A review by justiceofkalr
The Ballad of Beta-2 by Samuel R. Delany

4.0

This was a really cool idea, and I really wish the book was longer and explored it more. 12 generation ships set out to take humanity to the stars, but relatively shortly after they leave humans develop a better mode of inter-stellar travel and arrive at the destination long before the generation ships arrive. So by the time the surviving generation ships arrive they've developed very differently and are pretty much quarantined and left to live their lives on their ships apart from the rest of humanity. An anthropology student goes to the ships to investigate a ballad about one of the generation ships and finds out what happened to the ships during their long voyage.