When is the Gap Series set

Post by **Revan** » Tue Dec 30, 2003 3:45 pm

What year is it placed in?

Post by **dANdeLION** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:56 pm

It doesn't say in the books? I thought it was like 300 years in the future, but I could be confusing it with Star Trek.

Post by **Revan** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 3:57 pm

I think it's about 400 years into the future... but that's just a guess...

Post by **dANdeLION** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:03 pm

How about we split the difference and call it 350? I'll start reading the series again and if there's a definite time frame, I'll post it.

Post by **Revan** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:08 pm

It's agreed for the time being at least...

Post by **dANdeLION** » Thu Jan 08, 2004 4:14 pm

...good. It's settled then. Do you like pies?

Post by **Tranquil Hegemony** » Mon May 31, 2004 7:04 am

300-400 years in the future sounds about right to me. One thing I noticed in this series is the complete lack of colonized planets. Outside Earth, everyone's living on space stations, on board ships, or on/in asteroids. That seems realistic to me - it's probably exceedingly unlikely we're gonna find any planets with just the right environment for us to live on without life support. Most would probably be dead worlds. Even if we did find a few planets with life on them, there's every chance that life would simply be poisonous to us.

Terraforming takes a long time (see Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy) - on the order of centuries probably - so that sets an upper limit for the time period for me. If the Gap takes place 1000 years from now, I'd expect them to have colonized some planets.

Post by **Dutch** » Mon May 31, 2004 7:48 am

I'm sure everyone here remembers Alien and its sequel Aliens, which is supposedly placed around 100 years from now, maybe late 21st century/early 22nd, I believe. I think it's safe to say the Gap Cycle would take place not too many years then, but maybe tack 50 years since the humans in Aliens were still travelling less than the speed of light. I'm judging the technology and comparing it from the Gap Cycle books and the technology from Aliens. The human society and gritty technology in both stories are very similar to me, though human society in the Gap seems to have lessened itself to a darker version than that in Aliens.

-Dutch

www.mistythemouse.com

Post by **Dawngreeter** » Wed May 25, 2005 2:53 am

One thing I noticed somewhere in the first book? when Morn was recompiling info for the sabotaged data core, there was a mention about how it took up gigabytes of data. That kinda dates the novels and one would think that for a advanced spacecraft capable of something as complex as a gap drive they would be dealing with at least terabytes and upwards of data, not gigabytes. But maybe in the future they have figured out how to use less space with some nifty compression algorythms or something.

I find that these books are so interesting to me because they, for the most part, seem so realistic and conceivable and not so sci-fi that it seems TOO far off into the future.

Post by **Rincewind** » Wed May 25, 2005 2:50 pm

she said thousands of gigabytes- ie terabytes

anyway, i might be thinkign of the fifth element, but i got the idea of 300 years or so as well

Post by **danlo** » Thu May 26, 2005 4:42 am

I've always thought about 300 years too....

Post by **Rincewind** » Thu May 26, 2005 12:24 pm

he must have said it somewhere for us all to have the same impression, someone ask him on the gradual interview and post it here

Post by **Sorus** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:48 am

This one deserves another bump.

Did anyone ever get an answer?

Post by **lucimay** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:51 am

yeah...we were discussing...wha'd i say??

Post by **Sorus** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:53 am

I can't remember what I said, let alone what anyone else said.

I'm not complaining. Vain did an awesome job of restoring things.

Post by **lucimay** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 3:59 am

i know i said that i hadn't even thought of time frame when i read the books...

and there's something about the current state of politics in the US anyway that makes me think Donaldson was nearly prophetic in the way he described Fasner and the UMC's rise to dominance...

this setting didn't seem unbeliveable to me at all, it felt authentic, possible

Post by **Sorus** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:01 am

I am still skeptical about the GCES. Planetary government?

Drat, I lost all my notes on that one.

Post by **lucimay** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:24 am

as i said...something about the present state of politics that makes me think it could happen...given just the right circumstances...a war or two, say??

i'd have to think it over some more, consult with my mate...he's good at figuring out things like this...

Post by **Sorus** » Sun Jan 15, 2006 4:31 am

It could happen. War, first contact with the Amnion.

But I'm trying to picture it happening today, and finding it difficult to imagine, and the Gap future is, if anything, a bit darker.

(Insert understatement above.)

Post by **Frank The Rabbit** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 11:26 am

Dawngreeter wrote:One thing I noticed somewhere in the first book? when Morn was recompiling info for the sabotaged data core, there was a mention about how it took up gigabytes of data. That kinda dates the novels and one would think that for a advanced spacecraft capable of something as complex as a gap drive they would be dealing with at least terabytes and upwards of data, not gigabytes. But maybe in the future they have figured out how to use less space with some nifty compression algorythms or something.

I find that these books are so interesting to me because they, for the most part, seem so realistic and conceivable and not so sci-fi that it seems TOO far off into the future.

Remember, these books were written in the early-mid 1990s, so 'thousands of gigabytes' was a pretty gigantic and inconcievable amount back then.

Also, every time I read "megaCPU", I cringe.

Kevin's Watch

Kevin's Watch

When is the Gap Series set

When is the Gap Series set

Good points to be had