[Title] Looking for a book...

[Quiver he/him]

Okay, so...a while ago, I read a synopsis for a book that sounded really, really interesting; it was sci-fi, and the way the article talked about it it sounded like a well-known classic. Only problem is, I can't remember said title or author, so I was wondering if anyone could help me.

What I remember of the synopsis was... that the story was about human evolution. It was divided into different sections or ages, and each one was about humanity beginning, evolving into a particular form of life, then civilisation collapsing. It sounded like the emphasis was on world building rather than specific character, if that helps any...

[Delightful]

Okay, so...a while ago, I read a synopsis for a book that sounded really, really interesting; it was sci-fi, and the way the article talked about it it sounded like a well-known classic. Only problem is, I can't remember said title or author, so I was wondering if anyone could help me.

What I remember of the synopsis was... that the story was about human evolution. It was divided into different sections or ages, and each one was about humanity beginning, evolving into a particular form of life, then civilisation collapsing. It sounded like the emphasis was on world building rather than specific character, if that helps any...

Hmmm...reminds me of Orson Scott Card's Pathfinder, where humanity is on a foreign planet, divided by giant walls no one can get through, and have been divided since they landed there.

The main character can see the paths of where everything and everyone has ever been before, if that helps.

 

I don't think it quite matches your description, but maybe?

Edited May 21, 2014 by Delightful

[SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him]

Fear not!! I shall ask the Googles.

 

I asked the Googles and it answered with Evolution by Stephen Baxter.

 

"In an early science fiction novel, The World Set Free (1914), HG Wells describes a Promethean moment for prehistoric man, when he "blinked at the sun and dreamt that perhaps he might snare it and spear it as it went down to its resting-place amidst the distant hills". Wells saw the dream of snaring the sun as the beginning of man's creative and scientific journey that would culminate in utopia.

Stephen Baxter's Evolution also charts the course of human history, but where Wells was content with broad brushstrokes, Baxter gives us a Technicolor panorama of human development, beginning 65 million years ago and ending 500 million years in the future. There's no utopia, but his aim is one Wells would heartily endorse: to breathe life into a scientific theory - evolution by natural selection. The result is a powerful fusion of science and imagination."

is that it?

Edited May 21, 2014 by CrystalBodies

[Bloodfalcon he/him]

Hmmm...reminds me of Orson Scott Card's Pathfinder, where humanity is on a foreign planet, divided by giant walls no one can get through, and have been divided since they landed there.

The main character can see the paths of where everything and everyone has ever been before, if that helps.

 

I don't think it quite matches your description, but maybe?

Hey, how did you like the second book of the Pathfinder series? I assume you read it. I only read the first and kind of lost track of it, but would consider picking it back up.

[Swimmingly he/him]

Maybe even the foundation set by Asimov?

[Quiver he/him]

Stephen Baxter actually sounds rather familiar; not exact, since, as I said, I thought the story was about successive evolutions of humanity...but then, my memory is a fickle thing.

Relatively sure it isn't Asimov, though that does raise a question; what is he like? I'm not a big sci-fi fan, but he's a fairly influential figure, so...

[Swimmingly he/him]

His stuff is classic, and quite good. The Foundation series is nearly entirely worldbuilding, describing a slowly unveiling plan to bring society back from the edge of disaster from the long view. There are some personal segments, involving disruptions in said plan, and it's all very clean and hard prose. It's very...Asimov. The writing style is similar to Larry Niven or Victor Vinge.

[Delightful]

Hey, how did you like the second book of the Pathfinder series? I assume you read it. I only read the first and kind of lost track of it, but would consider picking it back up.

I didn't love either but thought they were quite good. I honestly don't remember terribly much about it (I read it months ago) but I'm fairly sure it was worth reading. Its also slightly outside my usual taste in fiction (the time aspect and the different areas confuse me a little). It had more interesting world building in different area of the planet and more about the history. Definitely give it a shot, at least, I think.

as I obviously have such a clear and strong position on this book.