Comments on: Stories where Character Lives Eternally

Question: Stories where Character Lives Eternally

GregWithLime — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:31:46 -0800

I'm looking for books/stories where the main character lives a vast amount of time. Can you help?

I recently watched and greatly enjoyed the film, "The Man from Earth", written by Jerome Bixby. As I watched the film, I was reminded how much I enjoy the theme where the main character is an observer/participant throughout centuries of history.

I think this theme was what drew me to read many of Ann Rice's vampire books, especially those that aren't tied directly to the Lois and Lestat theme. I'm not looking for Doctor Who. Not that I don't enjoy that franchise but it has never thrilled me in the same way.

Do you have any favorite books, short stories or movies that follow this theme that you think I might enjoy? Thanks!

By: codswallop

codswallop — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:41:20 -0800

Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein?

By: codswallop

codswallop — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:45:12 -0800

Oh! And Poul Anderson's The Boat of a Million Years.

By: ZakDaddy

ZakDaddy — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:54:52 -0800

Jitterbug Perfume.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:55:08 -0800

Melmoth the Wanderer fits the pattern, along with heaps of other myths, stories, etc. of the Wandering Jew archetype.

By: O9scar

O9scar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 22:59:43 -0800

Orlando. I've only seen the movie, not read the (Virginia Woolf) book.

By: gmm

gmm — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:00:19 -0800

Not vast amount of time / observing the human race, but I'd like to mention Audrey Niffenegers The Time Travelers Wife. He doesn't travel centuries if I recall correctly, but travels (involuntarily) to events and periods around his life important to him (his parents, his children, his wife). So he observes his own life and those of his loved ones, from multiple time-viewpoints.

By: rglasmann

rglasmann — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:20:24 -0800

Isaac Asimov's short story "The Bicentennial Man". Was also a movie.

By: BitterOldPunk

BitterOldPunk — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:20:59 -0800

Pete Hamill's Forever is the tale of a man granted provisional immortality, as long as he never leaves the island of Manhattan.

By: amelioration

amelioration — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:24:24 -0800

I recall being fascinated by All Men Are Mortal.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:24:59 -0800

Forever, by Pete Hamill
The City of the Immortals, by Jorge Luis Borges (short story included in a couple collections - bonus points if you catch the literary references at the end)

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:25:20 -0800

Damn you, Punk.

By: Effigy2000

Effigy2000 — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:26:55 -0800

An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called The Inner Light, in which Captain Picard experiences a whole, very long lifetime (in the space of only 25 minutes on board the Enterprise). It's rated to be among one of the best episodes of that series.

As an added bonus, my link to Wikipedia there also has links to similar stories, which should help you find similar stories on your search.

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:28:25 -0800

There's a character named "Nathan Brazil" in Jack Chalker's "Well of Souls" series who is unfathomably old. (I don't want to give any more details about that because they're spoilers.) He only shows up later in the series, however, and he isn't the protagonist.

Alfred Bester's book "The Computer Connection" is about a small group of people who don't age. The oldest member of their group is known as "Hic Haec Hoc" and he's a Neanderthal, likely several tens of thousands of years old. The protagonist is known as Guig and he is one of the immortals, albeit the newest member of "The Group". At the time of the book, he's about 250 years old.

But "Time Enough for Love" is really the book you want. (Or the first one, anyway.)

By: Admira

Admira — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:28:53 -0800

Michael Moorcocks The Dancers at The End of Time

Joe Haldeman's The Forever War

By: Class Goat

Class Goat — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:33:44 -0800

There's also "The City and the Stars" by Clarke, but it's not quite what you're talking about. In the City, citizens aren't born, don't age, and don't die. They materialize in a computer-controlled chamber fully adult, live for a thousand years, then walk back into the chamber where they are converted into data and stored. At some point further along, the computer will create them again. The City has existed by that point for about a billion years, and most of its inhabitants have lived hundreds of lives, each about a thousand years long. At any given instant, only a percent or two of the City's inhabitants are awake; the vast majority are slumbering in the memory banks.

The protagonist is the first true child born to the city in millions of years; he's on his first life.

By: tkolar

tkolar — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:44:40 -0800

Between The Strokes Of Night by Charles Sheffield.

