[stevendhansen]

Reminds me of a book I recently finished (Death's End by Cixin Liu). A major plot element is sending a human brain to intercept an alien civilization that is en-route to Earth with the hope that the aliens will resurrect the person and use his knowledge establish a better dialog with humanity.

[pavel_lishin]

I recall reading another novel where one of the protagonists was resurrected far, far in the future by a seemingly incomprehensible race. (Little spiders, of sorts.) Unfortunately, due to unfamiliarity with humanity, they did a bad job, and his body only lasted a few minutes before dying again.

I wish I could remember what the book was.

[Lerc]

Dennis potter wrote an intriguing take on this.

When Potter was dying he wrote Karaoke (which was about a dying writer writing a play entitled Karaoke who discovers his characters actually exist)

This is followed by Cold Lazarus which is set in a dystopian future in a lab working on the cryogenically frozen head of the author from Karaoke.

There is a fairly open question as to how much of Karaoke is a prequel and how much of it is a concurrent experience of the mind being experimented upon.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaoke_(TV_series)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_Lazarus

[dmreedy]

At the very least, "poorly reassembled by incomprehensible aliens" is a plot element in the Star Trek TOS pilot. Granted, that character lasted more than a few minutes. And costumes for incomprehensible aliens are expensive, so big veiny heads will do.

[ghayes]

FYI, these is Star Trek's episode "The Managerie" [0], and was original the pilot episode "The Cage" [1]

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Menagerie_(Star_Trek:_The_...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cage_(Star_Trek:_The_Origi...

[Jtsummers]

Rautavarra's Case by PKD is similar. After an accident, an alien race resuscitates one of the [EDIT: human] victims, leading to some interesting consequences related to differing conceptions of the afterlife.

Text: http://www.philipkdickfans.com/literary-criticism/rautaavara...

Synopsis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rautavaara%27s_Case

Probably not the one you're thinking of, but somewhat related.

[darklajid]

My best guess that kinda, sorta matches your description: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

(I liked that one)

[arunix]

Your description sounds similar in some ways to The Last Legends of Earth, by A. A. Attanasio.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Legends_of_Earth

[pavel_lishin]

I don't think that's it - the spidercritters play a very small role in the story I'm thinking of - but this sounds fascinating. Thanks!

[astrange]

I think I read this in a short story collection, but totally can't remember which one.

[kilroy123]

Sounds like a real life version of hell.

[Razengan]

Reminds me of the opening of the movie Prometheus.

[maverick_iceman]

Spoiler alert, dude!

[flukus]

The book is 6 years old, what's the spoiler limit?

Did you know Darth Vader was Luke Skywalkers father?

[stevenhuang]

Death's End (the english version) was released only very recently. The original publication date of 2010 is Chinese.

[flukus]

Well if they really cared they would have learned Cantonese

/s

[solipsism]

The metric is percentage of the population already having seen the movie or read the book. Not how long it's been out.

[flukus]

Not a lot of people read Plato but pointing out the horse was filled with troops isn't a spoiler.

[pbhjpbhj]

I'm not a classicist but I'm guessing you meant Homer? Though Plato used the reference to said horse I think he did it on the basis that his audience knew the story already.

Ack, maybe I'm missing something here?

[flukus]

Your right, I was well on my way to Friday night drunkenness when I wrote that.

[pc86]

Well if you were worried about a spoiler, perhaps you should have stopped reading when he mentioned the book name and that he had finished it. Or maybe immediately after that when he said "major plot point"

[jessaustin]

Yes, that was ridiculous. I wish mods would just delete spoiler posts.

[kbenson]

Seriously. I'm at the very beginning of the second book right now.

[happy-go-lucky]

Creepy yet interesting.