[phil_geo]

I'm looking for books that place as far into the future as possible. Hopefully innovative reads speculating on where things are going - very, very long term.

Revelation Space came to mind, but it is only 500 years in the future. I'm thinking more like A World Out of Time by Niven, which takes place 3,000,000 years in the future.

I know that some of Gene Wolfe's books take place in the far future, but they read like fantasy - I want books that read like scfi. Any books out there like that?

[metalprof]

Well, I'd guess that most fiction that takes place way way way into the future would probably bend more towards reading like fantasy anyway. But the first example that came to my mind was Michael Moorcock's Dancers at the End of Time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dancers_at_the_End_of_Time

which is part of the Eternal Champion cycle. This will likely read more like fantasy for you, but what the heck.

Ken

[NYCfan]

Gregory Benford's Galactic Center series does, as do Cordwainer Smith's Instrumentality stories. As far as Gene Wolfe goes, the Book of the New Sun has a fantasy feel, but the Book of the Long Sun feels more like fantasy. Lots more out there.

[psikeyhackr]

Tao Zero by Poul Anderson goes way...... into the future.

Though somehow I don't think you meant that way.

How about:

http://manybooks.net/titles/hamiltoneother05cityworldsend.html

Not quite as far into the future but different methodology.

psik

[Werthead]

I'm looking for books that place as far into the future as possible. Hopefully innovative reads speculating on where things are going - very, very long term.

Revelation Space came to mind, but it is only 500 years in the future. I'm thinking more like A World Out of Time by Niven, which takes place 3,000,000 years in the future.

I know that some of Gene Wolfe's books take place in the far future, but they read like fantasy - I want books that read like scfi. Any books out there like that?

Alastair Reynolds House of Suns is set a few million years from now.

Peter F. Hamilton's Void Trilogy is set a more manageable 1,500 years in the future.

Frank Herbert's Dune books take place between about 20,000 and 25,000 years from now. Asimov's Foundation series is about the same.

Stephen Baxter's extremely complex Xeelee Sequence starting with Raft spans several million years.

[chitman13]

You've also got Arthur C Clarke's most excellent The City and the Stars, a very enjoyable read set a billion years into the future.

Another series that spancs quite a long time in Sean Williams Astropolis books (Saturn Returns, Earth Ascendant and The Grand Conjunction), although these do have some issues because of the time span involved.

[Jeroen]

Cordwainer Smith's Rediscovery of Man goes from 3,000 AD to about 16,000 AD.
Arthur C. Clarke - City and the Stars is billions of years in the future (and kind of feels that way)

Olaf Stapledon - last and first men describes the total future history of man, from now to about 5 billion years in the futute.
Olaf Stapledon - star maker describes the total future history of the universe, from now to about.... welll....the end of time. the supreme moment. :D

[Ropie]

Manifold:Time by Stephen Baxter gradually jumps into the far far future in a particularly brilliant sequence of chapters, although not all of the book takes place there.

I'll second Corwainer Smith too, though, like Gene Wolfe, these have a mythical aspect to them.

[owlcroft]

Some excellent choices have already been mentioned. Here are a few other possibilities.


Adams, Douglas: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - it doesn't get any farther forward than the end of the universe (part of the famous Hitchhiker trilogy)
Attanasio, A. A.: The Last Legends of Earth - concluding volume of the "Radix" tetrology, but reads stand-alone (they all do--why they're a "quartet" is unclear)
Banks, Iain M.: Feersum Endjinn - fairly far future
Bisson, Terry: Wyrldmaker (reads like a fantasy--as someone noted, many far-future sf tales will)
Bryant, Edward: Cinnabar
Cover, Arthur Byron: Autumn Angels - pretty far future (part of a series but reads stand-alone)
Crowley, John: The Deep - strange; time setting unclear, but far on (but the action described doesn't seem so)
Knight, Damon: The World and Thorinn (peels future eras like an onion)
Piserchia, Doris: A Billion Days of Earth - duh, a billion days forward
Piserchia, Doris: Earth Child - pretty far forward
Silverberg, Robert: Nightwings
Silverberg, Robert: Son of Man
Stableford, Brian: The "Dies Irae" trilogy
Sucharitkul, Somtow: the "Inquestor" tetralogy
Zindell, David: the "Neverness" tetralogy


There are plenty more, but I like to believe that that list is fairly choice.

Let me especially recommend the Crowley, the Cover, the Piserchias, and the Stablefords; those are some awfully good books that don't get enough attention.

[NYCfan]

Talking of Banks, his Against a Dark Background takes place in a far future of a non-Earth, but similar type civilization. It's one of my favorites of his.