Xeelee: Endurance

The Xeelee Sequence – Timeline

Singularity: Big Bang

ERA: Earth

AD 476–2005: Events of Coalescent.

AD 2047: Events of Transcendent (see also c.AD 500,000).

ERA: Expansion

AD 3000+: Opening up of the Solar System.

AD 3685: ‘Return to Titan’.

AD 3717: Launch of GUTship Cauchy. Events of Timelike Infinity begin.

AD 3829: The Emergency: time-travel invasion by Occupation-Era Qax (Timelike Infinity).

AD 3951: Events of Ring begin (see also c. AD 5,000,000).

AD 4820: ‘Starfall’. Collapse of Empire of Sol.

ERA: Squeem Occupation

AD 4874: Conquest of human planets by Squeem.

AD 4925: Overthrow of Squeem.

AD 5071: ‘Remembrance’.

ERA: Qax Occupation

AD 5088: Conquest of human planets by Qax.

AD 5274: ‘Endurance’. Return to Solar System of GUTship Cauchy. Launch of backward time-travel invasion by Qax (Timelike Infinity).

AD 5407: Overthrow of Qax. Third Expansion begins under Coalition.

ERA: The War with the Ghosts

AD 5810: ‘The Seer and the Silverman’.

ERA: The War to End Wars

AD 24973: Events of Exultant.

AD 104,858+: Events of Raft.

c. AD 193,700: Events of Flux.

c. AD 500,000: Events of Transcendent (see also AD 2047). The retreat of mankind begins.

AD 978,225: ‘Gravity Dreams’.

c. AD 1,000,000: Final siege of the Solar System by Xeelee. The Saving of Old Earth.

ERA: Photino Victory

c. AD 5,000,000+: Events of Ring (see also AD 3951).

ERA: Old Earth

c. AD 3.8 billion years: ‘PeriAndry’s Quest’.

c. AD 4 billion years: ‘Climbing the Blue’.

c. AD 4.5 billion years: ‘The Time Pit’.

c. AD 4.8 billion years: ‘The Lowland Expedition’.

c. AD 5 billion years: ‘Formidable Caress’.

Singularity: Timelike Infinity

This outline timescale provides the context for the stories in this collection, as well as the novels published in the Xeelee Sequence so far. Other short fiction has been collected in Vacuum Diagrams (HarperCollins, 1997) and Resplendent (Gollancz, 2006). For a full timeline of the ‘Xeelee Sequence’ of novels and stories, please visit:

www.stephen-baxter.com