This reminds me of the Lighthuggers in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space novels. They're powered by handwavey 'Coinjoiner drives' that sidestep the question o

This reminds me of the Lighthuggers in Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space novels. They're powered by handwavey 'Coinjoiner drives' that sidestep the question of reaction mass or power sources, and so are able to accelerate to very close to the speed of light (hence the name). They have a few interesting features: 1) Uniquely (to my knowledge for starships in hard-ish scifi) they're are 'aerodynamically' shaped, or at least long and pointy to minimize friction with interstellar mass. 2) Their front surfaces are covered in a thick layer of water ice which acts as an ablative shield against said mass and radiation. 3) The fact that they can accelerate at over 1G means that they can land tail-first on an Earth-type planet.