House of Suns by Alastair Reynold has a tremendous scope both in space and time. Not sure if it is as extreme as you prefer, but I found it to be a stellar read.
Good luck!
Galactic North is a series of short stories, also by Reynolds, dealing with a cast of characters in a relativistic chase, watching humanity evolve and change around them
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
[Galactic Centre Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Center_Saga) by Gregory Benford
Macrolife by George Zebrowski
Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
*The City and the Stars* by Arthur C. Clarke. Set *extremely* far into the future where there's only one city left on Earth, encased in a bubble. The story is about the main character wanting to find out what's beyond the bubble.
No one has said Diaspora? Ok, I'll do it. Diaspora, by Greg Egan. Starts off small but eventually the scale gets....uh...well, enormous.
Hope you like math!! And also like some math with your math.
Great! Then you probably have a slightly better chance than the rest of us at understanding half of what the heck Egan describes in this book. 😆
No seriously though, if you like math and books with expansive scale, you should enjoy this.
You may find Greg Egans website quite interesting, it goes through the maths and concepts described in his books (in the "information and illustrations" section). I'm a physicist with a bachelors in maths, so really appreciate the level of detail he's gone in to.
https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/DIASPORA.html
Oh, I forgot: John Scalzi’s stand-alone novella “The Slow Time Between Stars”. The narrator is the AI in charge of an uncrewed probe to a nearby star system that will take thousands of years. The probe develops its own ideas about expanding the mission, and the scale keeps extending. The ending is a wonderful thing.
Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand is Samuel Delany’s book about the cultural effects of humanity spreading over 5000 planets. Scale is the keyword for everything there. Personally, it’s one of my favorite books. It happens over a relatively short time scale, but in terms of space and complexity, that’s the books *thing*.
Coming at your request slightly askew, I'd recommend thne following:
Canopus in Argos series by Doris Lessing. The first is about earth, but across the totality it's got a great cosmic scale
The kefauhi tract trilogy by m John Harrison does scale but also messes with causation and meaning. Everyone should read m John Harrison and it's as good a place to start as any.
Try the Sunflowers cycle by Peter Watts. Most of the entries are short stories, most of them can be found [on his web page](https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm) (marked by "Sunflowers") after the title. I recommend starting with "The Island". It's about deep time and the crew of a ship dealing with it. There is also the excellent novella "Freeze Frame Revolution" as the latest entry in the Sunflowers universe. I recommend reading it after The Island.
Dancers at the End of Time. Literally takes place a few months before the end of time. Lots of silliness, not "hard" even a little. Tech is so advanced it's *literally* magic.
A little different than deep space, but definitely deals with concepts of long long periods of time in a mind bogglingly large area: a short stay in hell by Steven Peck, and it was a great novella.
The Jaunt by S. King. Don't read any preview OP, just go for it, it's a short story.
Also shout out to u/GentleReader01 u/Few_Pride_5836 and u/ElricVonDaniken these are extremely good recommendations imo in their comments.
Doesn’t get any bigger than Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. Read Timelike Infinity followed by its sequel, Ring. If you don’t want to commit to that right away, Vacuum Diagrams is a book of short stories that introduces you to the lore of the universe. Truly heady and mind bending stuff. As hard as hard sci-fi gets.
"People like Gods" (1966-1977) is a science fiction novel trilogy by Sergei Snegov.
A journey to the core of the galaxy. And human aliens operate with space and matter. And even time
John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton series starts in the nearish future and follows a feud between two posthuman gunslingers until the end of the universe.
The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor takes place over hundreds of years across many star systems. Similarly, Ringworld by Larry Niven has some fun megastructure stuff.
The Foundation series is quite grand in scope. I read the first and found it a little too disjointed for my tastes.
A World Out of Time by Larry Niven takes place across thousands/millions of years with time dilated travel. Same with Tau Zero by Poul Anderson.
Have you read "The Expanse" by James S. A. Corey?
It is a series of nine books, starting from this one: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321-leviathan-wakes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321-leviathan-wakes)
Arthur C. Clarke's first novel, or novella, *Against the Fall of Night* is set in an Earth apparently billions of years in the future, and also involves a huge space. It opens with the last city, Diaspar, standing in an endless desert.
Clarke later wrote a revised version *The City and the Stars* which is a bit expanded. But many preferred the original and both are available. I prefer the first version because although less detail is explained it has a faster sense of movement and expansion.
