Xeelee Sequence

[DAL59]

The Xeelee sequence is a collection of very hard scifi books by Stephen Baxter(and sometimes Terry Pratchet), that have so much time travel they put Dr. Who to shame.

"Much of the book is written as large sections of prose explaining theoretical exotic-matter physics"

They also build a particle accelerator larger than an entire galaxy.  But even they are not nearly as powerful as the Photino Birds, which control all dark matter.

So, what order do I read these books in?  Also, Ultima revealed that all of the series are located in the same universe multiverse.  So let's make a diagram.

"the books can be read in any order because the series takes place in a multiverse." Sigh

Xeelee Main Universe	A1	A2	Vengence	A3	A5	A6	a	a	A4
10 bya- Ring begins being built						Fungi begin communicating via panspermia to stop the Big Crunch
Ancient Rome- The Hive forms	Rome never falls	Volcanos destroy western hemisphere
Events of Transendance Humans Defeat the Squeem	Kernals found on Mercury by Romans	Kernals found on Mercury by Aztecs	Xeelee go back in time to destroy humanity, because humans are indirectly responsible for destroying the Ring.	Water pockets in Earth's mantle released,  floods world.	Mission to Mars launched in 1970s(ARES)				Events of Raft
Quax use timetravel to  try to destroy humanity	Mars destroyed by ColU, go to A2		To be published this year	Humanity survives on a spaceship.	World war, mission to Titan. (Voyage)
Poole closes the wormhole, stopping the Quax from time travel, flings himself into the future Xeelee driven out
Poole turned into  cosmic thing by Xeelee Launch of great northern
Great Northern goes to younger universe
Ring Destroyed (Due to events of Flux)
Photinos Win, Poole died

Edited May 18, 2018 by DAL59

[Vanamonde]

Baxter's an idea man, alright, but his characters are pretty one-dimensional and often unlikeable. 

[kerbiloid]

The ideas are his characters, while people are an expendable lab equipment.
In best traditions of Jules Verne and others.
On such space-time scale unlikely one can (and should) distinguish particular persons.

Also, how many real historical persons could be named "likeable".
 

Edited May 18, 2018 by kerbiloid

[Gargamel]

9 hours ago, DAL59 said:

"the books can be read in any order because the series takes place in a multiverse." Sigh

Chronologically maybe.... but as a reader who has never picked up a book, plot wise, the wrong book wouldn't make sense to me.   Where should I start?

[DAL59]

2 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Chronologically maybe.... but as a reader who has never picked up a book, plot wise, the wrong book wouldn't make sense to me.   Where should I start?

Ultima

Also, I think the character of Poole might be a reference to 2001.

[YNM]

I'm not sure, but stories involving several timelines and hops doesn't sound very well to me. Unless they were co-written, or the connections are clearly only an afterthought, or such. Stories that uses time-travel and timeline-hops only to beat the dead body of a popular series or story is usually not good.

Edited May 18, 2018 by YNM

[DAL59]

5 hours ago, YNM said:

Stories that uses time-travel and timeline-hops only to beat the dead body of a popular series or story is usually not good.

Oh, its not like that- the universes are very different, and the time travel is the backbone of the books, not a one-time device

[YNM]

1 hour ago, DAL59 said:

the time travel is the backbone of the books, not a one-time device

So the entire series is "co-written" ?

[1101]

On 5/18/2018 at 9:17 AM, Gargamel said:

Chronologically maybe.... but as a reader who has never picked up a book, plot wise, the wrong book wouldn't make sense to me.   Where should I start?

The Destiny's Children books (Coalescent, Exultant, Transcendent) should make sense by themselves, more or less.  I started with the big 'Xeelee: Omnibus' book, which has Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux and Ring.

[DAL59]

On 5/19/2018 at 7:29 AM, 1101 said:

The Destiny's Children books (Coalescent, Exultant, Transcendent) should make sense by themselves, more or less.

And Resplendent, which finally explains what that pyramid thing is.