I am seeking the specific title of a science fiction novel.

The book was a paperback when I started reading it. Its pages were
yellowed due to age when I picked it up. I do not recall if there were
illustrations in this book (75% sure there were none). I remember the
book was medium in thickness (possibly 450-550 pages long). The book
had a picture on the cover of an object (possibly a ship or a battle)
in space: stars were in the background. I know the author was not
readily recognizable (i.e. Steven King, Dean Koontz, Terri Brooks,
etc.) The book was written in modern English- I am assuming the
publish date should be between 1970 and 1995. To the best of my
knowledge this book was not part of any series.

The book was donated to the US Navy. I was stationed at the time on
the USS Halyburton FFG-40 in Portsmouth VA. The time frame was in late
1996 or early 1997.

The following is all that I can remember about this book:

A main female character (listed frequently in the text) who
transferred her consciousness into the ship so she could survive long
into the future in order to finish some sort of project or plan. I
have a sense that this computerized consciousness is leading the group
of people/passengers/survivors somewhere. This female is a real life
breathing individual when the book starts but in later chapters
transfers/links/binds her mind/consciousness/being into/onto the ship.

The space battles involved some kind of beaming weapons. Think of mass
driver type weapons. I think of some type of needles or spikes
shooting out towards a target when visualizing these weapons.

There was some type of conflict involving major parties (possibly
different species). There was a sense of the entire universe in ruins,
being destroyed by some kind of weapon or device by one of these major
parties.

The only way for this group of people to survive was to go into a new
universe through some kind of opening (most probably the opening was
created using some sort of device).

I thank you for your attempt(s) to help me look for this title. I have
already looked at several resources including www.booksense.com,
www.bookfinder.com, and www.amazon.com with no success.

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Request for Question Clarification by techtor-ga on 18 Feb 2006 07:45 PST

Hello Infoseekker0001:

Your reference of a female protagonist made me recall a book I read a
few years earlier. Please let me know if this book is similar or is
the one you are looking for:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812519469/qid=1140277437/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-0341737-7096848?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

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Clarification of Question by infoseeker0001-ga on 19 Feb 2006 03:02 PST

Thank you Techtor-ga. 

This is the exact book I was looking for. Looks like I was wrong about
it not being a part of a series (good for me--> more books :) ).

I am going to place an order for the series right away. I was going
nutz for almost a year trying to think of the name of the book.

The $25.00 is a small price to pay for elevating my mental breakdown (lol).

Sincerly,
infoseeker0001-ga

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Clarification of Question by infoseeker0001-ga on 19 Feb 2006 03:08 PST

Techtor-ga, I am not sure how to pay you for your answer. Please let
me know (this was my first ever question). Thanks again.

infoseeker0001-ga

Infoseeker0001-ga,

Thank you for acknowledging my answer. I'm glad to know it's the right
one. I had forgotten to say "female protagonist whose consciousness
was transferred to a computer." This was the character Kyra Davis of
Harvest of Stars by Poul Anderson, which I had fortunately read.

You are right though in saying that his book is part of a series. It
is the first, as the list at this Amazon page indicates:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/JB1TI5VZVRGA/103-9495056-0883839?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I "answered" your question by posting in the Answer section, thus it
will be charged. You haven't been charged $25 when you posted the
question, but now you are. :)

Thanks again and hope to be of service to you in another question.

It's not Ring by Stephen Baxter perhaps?
Not an exact match but close.
Female character has consciousness transferred into the sun.
Various argy bargy across the history of the universe.
Missing neutrino problem solved.
End of the universe as we know it.
Attempted escape into another universe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_%28Stephen_Baxter%29

Part of Baxter's Xeelee Sequence, can be read alone, highly
recommended hard science fiction reading.

Thanks very much for the 5-star rating!