Xeelee Sequence

The Xeelee Sequence is a series of novels and short stories by British science fiction author Stephen Baxter. The novels span several billions of years , describing the future expansion of Mankind, its war with its arch-nemesis (an alien race called the Xeelee), and the Xeelee's own war with dark matter entities called photino birds. Several novels also deal with humans and posthumans living in extreme conditions, such as the heart of a neutron star ("Flux") or a universe with considerably stronger gravity ("Raft").

Baxter's "Destiny's Children" series is part of this series.

The novels, in chronological order (not publication order) are:
* "Coalescent" (2003)
* "Transcendent" (Michael Poole's segment) (2005)
* "Timelike Infinity" (1992)
* "Ring" (before "Great Northern" launches) (1993)
* "Reality Dust" (2000)
* "Riding the Rock" (2002)
* "Exultant" (2005)
* "Transcendent" (Alia's segment) (2005)
* "Raft" (1991)
* "Flux" (1993)
* "Ring" (after "Great Northern" returns) (1994)

Chronologies including most of the short stories and novels are included in the short story collections "Vacuum Diagrams" and "Resplendent". When asked directly for a suggested reading order, the author wrote: "I hope that all the books and indeed the stories can be read stand-alone. I’m not a great fan of books that end with cliff-hangers. So you could go in anywhere. One way would be to start with ‘Vacuum Diagrams’, a collection that sets out the overall story of the universe. Then ‘Timelike Infinity’ and ‘Ring’ which tell the story of Michael Poole, then ‘Raft’ and ‘Flux’ which are really incidents against the wider background, and finally ‘Destiny’s Children.’" [http://www.themanifold.co.uk/interview.php]

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*Great Attractor