Theophania Elliott (Nov 9, 2016)

I quite liked the ships in John Hemry's JAG-in-Space series - it's early space travel, so the ships are a lot like submarines (only, like, up in space instead of under the sea) - small and slightly claustrophobic. And no artificial gravity.


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## Khuratokh (Nov 10, 2016)

I'm quite fond of the ships in "leviathan wakes"
Artificial gravity of a sort only exists when the engines are on, so ships are built like highrise buildings with engines at their base. 
The Canterbury
The MCRN Dollanger 

(Now a pretty good syfy show called "The Expanse" which needs more love)


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## SilentRoamer (Mar 31, 2017)

I really like this topic:

Arthur C. Clarkes titular *Rama*, I love the mystery of the Ramans, their triplicate redundancy and the general science behind the ship.

Peter F. Hamiltons *Oenone* in the *Nights Dawn Trilogy* (briefly mentioned up thread), these are bitek design, consisting of biology and tech, they are connected to their captains on an intimate level due to the Edenists Affinity gene. 

The ships in Kevin J. Andersons Saga of the Seven Suns are interesting:
*Wentals, Verdani, Hydros* and *Faeros* are sort of elemental forces:
*Wentals* are essentially a water element, their technology is based around exploiting water and using this to great effect.
*Verdani* are essentially treeships in space, they also have an ability to combine with Wental ships for even more effect.
*Faeros* essentially use and manipulate heat, with their ships looking like huge fireballs, which fits in nicely with their home in star coronas. 
*Hydros* are probably the most interesting of the elemental ships, they are essentially liquid metal ships that are able to hold pressure through some unknown mechanism, this reflect their nature as gas giant dwellers.
*Ildirans* have interesting ships, they essentially outright banned AI above a certain level so their ships are complete with Hydraulic controllers and gears/levers.
*Klikkis* have a sort of modular, hive ship design, where damage can be done to any modules and they just simply reform. They are able to reform into larger and more powerful ships.

Simmons *Hyperion* has the interesting *TreeShips* which are said to grow in space, captained by Templars who are a sort of Starship Captains guild. Loose on the science but this is Hyperion. 

*Justice of Toren*, from Ann Leckies *Ancillary Justice* is a great concept, a sentient ship with human equivalent automatons making up large parts of the crew. Makes for a very interesting sense of consciousness.  

I am sure there will be others just as interesting so I will scan my shelves when I get home.


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## Danny McG (Apr 10, 2017)

As my second entry in this list - John Ringo's 'Vorpal Blade' from the Looking Glass book series.
This was basically a submarine with a hyperdrive grafted onto it.


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## Foxbat (Apr 10, 2017)

I quite like Brian Stableford's Hooded Swan.


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## Danny Creasy (May 30, 2017)

From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne


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## Mirannan (May 30, 2017)

dannymcg said:


> As my second entry in this list - John Ringo's 'Vorpal Blade' from the Looking Glass book series.
> This was basically a submarine with a hyperdrive grafted onto it.



From the same series, I rather like the Tumtum Tree - although that was more of a station than a ship.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 20, 2021)

The Rimfire  with it blink drive and blink misses weapons .  This ship can  be found in the Zach Hughes novel *Goldstar.   *


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## Rodders (Jun 20, 2021)

I quite liked the Voidhawks from Peter F. Hamilton's Nights Dawn Trilogy. 

I vaguely remember a chapter early in the Reality Dysfunction of one being born in the atmosphere of a Jovian planet. I may be misremembering, but it was a pretty cool idea to me at the time.


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## Don (Jun 20, 2021)

Danny McG said:


> From the original Star Wars book - the Death Star ("not a moon")


Reminiscent of my own favorite, Perry Rhodan's _Stardust II:_







Although the Han ship rep-rays radiating from _ionomagnetic coils_ located amidships in Wings over Tomorrow (Nowlan) always captured my imagination, they're anti-gravity and earth bound versus spaceships.


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## BAYLOR (Jun 20, 2021)

Don said:


> Reminiscent of my own favorite, Perry Rhodan's _Stardust II:_
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Id love to see that one on the big screen !


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## CupofJoe (Jun 20, 2021)

The psychic alive and sentient [or is that sapient?] living ships from Julian May's *Saga of the Exiles*. They sounded so cool and almost cuddly, even if they were thousands of feet long.


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 6, 2021)

IMT, "Insterstellar Masters of Trade", from James Blish. As far as names go, "But The Sky, My Lady! The Sky!" from Ken McLeod's *Learning The World. *
Looks like Ken was trying to outdo IMB


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## Ray Zdybrow (Jul 6, 2021)

...but the "Heart Of Gold" takes some beating. "Glad to be of ser-vice!"


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## Rodders (Jul 6, 2021)

After reading Iain M. Banks's Surface Detail last year, i think my favourite spaceship from literatiree has to be the Abominator Class Offensive Unit "Falling Outside The Normal Moral Contraints".


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## psikeyhackr (Jul 7, 2021)

The starship from The City and the Stars by Arthur C Clarke.  A personal space yacht with a robot pilot.


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## Fiberglass Cyborg (Jul 16, 2021)

Nostalgia for Infinity - "Revelation Space". Magnificently Gothic, and _really_ built to last.
Mercy of Kalr - from the sequels to "Ancillary Justice." An interesting setting / character: her crew all pretend to be slaved meatpuppets to make her feel better.
Rama - A.C. Clarke's giant alien habitat ship.
The Consul's ship from the Hyperion quartet. It has an extendable balcony for his piano. Nuff said.
Not sure it's a favourite as such, but I find Grey Area the most memorable of the Culture ships.
A couple of foundly-remembered juveniles: the rickety old freighter Dragonfall 5, from Brian Earnshaw's series of that name; 
and Starstormer, a ship made from a hollowed-out asteroid by kids in Nicholas Fisk's "Starstormers."


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## Danny McG (Aug 7, 2021)

Also *Trumpet* from Stephen Donaldson's Gap series


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## AllanR (Aug 7, 2021)

_Field Circus_ in *Accelerando *--because it felt plausible.


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## Fiberglass Cyborg (Aug 24, 2021)

AllanR said:


> _Field Circus_ in *Accelerando *--because it felt plausible.


Aye, the coke-can sized embassy ship! Stross has a few interesting ship ideas. I like Rachel Mansour's nuclear lifeboat from "Singularity Sky," and the flying church full of skeletons in "Neptune's Brood."


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## Pyan (Aug 24, 2021)

The _Pride of Chanur_ - CJ Cherryh, for its (probably) realistic portrayal of hyperdrive and the machinery and crew problems in using it.

The _Skylark of Space_ - EE 'Doc' Smith. Well, just _because_. Nice to see a cover illustration where the artist seems to have actually read the book...


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## Rodders (Aug 24, 2021)

I've been looking through the interwebs for some interpretations for Culture ships. These artworks by Alex Jay Brady on Art Station were pretty cool, I thought. The influence of modern technology is apparent. 



I especially liked these ones by Sebastien Garnier were especially nice.


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## Rodders (Sep 19, 2021)

Having just read Inhibitor Phase by Alistair Reynolds, I have to add the Scythe to the list of sexy ship in literature.


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