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?

[Trike]

I'll add some as I think of them, but the first ones which come to mind are Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon, which takes place over two billion years, and multiple species of human beings.

Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield, about a guy who keeps freezing himself and unthawing over the ages. It's a lengthening of the short story "At the Eschaton" found in the collection Far Futures edited by Greg Benford.

[Trike]

The Pelbar Cycle by Paul O. Williams takes place over a couple generations some hundreds of years after a global apocalypse, when America resembles the frontier of 300 years ago. The first book is The Breaking of Northwall. One of my favorite entries into the series is The Song of the Axe, which takes place over a period of seven years and, despite being only 250 pages long, really feels like an epic adventure. These guys who write 900-page tomes could learn a thing or two from Williams.

[Jen]

A Canticle for Leibowitz takes place over a few thousand years.

Robert Heinlein's Time Enough for Love (and his other Future History books) also span thousands of years.

[George]

I'm reading A Gathering of Twine at the moment; it's never explicitly stated, but I think the time frame is some like 12,000 years.

Any good?

[Michele]

It's been a while but I think Asimov's Foundation books span a huge amount of time - they start off far into our future and then go way far ahead (and some flashbacks, I think) as the whole theory behind the series is shown to unfold.

[John]

Lots of good suggestions! Canticle for Lebowitz has been on my radar for years, I am going to have to bump that one up to read soon.

[Pete]

Michele wrote: "It's been a while but I think Asimov's Foundation books span a huge amount of time - they start off far into our future and then go way far ahead (and some flashbacks, I think) as the ..."

The Foundation Series - I think there are 7 - span aeons and were the first space operas I ever read. Hari Seldon still sticks with me. This is a MUST READ. Many years after he finished the trilogy Asimov came back and wrote a couple of sequels and 2 prequels.

[Micah]

2001: A Space Odyssey is an obvious one.

Vacuum Diagrams (a collection of related short stories) and other books in Stephen Baxter's Xeelee come to mind as well...though I have some problems with his choice of aliens.

[Tia]

The Forever War and its sequels might be something to look into. They include centuries of time in just one book because of faster-than-light space travel which leaves those traveling young while the planets around them age by centuries. I think the main character in the first book is 700 or 800 years old.

[Kyra]

Malazan Book of the Fallen (by Steven Erikson) - the main story takes place over a period of several years, but there are significant portions of backstory and flashbacks that take place over hundreds of thousands of years. (yes, that's not hundreds OR thousands, it's 100,000's)

[Keith]

Pete wrote: "Michele wrote: "It's been a while but I think Asimov's Foundation books span a huge amount of time - they start off far into our future and then go way far ahead (and some flashbacks, ..."

Yes. I'm pretty sure I recall that R. Daneel Olivaw is over 20,000 years old in the last of the "newer" Foundation books. He may be one of the longest-"lived" characters in any book or series.

In addition, Foundation derives from Asimov's empire books, and in Pebble in the Sky, a man from 1949 is sent forward in time to Asimov's pre-Foundation, Empire period. So you could argue that the "series" spans the time from the 1940s to the distant future, and then for at least 20,000 years or so, if you include the empire books.

[Keith]

John wrote: "Lots of good suggestions! Canticle for Lebowitz has been on my radar for years, I am going to have to bump that one up to read soon."

I read it in college - like 45 years ago. Reread it since. A haunting story if ever there was one.

[Mary JL]

The Lensman Series---six books--starts in Ancient Atlantis; then Rome; there our eras; then jumps thousands of years into the future. Written in the pulp era---dated but enjoyable. I read the entire series several times.

[Cheryl]

Why are there two threads for this? I'm confused. There are different recommendations showing up in each. I guess I hope the OP remembers to check in to both threads.

[L.G.]

I don't know if the Foundation series counts, but if it does, you might want to give it a try.

[Mary]

John C. Wright's Count to a Trillion, The Hermetic Millennia, and The Judge of Ages have already covered ages upon ages. More to follow. . . .

The title of the first one is an allusion to the way that you can't personally count to a trillion, but there nevertheless is such a number, as a metaphor for a terrible thing happening far off in the future.

[Al "Tank"]

Mary JL wrote: "The Lensman Series---six books--starts in Ancient Atlantis; then Rome; there our eras; then jumps thousands of years into the future. Written in the pulp era---dated but enjoyable. I read the e..."

I was wondering if anyone was going to come up with that one. "Doc" Smith's series is a bit "hokey" by today's standards, but I still enjoy re-reading it every few years (it's about time to do so again). I read it when it first came out in mass-market paperback (which kinda dates me, I guess).