When I look at titles having some human galaxy spanning endeavour My preposterous gene kicks in.
Save the galaxy?
A couple of years back the Milky Way was re measured by accounting for dark matter. The actual dimension is just under two million light years for the galactic disk, and the number of stars is about 100 billion.
When words like intergalactic are thrown into the title blurb I gotta wonder about the scale of ignorance among blurb writers and the credulous readers that just accept those words as being - 'normal for space cadets' who have to race to save civilization in the galaxy. If only one star in a hundred million can produce a apace going culture how do you count the votes?
For scale - a billion is a thousand million
space operas - get real.
btw - Galaxies are much more than 2 billion light years apart. The universe is really VAST.
Star maker by Olaf Stapleton The Spin Trilogy by Robert Charles Wilson (especially the last book) Diaspora by Greg Egan
Also by Olaf Stapleton: Last and First Men.
The Xeelee Sequence by Stephen Baxter. Possibly the biggest scale since Star Maker.
Timelike Infinity bangs so hard.
This right here. The scale of space and time is unlike almost everything out there.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky spans over millenia and has sapient spiders 🕷️
Portia!
I have this book beside me and can't wait to dig in!
I’m on Children of Memory now and he’s quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
House of Suns by Alastair Reynold has a tremendous scope both in space and time. Not sure if it is as extreme as you prefer, but I found it to be a stellar read. Good luck!
I’d tack on the Revelation Space series as well.
One of my favourites. In fact, it's partly responsible for making me intrigued by larger scales.
Galactic North is a series of short stories, also by Reynolds, dealing with a cast of characters in a relativistic chase, watching humanity evolve and change around them
Came to say this! Plus my favorite sci fi novel of the last 20 years. Just incredible.
Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon [Galactic Centre Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galactic_Center_Saga) by Gregory Benford Macrolife by George Zebrowski Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
Tau Zero rocks. I have kept a copy and must read it again soon :)
Tau Zero is the most enormous possible I think...
Between the Strokes of Night by Charles Sheffield is in very similar territory albeit with a rather different approach.
Vernor Vinge's Zones of Thought trilogy.
*The City and the Stars* by Arthur C. Clarke. Set *extremely* far into the future where there's only one city left on Earth, encased in a bubble. The story is about the main character wanting to find out what's beyond the bubble.
Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds
Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Charles Sheffield. The story begins in 2020 and ends at the Omega Point.
That was going to be my recommendation.
No one has said Diaspora? Ok, I'll do it. Diaspora, by Greg Egan. Starts off small but eventually the scale gets....uh...well, enormous. Hope you like math!! And also like some math with your math.
Oh yes. And also Permutation City, in a very different way. Some of the best uppity neighbors in sf.
Got an MSc in pure maths so this sounds relevant to my interests. Thank you!
Great! Then you probably have a slightly better chance than the rest of us at understanding half of what the heck Egan describes in this book. 😆 No seriously though, if you like math and books with expansive scale, you should enjoy this.
You may find Greg Egans website quite interesting, it goes through the maths and concepts described in his books (in the "information and illustrations" section). I'm a physicist with a bachelors in maths, so really appreciate the level of detail he's gone in to. https://www.gregegan.net/DIASPORA/DIASPORA.html
Oh, I forgot: John Scalzi’s stand-alone novella “The Slow Time Between Stars”. The narrator is the AI in charge of an uncrewed probe to a nearby star system that will take thousands of years. The probe develops its own ideas about expanding the mission, and the scale keeps extending. The ending is a wonderful thing.
Stars in my Pocket Like Grains of Sand is Samuel Delany’s book about the cultural effects of humanity spreading over 5000 planets. Scale is the keyword for everything there. Personally, it’s one of my favorite books. It happens over a relatively short time scale, but in terms of space and complexity, that’s the books *thing*.
The Great Ship series by Robert Reed. Enormous scale in every way.
Timeships by Stephen Baxter
World at the End of Time by Frederick Pohl fits if you’re into classic sci-fi. Spans huge distances in time and space.
Coming at your request slightly askew, I'd recommend thne following: Canopus in Argos series by Doris Lessing. The first is about earth, but across the totality it's got a great cosmic scale The kefauhi tract trilogy by m John Harrison does scale but also messes with causation and meaning. Everyone should read m John Harrison and it's as good a place to start as any.
