Sci Fi novel - Future set on a spaceship/space station "Asimov-esque"

E

Escher

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I'm looking for the title and author of a sci-fi book I read while in Jr High school (1985 - 1987)

Basic plot from what I can remember:
The novel is set on a spaceship or space station that has been floating through space for 100's - 1000's of years. There is a group of people living on this ship in a section that is totally self contained. The people have been living here for 100's of years and don't believe that anything else exists outside of their contained section. One guy decides to challenge the notion that nothing exists outside of where they are and breaks through.

I could have sworn that this was an Asimov book, but I've gone through his catalog and can't find anything plotwise remotely close to this. Any help at all is greatly appreciated.
 
Sounds like the TV series Starlost.
 
hitmouse said:
A number of books with this theme, but a likely candidate is Robert Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky. Do you remember any other details?
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That's close but doesn't quite sound right, one other detail that I can remember when the protagonist gets out into the rest of the ship he finds another much older man already living out there.
 
It seems probable that @Escher won't be back, so we're unlikely to get an answer.
I've just re-read the two titles I suggested -
Brian Aldiss "Non-Stop"
Harry Harrison "Captive Universe"
I doubt if either is likely to be the book in question, but the mind can mix things up so easily when remembering books read many years ago.
The Aldiss novel involves a group of people journeying together, so that seems unlikely to fit the bill.
In contrast, the Harrison one is very definitely focused around one central protagonist, and when he escapes from his "self-contained section" (an Aztec village), he does meet an old man, but this old man is the leader of a team of "watchers" rather than a solitary individual.
 
I read both Non-Stop and Orphans of the Sky recently, and it could easily be either of them. More likely Orphans though I would say.
 
Escher said:
Sounds similar but it doesn't appear that show was based on a novel.
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Writer Edward Bryant did do a novelization of Harlan Ellison's. never used Pilot script for the Star Lost.
 
Bick said:
I read both Non-Stop and Orphans of the Sky recently, and it could easily be either of them. More likely Orphans though I would say.
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Ive read Non-Stop , its close in a number ways , but that not it . Ive never read Orphans in the Sky. ivy not read that one . :(
 
It was Orphans. The novel was comprised of two parts, Universe and Common Sense. From memory, that sequence was in Universe.
 
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