Definition
A generation ship is a self-sustaining spacecraft built for interstellar travel in a universe without faster-than-light technology. The journey takes so long (decades to centuries) that the people who arrive are the descendants of the people who departed. The ship itself becomes a world: it needs farms, social systems, governance, culture, and ways to handle the fact that most of its inhabitants never chose to be there. Generation ships are closed systems, which means every resource is finite and every social problem is inescapable.
Why It Matters
Generation ships are one of fiction's most potent settings because the constraints write themselves. You have a fixed population, limited resources, no escape, and a destination that most characters will never see. This setup naturally generates stories about power, purpose, identity, and what holds a society together when the original mission fades from living memory. It is also a powerful metaphor for any situation where you inherit a journey you did not start.
Types of Generation Ship
Famous Examples
The classic generation ship novel, where inhabitants have devolved into tribal societies and forgotten the ship's original purpose.
Explores the culture and daily life aboard generation ships with warmth and specificity, focusing on community rather than crisis.
An early take on the concept, where the ship's inhabitants have built an entire mythology around their enclosed world.
Common Mistakes
Think about food production, waste recycling, population control, and governance. The ship's systems are your setting, and system failures are your plot hooks.
Knowledge degrades, priorities shift, and myths replace facts over centuries. Show how the ship's culture evolves, fragments, or forgets.
Address claustrophobia, generational resentment, and the existential weight of being born into a mission you never chose. These are the emotions that make generation ship stories resonate.
Try It Yourself
Write a journal entry from someone born on a generation ship who is the seventh generation since departure. They have never seen a sky, a river, or an animal larger than a rat. In 250 words, describe what they consider normal and what the ship's elders talk about that seems like pure myth to them.
Track Generations Across Centuries
Use Novelium's Timeline to map out the generational shifts aboard your ship, tracking how culture, knowledge, and purpose evolve over the voyage.