A generational starship is sent to a possibly inhabitable moon in the Tau Ceti System. The ship, consisting of different simulated biomes and two thousand people, barely make it there before their internal resources run out. But a wrench is thrown into their plans when the first to go down are stricken with a fatal sickness, a sort of prion they call "the alien". There's conflict among the group. Half want to return back to Earth, the other half wants to stay and figure out a solution the the problem. So they split up and the second half of the story is about the difficulties the survivors have making the journey back to their home planet, Earth. In fact, because their crops begin to die they have to devour the remaining animals and then figure to a way to put themselves in suspended animation so they can continue the last one hundred years of the journey...
This is an interesting, unexpected book, primarily because it's basically the opposite message of Robinson's amazing MARS trilogy. Highly recommended.
A generational starship is sent to a possibly inhabitable moon in the Tau Ceti System. The ship, consisting of different simulated biomes and two thousand people, barely make it there before their internal resources run out. But a wrench is thrown into their plans when the first to go down are stricken with a fatal sickness, a sort of prion they call "the alien". There's conflict among the group. Half want to return back to Earth, the other half wants to stay and figure out a solution the the problem. So they split up and the second half of the story is about the difficulties the survivors have making the journey back to their home planet, Earth. In fact, because their crops begin to die they have to devour the remaining animals and then figure to a way to put themselves in suspended animation so they can continue the last one hundred years of the journey...
