The "Belle Epoque" refers to a period in the future history of the overall Revelation Space universe. The era was considered the pinnacle of economic, social, cultural, technological and scientific development of the Demarchist colony on the planet Yellowstone, as well as it vicinity (particularly the Glitter Band of orbital habitats).
The Belle Epoque of Yellowstone and Yellowstone Demarchists was cut short by the breakout of the mysterious Melding Plague, a nanotechnological disease that severely damaged and affected a myriad of advanced technologies in Yellowstone's settlements, such as the famous metropolis of Chasm City on the planet's surface, or the vast majority of orbital habitats, turning the Glitter Band into the Rust Belt.
The outbreak of the Melding Plague and its devastating technological and social aftermath form the endpoint of Belle Epoque and the beginning of the post-Melding Plague era of the human-settled Epsilon Eridani system.
Timeline of events
TBA
Notable figures of the period
- Voi family - descendants of Demarchist co-founder and early leader Sandra Voi, specifically those who settled on Yellowstone
- Lorean Sylveste - the father and grandfather of later famed scientists, Calvin Sylveste and Dan Sylveste, respectively
- Jane Aumonier - Supreme Prefect of the Panoply, during a certain timespan around the middle of the Belle Epoque
- Tom Dreyfus - a notable prefect, serving for many years under Supreme Prefect Aumonier
- Roland Childe - interactive maze and puzzle designer, amateur archaeologist and collector
- Dr. Trintignant - infamous for research into the cyberniticisation of the human body
Stories set in this era
- A Prefect Dreyfus Emergency novel series - main setting
- Aurora Rising (2007)
- Open and Shut (2018) - short story
- Elysium Fire (2018)
- Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days novella anthology
- Diamond Dogs - pre-Plague Chasm City features in the early chapters
In turn, the novels of the Inhibitor trilogy, the standalone novel Chasm City and many of the later-set short stories cover the post-Belle Epoque, post-Plague era of Yellowstone and Chasm City.
Historical allusion
The Belle Epoque is an apparent Demarchist revival of an existing term from Earth history, (La) Belle Époque. This moniker is frequently used to describe the period in the history of France, between 1871 (the end of the Franco-Prussian War) and the outbreak of the First World War (1914), when the French Third Republic experienced an almost unprecedented period of peace, economic prosperity and expansion, and a flourishing of the arts and public life. The mostly Francophone-descended Demarchist leadership intended the revived use of the term as a generally flattering comparison of Yellowstone's period of prosperity to a period of prosperity from older Earth history.
See also
- Canasian - A language of the Revelation Space universe, typical for the upper classes of the Yellowstone Demarchy. It traces its roots primarily to Quebecois French and Cantonese. The name seems to be a play on the terms "Canadian" and "Asian".
- Timeline - General official overview of the future history of the Revelation Space universe, provided by Alastair Reynolds on his official website.