Stories that take place over a massive time frame

[John]

I am currently reading the Dune series, and one of the things I find really cool about it is how the series spans thousands of years. Does anyone have any other recommendations for stories that take place over a very long time frame?

[Charlie]

James Blish Cities in Flight series spans centuries
Isaac Asimov Foundation series covers even longer periods
Christopher Stasheff Warlock series covers a couple of generations

[Adam]

Olaf Stapledon's "Star Maker"
Stephen Baxter's "Xeelee Sequence"

[Cheryl]

Of course there's The Boat of a Million Years.

Would you be ok with concepts of time travel, generation ships, or immortality? The presentation & exploration of these ideas lend themselves to long time periods, of course.

Or would you prefer a story that was about generations upon generations of (relatively) ordinary people living (relatively) ordinary lives?

Or, for that matter, are you hoping for a stand-alone novel, as opposed to a series? Again, noting that's it's easier to find a series that covers more time, of course.

[Charlie]

How could I forget

Olaf Stapledon Last and First Men - 5 billion years of story

[Pat]

Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence covers a few billion years.

[Al "Tank"]

Charlie wrote: "James Blish Cities in Flight series spans centuries
Isaac Asimov Foundation series covers even longer periods
Christopher Stasheff Warlock series covers a couple of generations"

Not wild about the Foundation series (even though I own it), but loved the other two.

"Children of Destruction" (Al Philipson) covers 200 years on one volume. Another one I enjoyed (I've read it twice so far and may do so again).

[Matthew]

Terry Brooks' multiple Shannara series', (especially if you include the Word and the Void series) covers thousands of years stretching from modern day forward through geological ages of Earth. We never even come close to an idea of how many thousand of years from the first story chronologically to the furthest along the timeline.

[Adam]

Pat wrote: "Stephen Baxter's Xeelee sequence covers a few billion years."

Great Minds think alike! I need to read more Baxter. His Northland Trilogy deserves a mention here as well, it's an Alternate History epic which spans from the Stone Age to the Medieval era.

[Paul]

Charlie wrote: "How could I forget

Olaf Stapledon Last and First Men - 5 billion years of story"

Good pick - the granddaddy of them all!

[[deleted user]]

Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. I'm not sure this really qualifies for what you're looking for, since it takes place over a short time period from the perspective of the main characters on Earth who are frozen in a sphere that slows down time, but externally millions of years pass by.

I've only read the first book (Consider Phlebas), but I think Iain M. Banks' Culture series takes place over eons. I'm not sure if the time frame within any particular book is that varied though. It was a great book in any case, looking forward to reading more in the series.

[Graham]

I don't think it says quite how long it covers but Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide series goes from the present (sometime in the early 1970s) to the very end of time (which I believe Roger Penrose estimates at about 100 bn years).

[Graham]

Oh yes, I forgot. The Hitchhiker's Guide also goes back to stone-age times - adding a few 10s of thousands of years to the span.

[John]

Personally, I think I would be inclined to say that time travel stories don't count, as they jump through time rather than stretch across it. Immortality or generation ships are fair game though!

I've never even heard of Last and First Men - that's going right on my TBR list! Same with Boat of a Million Years.

[Mary]

I think a time travel story could qualify, depending on how it treats the abysses of time it travels over. It could be that time travelers are only the viewpoint through which we see such changes.

Poul Anderson's Flight to Forever seems to me to hit it nicely.

[Chuck]

What about Dragon's Egg ? At least from the Cheela point of view