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I am looking for a sci-fi story about a man who is 180 000 years old. He has lived on 6 different star systems and watched man rise and fall. I can't remember the author but it was in a scifi anthology in my local library. Possibly Brian Aldiss. I would love to reread it.
Sydney Moya
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Ooops
Sorry I posted this twice. May the first blog post be deleted
But...
But it's only February 17th!
Why wait until May 1st to delete your comment?
Quirky
You have a quirky sense of humour but I did set myself up!!
Maybe
I don't know that it's exactly the same story (the six star systems detail isn't something I recall), but there is an old James White book about a man who lives for millennia, accompanied by robots that sustain him and eventually guide him through exploration of new planets.
But it's at least 30 years since I read it, so I might be remembering it imperfectly. It was called "Second Ending."
Here's a brief review: http://techland.time.com/2010/05/04/the-last-man-in-a-univer... . May not be exactly what you're thinking of.
not as think as i smart i am
No
Thanks but its not the one. There are no robots. He is practically immortal as a result of genetic quirk caused by the fallout from a nuclear blast. He has seen man's civilisations peak and seed itself on various pplanets but because humans are self destructive they have calamitous wars and revert back to the stone age. He always leaves or goes into hiding before this happens
Sounds very much like
Sounds very much like 'Time Enough for Love' by R.A Heinlien apart from the length of time the character lives.
Again there is 'R. Daneel Olivaw' an android that lives 1800 to 2000 years if not longer and has taken the task of making sure Mankind does not destroy itself, Created by Isaac Asimov, part of a 15 book series that includes 'I-Robot' and the 'Foundation Trilogy'
I hope this helps.
Not a machine
I think he was affected by the fallout from a nuclear war when he was in his early twenties and it slowed down his aging. So he starts a family and disappears when his wife starts looking older. He says he watched Man colonise mars the first time and then hop from system to system before an apocalypse occurs and man reverts to stone age. It happens over and over. Thanks for your help though.
Its not Lazurus Long though. I have a copy of that one
Olaf Stapledon
Could be Starmaker, or Last and First Men
Just checked them out
They aren't the ones but seem interesting the US vs China, kind of prophetic! In the story I remember no countries are mentioned as too many years have passed since it happned. Apparently in this story our civilisation is but the latest in a cycle on this very planet, which is being replicated across the galaxy. Thanks though, I'll get a good read out of Stapledon.
If He's That Old and From Earth
The he's from when our species was newly evolved. Some anthropologists think Homo sapiens evolved into Homo sapiens sapiens just before or at the beginning of the time of the first cave paintings. He would most likely have been captured/adopted by aliens with a high enough tech society for star travel or by high tech earthers with time travel. If the later, how he got that old is problematic.
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
I think the author was
I think the author was working on the theory that mankind isn't as young as we think it is,, and homo sapiens sapiens could be much older. Maybe an apocalypse wiped out the fossil record leaving with an incomplete record or something. Mankind may have evolved much earlier than the thought is the gist of the tale and reached fantastic heights before reverting back to the stone age and redeveloping to where we are today. I think it might explain the legends of atlantis, the antarctic ice not being as old as previously thought etc
Can You Give Us...
…an idea of the plot? Is he interacting with 20th-century humans?
Almost certainly not what you're looking for, but a novel by Robert Sawyer -- Starplex, I think -- came to mind where the guy meets his 21st- or 22nd-century self -- the commander of a multispecies space laboratory -- and he takes advantage of the opportunity to ask what his middle initial stands for: he'd forgotten long ago and found that annoying. It had also been so long since he'd had occasion to communicate in English letters that his italics leaned the wrong way.
Eric
He is reminiscing
about his long life. It seems to be in the sixties when he does this but he never actually talks to anyone, its a soliloquy. Actually a short, short story. He is saying mankind is the only immortal creature as it has the ability to keep being reborn, mankind can never reach his apex without it collapsing and starting over again and he has seen it happen so many times and in passing describes what he has seen in his long life which is he guesses about 180 000 years
Sounds like
Could it be "And Call Me Conrad" by Roger Zelazny? Also published as "This Immortal".
I haven't read the book in forty years but your details do sound familiar and this one title came to mind. It's not really a novel though it was published as one; it's only about 35,000 words, as I remember.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Yay, victory
I found it, its called Letter to a phoenix by Fredric Brown. Thanks for all the help, thanks to the posters I discovered some good stories to read.
Sydney Moya
Fred Brown
He was an absolute master of the very-short-and-nasty. I've read him in French, and the translator apologises for one story, which is an extended series of puns. He admits he cannot translate it directly, so he rewrote it with roughly equivalent French puns, including a truly dreadful and wonderful punch line. Reading the French and the original together is a delight.
For those unfamiliar with Brown, try his "Nightmare in [colour]" stories.