I believe Heinlein coined the phrase “future history” when describing his books about Lazarus Long and his descendants (sci-fi aficionados can correct me if I’m wrong). It seems a bit contradictory, but it describes well a huge story arc, a long saga if you will, that moves along through the future and over several books. Asimov’s extended Foundation series is exactly that, but the sci-fi master didn’t offer up many dates—I don’t think Heinlein did either.

I revisited and updated the timeline for my future history recently. I mentioned last week that I’m working on a new YA sci-fi mystery. Because the short story it’s based on (written in 2007) is in the same universe described by the timeline, I had to place the events in the story on it. Let me summarize the timeline (this updates a much earlier post).

In brief, the timeline includes three series, the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” the “Clones and Mutants Trilogy,” and the “Chaos Chronicles Trilogy.” It also includes these bridge-books: The Golden Years of Virginia Morgan (bridge between the first two series), and Soldiers of God (bridge between the second two series). The novella “From the Mother World” in Pasodobles in a Quantum Stringscape can be considered an introduction to Sing a Samba Galactica, the YA sci-fi mystery The Secret Lab is concurrent with the first part of Survivors of the Chaos, and the Dr. Carlos stories in Pasodobles and Fantastic Encores! (and the one still archived in “Steve’s Shorts”) lead into Rogue Planet, the last novel (so far) on the timeline.

How did I keep this all straight? I probably didn’t. Although linear, it’s a complex timeline, so it might have some contradictions. You might say an obvious one is that The Midas Bomb, set in 2014, describes events that never took place in that year, but the first edition was published in 2009, so 2014 was still in the future. (Because the timeline extends into the far future, please just consider it as describing events in a parallel universe!) Ignoring that contradiction, I’m sure there are other events out of place and/or contradictory.

Most people wouldn’t think the books in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series” are sci-fi—they’re more in the mystery/suspense/thriller category, after all.  But they’ve always been a wee bit in the future. My new novel Rembrandt’s Angel will be in the middle of the books in that series, by the way, just after The Collector where Castilblanco first meets Scotland Yard Inspector Esther Brookstone (he met Interpol agent Bastiann van Coevorden in Aristocrats and Assassins). But there are some hidden sci-fi elements right from the start (NYPD’s car pool, advances in cellphone technology, and so forth). So far I’ve not received any complaints from crime fiction fans about that!

In fact, the futuristic elements through the detective series and the clones and mutants trilogy are subtle as I tried to integrate technology advances into the stories discreetly—Castilblanco’s cellphone, Bouncer’s internet connection, and Sirena’s creation are examples of easy extrapolation of current technology into the future. Of course, the farther we go out on the timeline, the more dangerous that extrapolation becomes. But even Soldiers of God and most of the Dr. Carlos stories are crime stories.

My writing is anything but linear, of course. Full Medical, which starts in 2053, was my first published book (2006). The Midas Bomb was published in 2009. Survivors of the Chaos, which starts in 2111 with Zebediah Lane’s birth, was published in 2011. (The first two already have a second edition, and I hope to publish one for the third soon.) These three books were written when I still had a day-job and wasn’t a full-time writer. I’ve been hopping around that timeline ever since.

Because readers often like a challenge, I’ve added to my list of PDFs free for the asking a summary of this timeline that indicates where many of my stories fall. As you read my books, you can use that list as a tool and help me catch any errors that I’ve made. Or not. Because all the books can be read independently and in any order, creating this PDF was more a mental exercise to make sure my new YA sci-fi mystery is placed where it belongs—I generally don’t worry much about that, which might be one cause of errors.

So where will the new novel fall on the timeline? 3053, just before the events in Come Dance a Cumbia…with Stars in Your Hand!  Does that matter? Probably not much because the story is more the universal and ubiquitous one about Humans not understanding ETs—not a surprise when one considers that groups of Humans often don’t even understand other groups of Humans!

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Rather than provide links to all the books mentioned, here’s the link to my Amazon author page.

Teeter-Totter between Lust and Murder. #3 in the “Detectives Chen and Castilblanco Series,” this mystery/suspense/thriller novel has more twists and turns than a carnival pretzel. Chen is accused of murder, so naturally Castilblanco tries to help her. But there is a lot more to the murder than meets the eye. Readers will have a great time unraveling it all with these NYPD homicide detectives and will be kept guessing right up to the climax. Soon available in all ebook formats.

In libris libertas!

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