Seeking Book Identification if possible

I'm a librarian with the Lincoln City Libraries in Lincoln, NE, and two days ago I had a customer (over the phone) who was put in touch with me (as one of our "scifi specialists") in hopes of identifying a specific book. I've been unsuccessful in doing so, and I thought I'd try the SF_Lit group mind and see if I had any success here.

The customer described it as follows: He read this novel approximately 15 years ago, enjoyed it enough to loan it to a relative, who over time has lost the book. Neither of them can remember either the author or title. They can't remember if it was hardback or paperback.

The plot involved a sentient self-aware seed ship that had traveled the galaxy seeding humanity (or some other similarly intelligent species) on various planets. Having traveled at relativistic speeds, the sentient seed ship is now using its special drive methods to travel back in time to check on the progress of the intelligences it seeded on the various planets.

I don't know if this means that the book was a singular novel-length plot, or a series of interconnected short stories with an overarching plot.

I'm afraid that's all I've got. It sounds familiar, but not enough to pin it down specifically.

Scott Clark
Lincoln City Libraries
Lincoln, NE

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