Timeline

Note: This page is protected from editing. The timeline has been retrieved from the website of Alastair Reynolds, where it was published with a preface allowing it to be distributed but not amended. This preface and the timeline itself is repeated verbatim below. Note that article links have been added to the timeline, in the hopes that this does not count as amendment. The copy of the timeline article by Reynolds is included below, between the two horizontal lines, in the two sections with headings in italics. Beyond that is additional information related to the timeline.

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Preface

The Revelation Space universe currently encompasses five novels and a cluster of short stories, of which all but "Monkey Suit" are collected in the books Galactic North and Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days. There is no Bible or extensive set of background notes - I basically just make it up as I go along and rely on my own shaky recollection not to tie myself in knots. That said, I do have a timeline that I hope is not hideously inaccurate or riddled with dire inconsistency. Feel free to distribute but please do not amend in any way.

Timeline

• 2050 – 2080: period of great expansion into the solar system. By 2069 twelve million people live off Earth; mainly around Earth and the Moon. Smaller settlements dotted around whole system, out to fringes of Kuiper Belt. Political fragmentation and social unrest follows massive breakthroughs in bio-sciences.

• 2081: increasingly violent police actions against rogue states lead to retaliatory actions; onset of war. Emergence of “chimeric” factions: heavily bio-engineered and cyborgized human splinter groups.

• 2083: ceasefire. Departure of flotilla of colony ships for 61 Cygni-A. At 1/8th of the speed of light, they will not arrive until the twenty-third century.

• 2090 – 2110: establishment of early colonies on a number of extrasolar planets via Von Neumann robots carrying fertilised human cells. Most such societies fail within two or three generations. End of so-called Amerikano era.

• 2110-2140: period of turmoil; solar system convulsed by more wars. Emergence of Demarchist states in 2141 signals new era of peace and prosperity. Solar luminosity begins to drop, heralding a new ice age on Earth.

• 2145 – Nevil Clavain born on Earth.

• 2155 – first Demarchist settlements around Jupiter. Great freeze sets in on Earth.

• 2161 – Sandra Voi leads first human expedition into Europa’s ocean

• 2178 – Great Wall of Mars project begins. Unease at extreme neural experiments being conducted under Demarchist aegis leads to formation of the Earth-based Coalition for Neural Purity; a military pact of conservative states opposed to further technological or social innovation.

• 2182 – first phase of GWOM completed. Demarchists distance themselves from the more radical factions.

• 2190 – Experimenters on Mars initiate Transenlightenment. Birth of Conjoiner faction and immediate onset of Coalition-Conjoiner war.

• 2191 – ceasefire in Conjoiner-Coalition war brokered by Sandra Voi.

• 2191 – 2205; Conjoiner quarantine period.

• 2205 – Galiana’s Conjoiners escape from Mars. First relativistic starship constructed and launched from Mars orbit.

• 2205 – 2250; period of great expansion; numerous interstellar colonies established; recontact with surviving settlements from Amerikano era.

• 2217 – Conjoiner expedition to Diadem. Discovery of Setterholm’s Worms.

• 2340 – Denizen uprising; fall of the Europan cities.

• 2338 – Bernsdottir discovers first Shroud.

• 2351 – Dan Sylveste born in Chasm City, Yellowstone.

• 2358 – Shiva-Parvati cordon crisis.

• 2372 – the Eighty.

• 2373 – Philip Lascaille’s encounter with the Shroud in the Trans Tau Ceti sector.

• 2378 – Hostage crisis around Fand.

• 2405 – Departure of Sylveste expedition to Lascaille’s Shroud.

• 2415 – Departure of Galiana and Clavain’s expedition into deep space.

• 2441 – Return of Sylveste’s expedition to Lascaille’s Shroud.

• 2460 – Dan Sylveste vanishes from Yellowstone for 30 days.

• 2491 – departure of Resurgam expedition.

