search for alien life, unsuccessful

[vertygo]

Looking for any novels where there's a search for alien life that spans time, and is unsuccessful (tho may be successful near the very end).

There was one I liked where a husband cryo-freezes his sick wife and himself and spans time as he awakens, searches for a cure, and then goes back to sleep. In the end, the only life humanity finds is some sort of plant/triffid I believe.

thank-you

 

[chrispenycate]

That would be Charles Sheffield's "Tomorrow and tomorrow" at a guess.

Trouble is, without life, you don't get habitable planets; so what you in fact need is something like Asimov's Robots/Pebble/foundation universe, where life is widespread, but practically only Earth (due to its giant moon) has had forced evolution, giving rise to multicellular organisms.

Or else you can go about seeding Earth life on tens of millions of goldilocks planets wit primitive reducing atmospheres and, in a few hundred thousand years, start introducing advanced organisms - à la Larry Niven "A world out of time"

 

[clovis-man]

I think you're right. Sheffield wrote some varied and interesting tales. This one was unique.

 

[Vertigo]

No comment on the book I'm afraid, I can't off the top of my head think of any books I've read about searching for other life (kind of curious that, you'd think it would be a popular theme). However...

Am I the victim of (not quite complete) identity theft?