Ship with a solar sail, near light speed travel, AI loose in the space ship... title?

[ryodoan]

There is a book I have been wanting to re-read for a long time now. I originally got it out of the library about 5 years ago. Since then, the library has re-organized itself so while I remember vaguely where I picked the book up, that will not help me now since the books have all been moved.

I recently played through Mass Effect and the plot of the game greatly reminded me of this book and made me want to read it again, but despite numerous google searches I have yet to find what I am looking for.

I think the following are some fragments of the plot:

• The book starts off from the perspetive of a crewman on a space ship that travels through intersteller space at (or near) light speed via gold colored solar sails (I think the cover of the book has an image of the ship on it)
• The crewman mentions some facts about how much time passes for people not traveling on the ship due to the fact the ship travels at near light speed.
• It is a very old ship and I seem to recall for some reason that the main character (possibly a female?) is either the sole crewman, or the crew is greatly reduced.
• The planet that is visited has a exno-archeological dig happening into a race of aliens that lived on the planet years ago and mysteriously all died out.
• At another point the plot moves to an artifically created sphere in space that was created by some alien race that was placed as a kind of trap for intelligent life. By discovering how to activate the sphere it summons (beings, aliens?) from the edge of known space that could possibly wipe out all intelligent life.
• There is an AI loose in the ships systems, this AI is actually someone who was sent into the edge of known space and has returned somehow (not so sure on this point... its been a while).

Thanks for any help, I hope I have provided enough information, if you have any suggestions feel free to suggest away.

 

[High Eight]

Re: Ship with a solar sail, near light speed travel, AI loose in the space ship... ti

There is a book I have been wanting to re-read for a long time now. I originally got it out of the library about 5 years ago. Since then, the library has re-organized itself so while I remember vaguely where I picked the book up, that will not help me now since the books have all been moved.

I recently played through Mass Effect and the plot of the game greatly reminded me of this book and made me want to read it again, but despite numerous google searches I have yet to find what I am looking for.

I think the following are some fragments of the plot:

• The book starts off from the perspetive of a crewman on a space ship that travels through intersteller space at (or near) light speed via gold colored solar sails (I think the cover of the book has an image of the ship on it)
• The crewman mentions some facts about how much time passes for people not traveling on the ship due to the fact the ship travels at near light speed.
• It is a very old ship and I seem to recall for some reason that the main character (possibly a female?) is either the sole crewman, or the crew is greatly reduced.
• The planet that is visited has a exno-archeological dig happening into a race of aliens that lived on the planet years ago and mysteriously all died out.
• At another point the plot moves to an artifically created sphere in space that was created by some alien race that was placed as a kind of trap for intelligent life. By discovering how to activate the sphere it summons (beings, aliens?) from the edge of known space that could possibly wipe out all intelligent life.
• There is an AI loose in the ships systems, this AI is actually someone who was sent into the edge of known space and has returned somehow (not so sure on this point... its been a while).

Thanks for any help, I hope I have provided enough information, if you have any suggestions feel free to suggest away.

Sounds a bit like Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space - Full plot here: Revelation Space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Its the first of a trilogy, though.

 

[ryodoan]

Re: Ship with a solar sail, near light speed travel, AI loose in the space ship... ti

Sounds a bit like Alistair Reynolds' Revelation Space - Full plot here: Revelation Space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Its the first of a trilogy, though.

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!

The cover art is different than the book I read, but that sounds exactly like the book I was looking for!

I have been wracking my brain for months trying to figure out what the book was and getting nowhere.

Thanks again, this looks exactly like the book I was trying to find.

 

[High Eight]

Re: Ship with a solar sail, near light speed travel, AI loose in the space ship... ti

thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!!

The cover art is different than the book I read, but that sounds exactly like the book I was looking for!

I have been wracking my brain for months trying to figure out what the book was and getting nowhere.

Thanks again, this looks exactly like the book I was trying to find.

Glad to be of service, Ryo.