I only remember scenes, maybe a rough plot from the book I am looking for. It's a long post. So thanks for reading it in advance! :) Definitely science fiction, a spaceship. Some of the scenes I remember best are:
I read that book in the early 2000s. So my best guess it was published sometime before that. Likely, from the 80s or 90s.
Scene: The spaceship comes across another one. Said spaceship has been marooned in space for centuries. They expect to find the crew in Cryo chambers. Surprisingly, one passenger is awake and from the looks of the interior, has been for decades if not centuries too. It turns out that he is immortal. I think he belongs to a family of immortals. His father, a famous scientist, experimented and turned his children into immortals. I have to guess, but I think his Cryo chamber failed and he spends all this time awake without going insane. He describes his time on this ship as having kept a strict routine. All food, water and air was constantly recycled. He switched seats every 50 years or so.
The crew of the spaceship suspects him of murder as one or more of the other chambers failed, something which they find no obvious explaining for.
The guy starts an affair with one of the female passengers, perhaps a scientist of some sort too. She describes his skin as being like sandpaper. A thousand little scars from a long life that left traces.
- at some point the ship comes across another alien species. They are so highly advanced, seem to have seen it all. If you can in a such a vast universe. Anyway, they seem to have decided to stop exploring and spend their lives in eternal bliss. I think they hooked up to a machine, sharing an illusion of some kind.
