Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Timeline of Events in Vinge's Across Realtime Novels

The following is a timeline of events in Vernor Vinge's "Across Realtime" series of novels and stories - specifically, The Peace War (1984), Marooned in Realtime (1986), and the short story "The Ungoverned" (1985), which can be found in The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge (2002).  Obviously, this timeline contains spoilers, and one should probably not read through it without at least having read Marooned in Realtime.

1992-93: Livermore Energy Labs developer Paul Hoehler discovers containment field ("bobble")
1997: Peace Authority (PA) seizes power after instigating limited nuclear war between U.S. and Soviet Union
1997-2010: War viruses and genetic plagues kill 5.5 billion worldwide
2015: Huachuca war plague, released by surviving remnant of U.S. government, kills 100 million of remaining 500 million humans
2020s: PA discontinues radar watch for illegal aerospace craft
2038: Middle California Tinkers agree to hide their best new electronics gear to avoid PA detection
2040s: PA embobbles Yakima after discovering DNA recombination analyzer
2047-48: Bobble War; fall of Peace Authority
2050s: Longevity breakthrough
2080s: Water War between New Mexico and Aztlan (over Colorado River, presumably)
2090s: Disgovernance of Aztlan; New Mexicans invade Kansas
2097: Republic of NM renounces tax authority and effectively disgoverns
2100: W.W. Brierson shanghaied; family bobbles gifts in 2140 and 2180
2101: Livermore returns to realtime
2150s: Della Lu and Miguel Rosas explore outer Solar System
2160: "Philippe Genet" becomes construction contractor
2190s: Miguel Rosas dies on Dark Companion expedition
2195: Monica Raines enters stasis
2197: Mudge leaves systems programming and becomes chiliast
2200: Jason Mudge and Juan Chanson enter stasis
2201: Korolevs and Genet enter stasis
2202: Della Lu departs for Gatewood's Star (Lalande 21185)
2207: Tunc Blumenthal's company opens antimatter distillery in southern solar hemisphere, begins plans to turn Dark Companion into Tipler Cylinder*
2209: Blumenthal attends marketing conference on Moon; can't understand discussions but thinks Stellation, Inc. has lost interest in Dark Companion project
2210: Tunc Blumenthal enters stasis, crashes into sun
2230: Juan Chanson claims Norcross graffiti were composed this year
2295: Mudge out of stasis; notes he is past Singularity
2465: Rohan and Dilip Dasgupta leave stasis
3400: Lu returns from Gatewood's Star; finds evidence of nuclear war
10,000: Korolevs move Dasguptas and others to Canada
32,000: W.W. Sanchez and Korolevs rescue T. Blumenthal
62,000: Blumenthal re-enters realtime
MY 20: Grave robbers wiped out by Korolevs and others
MY 30: W.W. Sanchez founds dropout community
MY 49.5: Dragon birds evolve
MY 50: Rescue of Peace Authority bobble in Cambodia.  Della Lu returns from interstellar expedition
MY 50 + 2 years: Marta Korolev reaches Peacer bobble
MY 50 + 40 years: Marta Korolev dies
MY 50.050: Peacers leave stasis and found own town.  Brierson investigation.  Peacer-NM-High tech war.
MY 50.060: Juan Chanson dies; Earth in ice age
MY 50.1: Della Lu returns after defeating Gerrault


(Links added 21 Aug. 2015.)


* A Tipler Cylinder is a very long, rapidly-rotating tube which transects the space-time geodesics ("light cones") of one or more stars. The cylinder's mass and velocity bend those geodesics into timelike curves, allowing a traveler to move backwards in time along them. 

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