By: ArkhanJG

ArkhanJG — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:51:17 -0800

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars series - they invent anti-aging treatments, and the first settlers of mars live through the entire settlement process over hundreds of years. Amongst many other subjects, it does examine the consequences of a very expensive fountain-of-youth treatment becoming available to humanity at large.

By: XMLicious

XMLicious — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:56:30 -0800

The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson follows two souls as they are reincarnated across centuries, within an alternate history setting.

By: ten pounds of inedita

ten pounds of inedita — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:08:15 -0800

In Italo Calvino's Qfwfq cycle of short stories, collected in Cosmicomics and Tau Zero, the protagonist, Qfwfq, was around at the beginnings of the universe and his tale is told through to the present and into the future.

By: aubilenon

aubilenon — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:19:15 -0800

Greg Egan's Permutation City and Diaspora are about characters who are or become immortal. It is the most abstract narrative fiction I have ever read, though (rather than sci-fi Permutation City might better be called number-theory-fi)

By: squidlarkin

squidlarkin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:24:14 -0800

About half of Zelazny's protagonists are immortal. But surprisingly few of them really deal with history at all.

By: ignignokt

ignignokt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:44:28 -0800

There's always Highlander. I am immortal, I have in me ancient blood of kings!

By: ignignokt

ignignokt — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 00:57:36 -0800

Oh, also, The Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. The main character, Morpheus, is sort of a god and lives through many historical eras, although the story is not told in chronological order.

There's another character within the story named Hob Gadling who is granted immortality by Morpheus and also lives through many eras. He first appears in the collection The Doll's House, and reappears throughout the series, with a final substantial story in the last collection, The Wake.

By: Dan Brilliant

Dan Brilliant — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:04:20 -0800

...And Call Me Conrad / This Immortal

By: amestoy

amestoy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 01:57:12 -0800

You might like Marina Warner's novel The Leto Bundle. I agree it's a fascinating theme for a story when done well.

By: Claypole

Claypole — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:24:57 -0800

Autumn of the Patriarch
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I think the protagonist - a Caribbean dictator - lives for at least 200 years.
This is an absolute baroque masterpiece. You need to read it....twice.

I second Italo Calvino's Qfwfq cycle. Both of these are great choices for anyone remotely interested in magic realism.

By: amicamentis

amicamentis — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:06:10 -0800

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt deals with this theme, although it is not the protagonist that lives for centuries. It's a children's book, but it's a short read and raises some interesting questions about immortality and human nature.

By: emilyw

emilyw — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:26:04 -0800

Katharine Kerr's Deverry Cycle.

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:59:47 -0800

Umberto Eco's "Foucault's Pendulum" gives us the mysterious and sly old Count Aglie, who may be several hundred years old.

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:05:46 -0800

See also Borges's "The Immortal." Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude" contains a minor character, Melaquides, who returns from death because he could not bear the solitude, IIRC.

By: MonkeyToes

MonkeyToes — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:09:16 -0800

Codswallop mentions "Time Enough for Love." Its protagonist, Lazarus Long, appears in a number of Heinlein's novels, so you can follow Long's adventures. But "Time" is probably the best of them as far as a character reflecting on his own long life.

By: eritain

eritain — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:28:35 -0800

God Emperor of Dune has this trope, though I don't know how intelligible it would be without reading the previous three books (and I'm not entirely convinced it's any good, truth be told).

The Ender series, by Orson Scott Card, has characters whose subjective lifespan is normal, but who live it throughout thousands of years of history because of frequent near-lightspeed travel. Card's early works Hot Sleep and The Worthing Saga also feature normal subjective lifespans stretched out to historical lengths, this time through the use of drug-induced hibernation. Not sure if either of those really meets your request though.

By: jbickers

jbickers — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:59:52 -0800

Outnumbering the Dead by Frederick Pohl is about a world where virtually everyone is immortal, and what it's like for one man who is born with a birth defect that makes him a mortal.

By: DanSachs

DanSachs — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:14:19 -0800

Little Big Man. Thomas Berger wrote the novel, Arthur Penn directed Dustin Hoffman (and others) in the movie.

By: 5MeoCMP

5MeoCMP — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:33:57 -0800

Vernor Vinge, "Across Realtime", is based on a technology of "stasis bubbles" that freezes protagonists in time for a period of years; variously shorter or longer timespans.

