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Eve Tushnet's avatar

It's interesting (to me, anyway!) to compare these novels to a couple older ones that almost fit but not quite. A Canticle for Leibowitz gives you the same place in three time periods (all future), is very up-front about the mystical connections between characters across time, and uses the time shifts to explore current social issues (the big obvious one of nuclear war, but also euthanasia/eugenics, the role of libraries, and expanding technological control). But it's not aiming for that gigantic "epic" feel--it's tighter, more like a series of linked fables.

Meanwhile Infinite Jest is SF in lit clothing, is huge and feels epic, and uses its sprawl to depict all-pervasive social conditions like consumerism and the distraction economy; it's definitely about the role of narrative, also, which seems similar but maybe subtly distinct from the question of the role of art. But it doesn't cover that much of a timespan and I don't remember (though I could definitely be forgetting!!) much in the way of mystical rather than normal, often thwarted connections among characters. Still, I wonder if it was an influence for any of these authors.

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John D. Westlake's avatar

I'm a lowly genre-reading plebe so I don't have much to add on the literary side. But I did want to add that this sort of panoramic storytelling is grist for the mill of speculative sf/fantasy.

Even restricted to space-related stuff, there's series like Benford's Galactic Centre, Baxter's Xeelee novels/stories, and Reynold's Revelation Space books which all play with the sweep of time and (at least in some of those) multi-layered characters & POVs. Epic fantasy clearly has its own versions of this.

I don't know if that adds anything to your analysis here but it seemed appropriate.

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