Talk:Revelation Space series/Archive 1

Archive 1

Semi-official timeline

Reynolds had a provisional timeline for the series posted on his website for a while, but I'm not sure it should go in the main article, especially since it was apparently intentionally removed from the site. --DocumentN 00:46, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

After reading this, I think that it is more or less accurate. If you like, I can create a shortened version of this that does not contain some of the more obscure stuff and would, I think, be useful for anybody trying to find out about the universe. But I wouldn't consider this to be inaccurate. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.30.132.2 (talk) 11:24, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

One problem is the apparent placement of A Spy in Europa in 2340. The story talks as though the dimming of the sun and freezing of the inner planets was something recent, while Redemption Ark mentions that Clavain was born "on Earth way back in the twenty-second century, in one of the last perfect summers before the glaciers rolled in", implying that the dimming happened not long after then. Granted, "one of the last" could technically mean anything, but that's the scale of fudging you'd apparently be dealing with if you tried to fit all the stories to a single timeline.

More to the point, it was already tried and deleted once. Maybe it'd be better to put it in an RS wiki on scratchpad.wikia.com on Wikia, or somewhere like that. --DocumentN 19:52, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

All right. God idea on the scratchpad thing. If we were to do this, however, I think we should copy (or recreate) all the RS articles there too. (Are we allowed to directly copy from wiki to scratchpad?). I am currently altering the timeline on my own computer. When it is finished, I will post a link to a text file of it. What we could also do, you know, is add it to this article (similar to the one in the article on the Night's Dawn Trilogy).

As for the ice age, we could assume that there are two, or perhaps the minimum is not all that recent. A spy in Europa doesn't actually say exactly when the minimum happened; maybe it's been going on for a while (granted that's not likely). Another point is that we can't be exactly sure how long after Vargovic's arrival that the Denizen uprising occured- it probably wasn't too long, but considering that they are a bunch of fish who plan to take on a hyperdiamond city, we could safely assume that this would take a bit of preparation, especially if you've spent the last decade or so stuck in a volcano. Admittedly, this is difficult to fit in totally.211.30.132.2 08:34, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

Meh, other people do it. And it's not like Wikipedia keeps track of who contributed what in the first place. --DocumentN 06:53, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

I haven't read it, but this page might be relevant to the question. --DocumentN 17:24, 7 October 2007 (UTC)

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I've been in New Zealand. (yes I am the same guy- I unplugged my modem when I went on holiday, so my IP has changed, but anyway). The URL for the modified timeline is this: http://www.snapdrive.net/files/487133/RevSpace%20Timeline.doc Just put that into your browser to view. It doesn't have the stuff on the prefect as I don't know the date (I think it's there somewhere, but I haven't had time to read the whole novel again, although I would like to :]) Right now I'm thinking we should just slot this timeline into this article, as mentioned above, woudl probably be simpler.211.30.134.111 08:12, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Kinda obvious by now, but I added a basic overview of the main events in RS history, so we can tell people what's been going on there without the nasty issue with the dates. 211.30.66.138 (talk) 03:31, 16 September 2008 (UTC)

I downloaded the .doc file and forgot about it, and now I can't find it. Can you upload it again? (Edit 9/18: This forum post has some dates, but it's not clear what they're based on.) --DocumentN (talk) 01:31, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Page 135 of The Prefect mentions the year being 2427, but I don't know if that covers the whole book. --DocumentN (talk) 00:17, 31 August 2009 (UTC)

(no subject)

I just finished the book Absolution Gap. In that book, Aura has a dream about what happened to the Shadows and I sort of got the feeling that the Shadows just might be humanity communication from the future. Perhaps this should be added? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.100.137.147 (talk) 19:45, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I think that's what Reynolds is implying, but we can't be sure if Aura's right or not. Something about it is worth adding, though.

(Note: I'm the same guy as 211.whatever above- my IP has changed yet again).122.106.160.244 (talk) 23:58, 12 April 2009 (UTC)

Why this particular "citation needed"?

The "citation needed" footnote at the end of the history bothers me. If it refers only to the last statement about colonists leaving the galaxy, then the end of the short story "Galactic North" tells the plans of the remaining starship -- try isolated stars/clusters somewhat distant from the galaxy, then try the Magellan clouds.

If the footnote request applies to the whole history section, then there's a lot of work to be done matching up virtually every phrase in the text to a book/story chapter/page. Exactly how each reference would be documented in Wiki constructs escapes me -- where is there an example article already so heavily anointed? HiTechHiTouch (talk) 08:44, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

New wiki

There's now a separate Revelation Space wiki here. Not much there so far, but plenty of room for contributions. --DocumentN (talk) 05:10, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

That wiki is very neglected, and hasn't been (seriously) edited since 2009. It basically contains the same articles as the RS related ones here on Wikipedia, simply copied and pasted unedited. It's a mess. I plan to attempt to kickstart it again, first by copying most of the Revelation Space material here on Wikipedia again (you guys have created some awesome articles, it just needs to be split up). If anyone here wants to keep improving the great work you've been doing here over there, feel free! I plan to edit it quite extensively the following weeks and then request to adopt the wiki. (My Wikia username is Tobiasvl.) --Spug (talk) 12:33, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Me and a few other people are starting to contribute to it and expand it again. Wish us luck. --ZemplinTemplar (talk) 08:06, 4 July 2019 (UTC)

(I contribute to the Fandom wiki as AnchorDoll) I think Fandom is better suited for in-depth discussions of fiction than Wikipedia -- it is why it was created [under the name Wikia], after all. On the other hand, Wikidata can relate concepts perhaps more flexibly than prose, so I've been approaching it two-prongedly: ensure that characters, objects, locations, and concepts have a page on the Fandom wiki, link to these pages using the 'Fandom ID' property on corresponding Wikidata items, link back to Wikidata from Fandom using a normal interwiki link, and express relations between these components using links/triples respectively on each side. Arlo James Barnes 21:30, 24 December 2020 (UTC)

Semi-official timeline (2)

It's back online here. --DocumentN (talk) 00:30, 13 March 2010 (UTC)

"Feel free to distribute but please do not amend in any way." Hmm... --Spug (talk) 12:34, 23 August 2013 (UTC)

Faster than light travel

The current page cites the lack of faster than light travel as a reason Revelation Space is more like hard sci-fi than typical space opera. However faster than light travel does exist in the RS universe, and is even somewhat important to the storyline of one of the novels, Redemption Ark. I replaced "faster-than-light travel is absent" with "faster-than-light travel is largely absent", but maybe the whole sentence should be revised. 213.165.187.247 (talk) 06:47, 7 April 2017 (UTC)