• 2510 – Melding Plague afflicts Chasm City; effective end of Demarchist era.

• 2517 – Tanner Mirabel arrives in Chasm City.

• 2524 – Ana Khouri arrives in Chasm City.

• 2541 – arrival of “Voice of Evening” around Turquoise.

• 2551 – outbreak of Conjoiner-Demarchist war around Yellowstone. Establishment of Ferrisville Convention.

• 2566 – abduction of Sylveste from Resurgam.

• 2567 – expedition into Cerberus/Hades artefact; death of Dan Sylveste.

• 2582 – Clavain’s return from deep space.

• 2605 – Galiana’s return from deep space.

• 2615 – Clavain defects from the Conjoiners. Exploitation of grub technology, including inertia suppression machinery.

• 2633 – Confrontation between Clavain and Volyova around Delta Pavonis

• 2651 – arrival of Nostalgia for Infinity around p Eridani system

• 2673 – Irravel Veda recloned from herself.

• 2675 – departure of Nostalgia for Infinity from Ararat

• 2650 – 2850 – events of the human-Inhibitor war

• 2931 – meeting between Irravel Veda and representative of the Nestbuilder intelligence.

• 2950 – Emergence of the Green Wave. Systematic dismantling of many solar systems.

• 3354 – Irravel Veda buries Mirsky in interstellar space.

• 4161 – Irravel Veda in the Subaru Commonwealth.

• 40000 – humans abandon host galaxy.

Timeline copyright Alastair Reynolds 2010

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Chronology of stories

Much of the chronology of the individual Revelation Space stories can be inferred directly from the official timeline. However, due to many of the stories (especially the shorter works) not mentioning an explicit year or date, their position in the overall chronology is somewhat more vague. Nevertheless, some people have attempted to create a rough, but accurate chronology of the existing stories. Some attempts are listed below:

• Revelation Space Timeline - by Charles Korb of the Charlie's Bookshelf blog, this fan timeline focused on the story chronology of the series, rather than a whole universe timeline
• the above is also the main basis for the chronological order section of the Stories category on this wiki (please see category link for further details)

See also

• Revelation Space universe - Main article on the Revelation Space series' fictional setting.
• Category:Future history - Main category for articles on the history and chronology of the Revelation Space universe (this article is included).

Revelation Space series
NOVELS
A Prefect Dreyfus Emergency (crime fiction series, 2007-present) Aurora Rising (2007) | Open and Shut (short story midquel, 2018) | Elysium Fire (2018) | Machine Vendetta (2023) ---- Chasm City (standalone novel, 2001) ---- Inhibitor Cycle (main novel series, 2000-2003, 2021) Revelation Space (2000) | Redemption Ark (2002) | Absolution Gap (2003) | Inhibitor Phase (2021)
ANTHOLOGIES
Galactic North (2006, short stories) Great Wall of Mars | Glacial | A Spy in Europa | Weather Dilation Sleep | Grafenwalder's Bestiary | Nightingale | Galactic North ---- Diamond Dogs, Turquoise Days (2003, novellas) Diamond Dogs | Turquoise Days ---- Other anthologies Deep Navigation (2010) - Monkey Suit (2009) Beyond the Aquila Rift (2016) - The Last Log of the Lachrimosa (2014) Infinite Stars (2017) - Night Passage (2017) Belladonna Nights and Other Stories (2021) - Night Passage (2017), Open and Shut (2018), Plague Music (2021)
PUBLISHED ONLINE
Subterranean Press Magazine (2014, summer issue) - The Last Log of the Lachrimosa (2014) Gollancz / Hachette UK (2018) - Open and Shut (2018)
BEHIND THE SCENES / RELATED ARTICLES
Revelation Space universe | Alastair Reynolds | Websites Cultural and scientific references | Adaptations | Translations Book cover art | Fan art

External link

• Official timeline article at Alastair Reynolds' official website