# looking for the title of a scifi book published in the 80s



## gleek (Apr 21, 2005)

hello everyone.. i wasn't sure where to put this post but this looked like a good area to try.

when i was in my teens in the 80s, i was a member of the science fiction book club. one of the books that got sent to me was really great and i read it like three times and then my mom gave it to a used book sale and i never saw it again. here's my sum up of what the story was about.. it was told from a man's point of view. it involved a ship carrying colonists that were looking for habitable planets. there was a lot of the storyline that was devoted to a mathematical equation that estimated the number of habitable planets in the universe and just how hard it would be to find them. i remember that there was a lot of epsionage in the story and that the majority of the story took place aboard the spaceship and on one planet that the crew was exploring for the possibility of colonization. god! i wish i could remember the title! i know that when i got the book, i didn't recognize the author (i had read a lot of asimov and arthur c. clarke by that time) so unless this guy has written more books since then it's probably a lesser-known novel. if any of this sounds familiar to you, please let me know!

thanks in advance, gleek


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## Leto (Apr 21, 2005)

oh boy, this one won't be easy.  Could be Methusalah Children by Robert Heinlein, as it could be several other ones.


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## gleek (Apr 21, 2005)

yeah, i knew it was going to be tough. i've done a lot of googling and couldn't come up with anything and came across this BBS and thought "hey, there are probably other people who read it!" duh! 

i'm pretty sure it's not heinlein as i had read "stranger in a strange land" before i read this mystery book and remember that it wasn't the same author. darn! hopefully someone else will remember. thanks for the fast reply.


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## GOLLUM (Apr 22, 2005)

I assmue you don't recall any of the Charater's names or the name of a planet, ship, race etc..?? That's always a good way to track things down in Google when you can remember someting small but specific.

Good luck.


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## gleek (Apr 22, 2005)

hmmm, ok, i thought a lot about this last night and i remember that the ship was filled with regular old human beings, most in hibernation. the main character (a man) was put in charge of a crew to go down to a planet to see if it was inhabitable. later, he figures out that it was all a hoax.. some sort of test where the administrators of the ship used some sort of hollographic ruse on him.. also, there was a murder mystery involved. DARN! i wish i could remember more! sorry, i realize that it's not much to go on. i wonder if i can contact the science fiction book club to get more information.


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## Leto (Apr 22, 2005)

Did the holo projection involve crucifixtion (sp ?) ?


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## gleek (Apr 22, 2005)

nope, that much i am sure of.. no crucifixtion. this is a tough one! i wish i kept more of my brain intact during the college drinking years  i'm going to do some more detective work and see what i can come up with.


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## stelfox1 (May 7, 2005)

Hey I have been thinking long and hard about this one, and the only book which I think resembles your description is " The Mote In God's Eye " by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
And it was published in 1974 also the ship in it was called The MacArthur.


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## gleek (May 7, 2005)

thanks stelfox1. i just read the description of the book on amazon but i don't think that it's it because i know that the crew of this spaceship never came into contact with any alien race. this is how i remember the story going..

the hero (a man.. a ranking officer) wakes up after being in hibernation. he is on a spaceship with many other people trying to find new world to colonize. there is talk about the mathematical equation that is used to determine how many habitable planets that are in the universe. the spaceship finds this one world that they want to look at. the hero goes down to the planet with a small away party. something goes wrong on the mission and someone dies. the rest of the novel is spent trying to figure out what exactly went wrong on the away mission. after some analysis and detective work, he realizes that he never went down to a planet at all.. that it was all a holographic ruse of a sorts to test his loyalty in some way. i remember that the governing crew of the spaceship was extremely paranoid about the success of the mission to find new worlds failing. they were afraid for the survival of the human race. 

hhmmmm, that's all i remember at this point except that i got the book as a member of the scifi book club in the late 80s early 90s and that it was a new book at that time.

thanks for pondering!!


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## jhxyf9 (May 20, 2005)

Was it *The Ninety Trillion Fausts (Quintara Marathon)*

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671578308/104-5986043-7160760?v=glance


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## a|one (May 20, 2005)

If it was a novel from _the Quintara Marathon_ it would be the first one, _The Demons at Rainbow Bridge,_ which seems unlikely as there was no test of loyalty involved, and I think he would have mentioned the frozen demons.


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## Stalker (May 20, 2005)

stelfox1 said:
			
		

> Hey I have been thinking long and hard about this one, and the only book which I think resembles your description is " The Mote In God's Eye " by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
> And it was published in 1974 also the ship in it was called The MacArthur.


Does not look like. McArthur is a battleship, not an Ark. The Mote is not the story about colonisation but about a unigue civilisation that luckily to humankind appeared trapped in their solar system without mush resource and exit poits to the outer space. In my opinion, one of the most successful attempts of reconstruction of alien intelligence.


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## gleek (May 20, 2005)

thank you jhxyf9, a|one, & Stalker, your comments are most appreciated. i'm sad to say that those books, though, are not it. this story only ever took place aboard this "ark". there were never any aliens. it was only humans trying to find another place to live. argh! if only i could remember the title!!


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## otistdog (Sep 21, 2005)

The equation for the number of habitable planets -- do you mean the "Drake Equation"?

http://www.station1.net/DouglasJones/drake.htm

Don't think I ever read this particular book, but that keyword might be a lead for you.

Was it a male or female author? Also, what was the exact science fiction book club you belonged to -- any chance of finding a list of the books they sent out?

--Otis


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## otistdog (Sep 21, 2005)

Any chance this was "One" by George Alec Effinger? I saw a reference at:

http://math.cofc.edu/faculty/kasman/MATHFICT/search.php?orderby=title&go=yes&genre=sf

Never read it myself, and the summary on the above page isn't specific enough to say for certain, but it does mention that the Drake Equation figures prominently.

-- Otis


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