Orphans of the Sky
E490051
Orphans of the Sky is a classic science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a generation ship whose inhabitants have forgotten their origins and believe their vessel is the entire universe.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Orphans of the Sky canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5066614 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Orphans of the Sky Context triple: [Robert A. Heinlein, notableWork, Orphans of the Sky]
-
A.
The Skylark of Space
The Skylark of Space is a pioneering early space opera novel by E. E. "Doc" Smith that helped define many of the genre’s classic interstellar adventure tropes.
-
B.
The Star Flyer
The Star Flyer is a tall swing ride attraction at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens that lifts riders high into the air for panoramic views of the city.
-
C.
A Fall of Moondust
A Fall of Moondust is a 1961 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke about a tourist vessel trapped beneath the Moon’s dust surface and the ensuing rescue efforts.
-
D.
The Star Rover
The Star Rover is a 1915 novel by Jack London that blends prison realism with mystical astral projection, following an inmate who escapes torture by journeying through his past lives.
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E.
Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is Isaac Asimov’s first published novel, a science fiction story set in his Galactic Empire universe that explores themes of prejudice, time displacement, and a future Earth’s struggle for survival.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Orphans of the Sky Target entity description: Orphans of the Sky is a classic science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a generation ship whose inhabitants have forgotten their origins and believe their vessel is the entire universe.
-
A.
The Skylark of Space
The Skylark of Space is a pioneering early space opera novel by E. E. "Doc" Smith that helped define many of the genre’s classic interstellar adventure tropes.
-
B.
The Star Flyer
The Star Flyer is a tall swing ride attraction at Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens that lifts riders high into the air for panoramic views of the city.
-
C.
A Fall of Moondust
A Fall of Moondust is a 1961 science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke about a tourist vessel trapped beneath the Moon’s dust surface and the ensuing rescue efforts.
-
D.
The Star Rover
The Star Rover is a 1915 novel by Jack London that blends prison realism with mystical astral projection, following an inmate who escapes torture by journeying through his past lives.
-
E.
Pebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is Isaac Asimov’s first published novel, a science fiction story set in his Galactic Empire universe that explores themes of prejudice, time displacement, and a future Earth’s struggle for survival.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (45)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fix-up novel
ⓘ
science fiction novel ⓘ science fiction novella ⓘ science fiction novella ⓘ |
| author | Robert A. Heinlein NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| basedOn |
Common Sense
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Universe ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| depicts | a society that worships the ship as the entire universe ⓘ |
| firstPublicationOfComponent | Universe ⓘ |
| firstPublicationYear | 1941 ⓘ |
| firstPublishedIn | Astounding Science Fiction NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| genre | science fiction ⓘ |
| hasCoverArtBy | Irving Freeman NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasMotiveForce | mutiny aboard the ship ⓘ |
| influenced | later generation ship stories ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Bobo
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Captain of the Ship NERFINISHED ⓘ Hugh Hoyland NERFINISHED ⓘ Joe-Jim Gregory NERFINISHED ⓘ Lieutenant Nelson NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| mediaType | print ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | third-person ⓘ |
| notableFor | popularizing the generation ship whose crew forgets their origins trope ⓘ |
| originalComponentWork |
Common Sense
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Universe ⓘ |
| originalPublicationForm | two linked novellas ⓘ |
| pageCount | approximately 160 ⓘ |
| partOfSeries | Heinlein's Future History (loosely associated) NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| plotSummary | The inhabitants of a generation ship have forgotten their origins and believe their vessel is the entire universe. ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1963 ⓘ |
| publisher | G. P. Putnam's Sons NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| setting |
deep space
ⓘ
generation starship Vanguard NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| subgenre |
dystopian fiction
ⓘ
generation ship fiction ⓘ space opera ⓘ |
| theme |
closed societies
ⓘ
exploration and discovery ⓘ loss of historical knowledge ⓘ mutiny and rebellion ⓘ relativistic space travel consequences ⓘ religion and myth as distorted science ⓘ |
| timePeriodOfSetting | far future ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Orphans of the Sky Description of subject: Orphans of the Sky is a classic science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a generation ship whose inhabitants have forgotten their origins and believe their vessel is the entire universe.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.