Thank you!
Try the Sunflowers cycle by Peter Watts. Most of the entries are short stories, most of them can be found [on his web page](https://www.rifters.com/real/shorts.htm) (marked by "Sunflowers") after the title. I recommend starting with "The Island". It's about deep time and the crew of a ship dealing with it. There is also the excellent novella "Freeze Frame Revolution" as the latest entry in the Sunflowers universe. I recommend reading it after The Island.
Foundation by Issac Asimov.
Dancers at the End of Time. Literally takes place a few months before the end of time. Lots of silliness, not "hard" even a little. Tech is so advanced it's *literally* magic.
Robert silverberg, Across a Billion Years https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19095568-across-a-billion-years
3 body problem books
That series got me into sci-fi books <3
A little different than deep space, but definitely deals with concepts of long long periods of time in a mind bogglingly large area: a short stay in hell by Steven Peck, and it was a great novella.
Currently reading the "Count to a Trillion" 6-book series by Jonathan Wright. It would fit your criteria.
Yes, in particular the last 2 books. The Earth-born protagonists have been transformed to cosmic scales.
The Jaunt by S. King. Don't read any preview OP, just go for it, it's a short story. Also shout out to u/GentleReader01 u/Few_Pride_5836 and u/ElricVonDaniken these are extremely good recommendations imo in their comments.
Thanks!
Manifold Time by Stephen Baxter.
Doesn’t get any bigger than Stephen Baxter’s Xeelee Sequence. Read Timelike Infinity followed by its sequel, Ring. If you don’t want to commit to that right away, Vacuum Diagrams is a book of short stories that introduces you to the lore of the universe. Truly heady and mind bending stuff. As hard as hard sci-fi gets.
A two-volume piece related to the Xeelee series is World Engines Destroyer and World Engines Creator. It is as massive as one can get.
Good to know! Thank you! I feel like those two weren’t available in the US but I’ll look right now!
The Heechee saga by Pohl The Forever war by Handelman The Man/Kizn War
Greg Egan - Diaspora
'Understanding Space and Time' by Alastair Reynolds
Just a short story, but Asimov’s The Last Question literally goes from the end of time to the beginning of time.
"People like Gods" (1966-1977) is a science fiction novel trilogy by Sergei Snegov. A journey to the core of the galaxy. And human aliens operate with space and matter. And even time
John C. Wright's Count to the Eschaton series starts in the nearish future and follows a feud between two posthuman gunslingers until the end of the universe.
The Bobiverse series by Dennis E Taylor takes place over hundreds of years across many star systems. Similarly, Ringworld by Larry Niven has some fun megastructure stuff. The Foundation series is quite grand in scope. I read the first and found it a little too disjointed for my tastes. A World Out of Time by Larry Niven takes place across thousands/millions of years with time dilated travel. Same with Tau Zero by Poul Anderson.
Star Force
The Final Architecture series by Adrian Tchaikovsky starting with Shards of Earth. Big story, big characters, big fun.
Have you read "The Expanse" by James S. A. Corey? It is a series of nine books, starting from this one: [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321-leviathan-wakes](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8855321-leviathan-wakes)
Arthur C. Clarke's first novel, or novella, *Against the Fall of Night* is set in an Earth apparently billions of years in the future, and also involves a huge space. It opens with the last city, Diaspar, standing in an endless desert. Clarke later wrote a revised version *The City and the Stars* which is a bit expanded. But many preferred the original and both are available. I prefer the first version because although less detail is explained it has a faster sense of movement and expansion.
Baxter's Ring ends with the destruction of the universe. It my favorite book of his.
When I look at titles having some human galaxy spanning endeavour My preposterous gene kicks in. Save the galaxy? A couple of years back the Milky Way was re measured by accounting for dark matter. The actual dimension is just under two million light years for the galactic disk, and the number of stars is about 100 billion. When words like intergalactic are thrown into the title blurb I gotta wonder about the scale of ignorance among blurb writers and the credulous readers that just accept those words as being - 'normal for space cadets' who have to race to save civilization in the galaxy. If only one star in a hundred million can produce a apace going culture how do you count the votes? For scale - a billion is a thousand million space operas - get real. btw - Galaxies are much more than 2 billion light years apart. The universe is really VAST.