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1AndreasJ
Read this book in the '90s, so it's at least that old. Read it in Swedish, but suspect it was translated from English.
Earth is no longer inhabitable (because of pollution?) and the protagonist lives on a fleet of generation ships searching for a new planet to settle. The protagonist is a journalist or something like that, and is approached by a group of scouts who have concluded that there are no human-inhabitable planets to find, and that humanity has to make peace with the idea of living on their spaceships indefinitely. They believe that he, unlike themselves, have the rapport with the common people to get the message through to people's hearts and minds.
He accepts and the book ends with a long description of a virtual reality presentation type thingie he makes that, with the help of a rather assholish God and a voice-of-reason Devil, argues that humanity can hope for neither for divine salvation nor a new Earth to being anew on, but most accept and make the best of its present situation. I don't believe we're told how well he succeeds in convincing anyone.
Earth is no longer inhabitable (because of pollution?) and the protagonist lives on a fleet of generation ships searching for a new planet to settle. The protagonist is a journalist or something like that, and is approached by a group of scouts who have concluded that there are no human-inhabitable planets to find, and that humanity has to make peace with the idea of living on their spaceships indefinitely. They believe that he, unlike themselves, have the rapport with the common people to get the message through to people's hearts and minds.
He accepts and the book ends with a long description of a virtual reality presentation type thingie he makes that, with the help of a rather assholish God and a voice-of-reason Devil, argues that humanity can hope for neither for divine salvation nor a new Earth to being anew on, but most accept and make the best of its present situation. I don't believe we're told how well he succeeds in convincing anyone.
2dukedom_enough
Riding the Torch by Norman Spinrad. It's really a novella, not a novel, but I see it's packaged in at least a few standalone editions. One of his better stories, IMO.
