Paradises Lost by Ursula K. Le Guin (American, 2002)

Summary:
The Birthday of the World is a series of short stories that explore a variety of worlds. Paradises Lost is a novella and the longest story in The Birthday of the World. It is set on an undefined futuristic world, on a ship, the Discovery, that has been travelling for decades to its final destination, the Shindychew, or New Earth. On this ship everything is controlled. All diseases have been eliminated, people have to take contraceptives, or make a pledge of chastity or homosexuality to avoid overpopulation, and everything in the ship is recycled. The ship has its own internal biosystem working perfectly. 
  
  We follow the life of Hsing inside the ship. She is a middle generation. She did not live on Earth, and she will not colonize the New Earth. At the beginning, 5-Liu Hsing is a small child that learns about the old Earth with virtual reality tapes, but these tapes have no real meaning for her, since she never physically experienced any of those things. She is friends with 5-Nova Luis, and they are both looking forward to a ceremony in which, at the age of seven, they are allowed to put on clothes for the first time. As they grow older, they begin to discover that there are several different ideologies in the ship, all trying to explain their purpose as humanity in the voyage. The major religions of earth have lost meaning, but the cult of Bliss emerges, with members known as “Angels”. They believe that their purpose is to erase or overcome their connections to terrestrial existence, and that the world outside the ship is an illusion and that only the voyage and life inside the ship matters, since it is everything they have ever known and everything they will ever know. 
  
  At age 18, Hsing becomes a student in the navigation course and Luis studies to become a doctor. Hsing marries her colleague, Hiroshi. Once married, Hiroshi reveals to Hsing that the ship experienced a leap in its course and now it is 40 years ahead of schedule, which means that it will arrive in five years to its destination. He also says that he and other allies who know about this have kept it a secret, since they believe that they should stop at the New Earth, contrary to the Angels, who do not wish to stop at all. Hsing convinces him to inform the people about this news. Luis, meanwhile, discovers that the education program for the generation that will arrive to the New Earth has been erased or replaced by Bliss. This leads to an investigation of religious manipulation, in time for the announcement of the new destination date for New Earth. Luis is elected chair of the ruling council and the council reaches a settlement: people aboard the ship can choose to stay on the ship, or land in Sindychew. The ship’s educational curriculum is also reviewed and all schools are required to teach materials fit for life on the new planet. 
  Finally, when they reach their destination, a quarter of the ship’s population land on Shindychew and learn to live on a planet again. The rest of the ship leaves again, planning to stay in voyage indefinitely.

Another summary:
Paradises Lost tells the story of a society on the Discovery, a vogue that departed from Earth to Shindychew, a potentially habitable planet. Life on board is very comfortable since the ship is self-contained and self-sustainable. However, there are no other living beings on board apart from humans. Liu Hsing and Nova Luis were born on the ship and are part of the fifth generation. Everything they know is in vogue. They do not know any other life or any other world; they do not relate to life on Earth and do not know what is waiting for them in Shindychew. Throughout the story, Hsing and Luis face some crises. First, a religious group believes that there is nothing outside the ship, and it is better to have an endless journey. However, some people insist on fulfilling their mission of exploring and colonizing Shindychew. They keep firm on landing on the planet. Tension arises when the navigators inform the population of a drastic change in the ship's schedule. The landing will happen 40 years ahead of schedule. People are still hesitant about the landing. Hence, they decide to land. Those who want to keep traveling on the ship are very welcomed, and those who want to explore and colonize Shindychew are also free to do it. Once they had landed, people who had chosen to remain on the voyage continued their journey. They had no intention of returning. The people who had chosen to colonize Shindychew got off the ship. The new colonizers of Shindychew are discovering how to live on a planet. They are learning about their new home and are naming things they are surrounded by to survive.

Another summary:
The story is set in a future where a group of people leave Earth to find Sindychew, the unknown destination planet where humans could live. The story covers the fifth generation on the “Discovery”, a ship that sheltered a community that didn’t know what life on Earth was and that achieved a sustainable way of living where nothing went to waste. The main protagonists are Hsing and Luis, two friends of the 5th generation, who know they will probably not see the arrival at Sindychew since it will happen around 40 years in the future. As they grow up, Luis’ curiosity leads him to find many archives related to the arrival, and the instructions for it, missing. On the other hand, while working at the navigation bridge Hsing is told about a discovery that could shorten the journey to only three years. However, that is being threatened by a group of fanatics called “The Angels” who preached that they shouldn’t arrive anywhere and instead they should just keep on traveling, going against the mission of the whole community. Luis requests to check on the whole group of angels and Hsing convinces the head of the navigation center, her husband, to share with the whole ship the plan on reaching Sindychew in a couple of years. Discovery finally reaches the New Earth and a few thousand people stay there while the rest keep travelling.

World view: Describes in a variety of aspects and with some consistency an imaginary state or society which is regarded as better, in some respects at least, than the one in which its author lives.
Future projections: Sees the future as potential to reform a reality that once seemed unchangeable.
Ideology: Portrays the enforcement of justice in a positive manner and has faith in human capacity to build a better future.
Characters, plot and writing style: A perfectly planned social order derives on the personal satisfaction and psychic well-being of the characters.
Classification: Dystopia