History Literature / Aniara

* GenerationShip: One of the cruelest aversions in the sci-fi literature. While the Aniara was never intended for inter-generational travel, the captain insists that the mimarob teach science and engineering to what few children ''are'' unfortunate enough to be born on the ship. [[spoiler:If any of the second generation survive to adulthood, they can't do anything to save themselves or improve their lives in any meaningful way.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: Exceedingly common after the Aniara is knocked off course, especially after the

* BenevolentAi: The mima.
* BurialInSpace: The chief engineer.

* ColonyShip: The goldonders.

* DwindlingParty: The ship's population gradually dies out over the years and by the end, the '' Aniara'' is abandoned.

* GenderFlip: The narrator, male in the original, is a lesbian female in the 2018 movie.
* GenerationShip: One of the cruellest aversions in the scifi literature.
* GhostShip: What ''Aniara'' eventually becomes.
* GoneHorriblyWrong: The evasive manoeuvre on asteroid Hondo and the ensuing collision with space debris and break-up of the steering gear sends the goldonder into interstellar space, with no hope of return.

** The crew detects a probe launched towards them and believe it contains fuel and supplies to help them. When this news is announced to everyone, morale soars. But when the probe finally arrives and brings it onboard, they are unable to find anything of use.
** The 2018 movie has a scene six years in where MR and her team successfully gets the beam projector working to replace the mima with pictures of nature in the ship windows, only for her to come back and find Isagel and her baby dead from a MurderSuicide.

* MachineWorship: Many of the colonists take to viewing memories of Earth from the mima to dispel their angst and ennui, and some even take to worshipping the mima as a deity. Needless to say, they don't take the mima's death well.

* MurderSuicide: As explicitly shown in the 2018 film, Isagel, who has long since crossed the DespairEventHorizon, kills both herself and her child.

* OffingTheOffspring: Isagel murders her own son in a MurderSuicide.

* {{Technobabble}}: Played straight, such as ''goldonder'' for a humongous spaceship.
* TheStoic: The space pilots.
* TyrantTakesTheHelm: Chefone.

* DownerEnding: The 2018 movie adaptation ends with the Aniara finally arriving at a celestial body after a whopping 5,000,000 years. The planet is lush and green and looks livable for humans to settle on, but the ship has become derelict, and everyone has died and turned to dust.

''Aniara'' is the title of an epic poem, written by Harry Martinsson and published in 1956. ''Aniara'' details the voyage of the [[ColonyShip goldonder]] ''Aniara'', which transports colonists from the [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt polluted and irradiated Earth]] to new settlements on Mars. During the journey, ''Aniara'' is knocked off course and sets a new, irreversible course towards the constellation Lyra, and the colonists, knowing they will never leave ''Aniara'', attempt to deal with their impending, inevitable doom and realizations of mortality in various more or less insane ways. The book consists of 103 poems, ''canto''s, of which the shortest are one stanza ong and longest fill several pages.

** The 2018 movie has a scene six years in where MR and her team successfully gets the beam projector working to replace the mima, only for her to come back and find Isagel and her baby dead from a MurderSuicide.

* KillEmAll: This story leaves no survivors by the end.

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: ''Heartwrenchingly'' averted. Martinson was a personal friend of Niels Bohr, and perfectly aware of the nature of the interstellar space. One of the things that breaks several of ''Aniara'''s inhabitants is that, in spite of the fact that they have travelled for years, they are still only light-days, within spitting distance in astronomical terms, from Earth, but still have no chance to get back to it, even with working engines.

* SciFiGhetto: Averted. ''Aniara'' was well-received by critics, literati and the general public alike, and is widely regarded as the key work that eventually got Martinson the Nobel Prize.
* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: ''Heartwrenchingly'' averted. Martinson was a personal friend of Niels Bohr, and perfectly aware of the nature of the interstellar space.

* DownerEnding: EveryoneDies. It's stated outright from the start, and there is no DeusExMachina to make things right.

* OutOfGenreExperience: Martinsson was, for most of his career, primarily famous for writing working-class critiques of contemporary society and travelogues from his days as a seaman, and had been a published author for 25 years before ''Aniara''.

* ShownTherWork: Martinson consulted Bohr in many scientific aspects to get it right.