# Snippets of books you remember reading, but don't remember the name of the book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [April 6, 2023, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snippets-of-books-you-remember-reading-but-dont-remember-the-name-of-the-book/982246 "2023-04-06T12:51:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 6
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2023, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snippets-of-books-you-remember-reading-but-dont-remember-the-name-of-the-book/982246/6 "2023-04-27T12:30:15Z")
I initially put this in here: [Ask the guy who is pretty good at SF Story Identification](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ask-the-guy-who-is-pretty-good-at-sf-story-identification/462417) but without success. Ok so here goes. It’s a novel from the early 2000s and everybody on Earth somehow gets a message basically saying that if you want to go to space, or board the starship or whatever, be within so many yards of a body of water at such and such date and time. And those who follow the instructions end up onboard an uninhabited alien ship with a very sophisticated AI and a responsive, malleable interior. On one hand the ship becomes populated with well motivated and well meaning people, while at the same time a number of local levels of government have taken advantage of the situation to get rid of their population’s criminals. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snippets-of-books-you-remember-reading-but-dont-remember-the-name-of-the-book/982246)._