Searching for SF books with extremely long timescales

[Kesserendrel]

I just joined this forum, and there are two real reasons. #1 is my search for science fiction books (or series) with extremely long timescales. A couple examples would be some of Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence books (Ring, Vacuum Diagrams, both of which stretch from a few thousand years from now until the end of time) and Charles Sheffield's Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which runs from the present day until the end of the universe. I really like far-future stuff in general, and the passage of so much time in cohesive stories intrigues me.

Any suggestions?

 

[MG1962]

First and last man by Olaf Stapleton

Space - Stephen Baxter

Time Machine H G Wells - A little shorter than the others, but he does end up 30 million years in the future

 

[Lith]

Asimov's Foundation Trilogy fits the bill. It stretches over tens of thousands of years, if I remember correctly.

Cities in Flight by James Blish also takes place over a long period of time.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Wow, Kesserendel, I wasn't even aware of these sorts of science fiction series existing; and I'm not a big sci fi fan, but I am very very interested!

 

[iansales]

Greg Benford's Galactic Centre series: Great Sky River, Tides of Light, Furious Gulf and Sailing Bright Eternity.

 

[Shinya]

How about Cordwainer Smith? He wrote 27 short stories and a novel, based on a consistent future history up to A.D. 6000(at least. The exact year is not certain).

 

[Fried Egg]

What about Asimov's "End of Eternity"?

 

[vurtomatic]

Could be wrong, but Clarke's Rama series.

And Dickson's Dorsai series for sure (often compared to Asimon's Foundation).

 

[iansales]

The Dorsai series only covers a couple of centuries, surely? The OP was after series that stretched across millions of years.

 

[vurtomatic]

Hmmm this might not be the best source, but Wiki says the Childe Cycle was originally conceived to to stretch from 14th to 24th century, but it was never completed, so I guess that's moot. If he's looking for stories that go from a few million years to the end of time, nothing else comes to mind (my mind anyway!) :-/

 

[iansales]

The planned books set in the past were never written. There's the near-future Necromancer, and the rest are all set over two centuries. There's a timeline in The Dorsai Companion. I'll check my copy when I get home this evening.

 

[Ursa major]

First and last man by Olaf Stapleton

And the same author's Star Maker.

 

[chrispenycate]

Niven, with things like "World of Ptavvs", "Protector" or the short "Bordered in black". They don't go far into the future, but a long way into the past. Or his "Word out of time, that does a few million years into the future; not bad for one charcter, and no time machines. Timelike infinity" does a fair step towards the heatdeath of the universe, too.

 

[iansales]

Poul Anderson, The Boat of a Million Years.

 

[Somni]

Hitchhiker's? Well, they did go from origin of man to the end of the universe.

 

[littlemissattitude]

The first thing that comes to mind is Robert A. Heinlein's "Future History" series. A lot of those stories, at least the early ones, are collected in The Past Through Tomorrow, which also includes a timeline. I found a list that purports to be the full list, plus a description of some of the disagreements about which stories and novels should be included in the series, you can find that here, but I'll warn that the link is to a Wikipedia article and could always be flawed.

 

[Hilarious Joke]

Hey, HEY! Stop dissing Wikipedia! I love it dearly.

 

[Tau Zero]

Tau Zero by Poul Anderson. It begins in the with an interstellar flight and ends after the Big Bang of the next universe.