In a similar kind of way, Philip Jose Farmer's "Dayworld" deals with society where people are frozen ("stoned") for 6 days out of 7 due to population pressure, and the resultant "daybreakers" who live multiple different lives so they don't ever have to be "stoned".

Also, thanks aubilenon for reminding me to pick up Permutation City again.

By: 5MeoCMP

5MeoCMP — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 05:44:34 -0800

Class Goat, did you know that "Hic Haec Hoc" was the standard nomenclature for drunken hiccups used in the Asterix comics?

/totally not relevant

By: AmbroseChapel

AmbroseChapel — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:00:56 -0800

You might be interested in the TV show "New Amsterdam", which features an immortal New York policeman.

By: Lebannen

Lebannen — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:15:11 -0800

I'm currently loving Elizabeth Bear's Ink & Steel / Hell & Earth duology, wherein Kit Marley (aka Christopher Marlowe etc) is coming to terms with unexpected immortality; he's already appeared in Whiskey & Water, set in the modern day, having lived (sort of) all the time in between. It perhaps doesn't quite meet the requirements of your question, but if you can get hold of a copy it's very very good anyway!

By: explosion

explosion — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:26:52 -0800

ignignokt, small quibble on Sandman: Death grants Hob immortality, Dream merely brokers the deal.

Snarkfilter: The Bible has quite a few of these immortal/long-lived characters, but that's probably not what you're looking for.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:30:38 -0800

'Waiting for the Iron Age' by Dave Langford. It's in the collection Different Kinds Of Darkness

By: WCityMike

WCityMike — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:32:57 -0800

Superman. Seriously: he's lived a million years by the time of the graphic novel DC One Million, and the effect on him of being nigh unaging is shown in an Elseworlds graphic novel Superman & Batman: Generations II. Additionally, if it's the concept of living through different times that is the facet you're examining, various Elseworlds graphic novels have placed him in a multitude of different chronological settings, such as the Civil War, etc. Not the traditional answer you were looking for, I imagine, but still a valid one.

By: roombythelake

roombythelake — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:38:36 -0800

As a break from the science fiction, try Timothy Findley's novel Pilgrim. Man lives hundreds of years, interacts with various historical figures, tries to kill himself frequently but can't. The story is told while he's being treated by Dr. Carl Jung.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 07:46:54 -0800

Greg Bear's "Eon" and sequels feature immortal post-humans who can elect to live corporeal lives in custom-designed bodies or non-corporeal lives in their city's computer network.

By: subajestad

subajestad — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:25:16 -0800

Clifford Simak's Way Station; and I agree with Amazon reviewers in that his SF ages well, unlike that of some other writers (althouigh this is entirely subjective of course).

By: bigbigdog

bigbigdog — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:27:28 -0800

Vernor Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky and to a lesser extent A Fire Upon the Deep feature a character that lives a very long time. Gregory Benford's Galactic Center saga also has one.

By: MsMolly

MsMolly — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:39:15 -0800

Neal Stevenson's Baroque Cycle and Cryptonomicon all feature the character of Enoch Root.

By: GregWithLime

GregWithLime — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:50:28 -0800

Wow, what a wonderful response. Thanks so much for taking the time to help me out with this. Effigy2000, the Star Trek TNG, episode you mention is my favorite all-time Star Trek episode from any of the series. A week never goes by that I don't think of that episode. What a beautiful concept.

O9scar, don't know how I have never seen Orlando. It's now in my NetFlix queue.

I will be heading to the used book store in town to search for some of these excellent suggestions.

By: prunes

prunes — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 08:57:53 -0800

Lord of Light is an essential, Hugo-winning SF novel in which a race of technogically advanced men augment themselves to become akin to gods to a planet's under-race. One of these so-called gods rebels and becomes a Buddha figure. Reincarnation and living a long time plays pretty heavily into the story though.

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 09:18:10 -0800

Forgot to mention the Langford story above was original published in a volume of similar stories Tales Of The Wandering Jew

By: matematichica

matematichica — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 10:07:35 -0800

Bomarzo, by Manuel Mujica Lainez.
The main character is a Renaissance Italian duke, and his horoscope predicts he will live forever. Incredibly rich novel, full of details of the time period, historical figures, etc. I found it fascinating, although perhaps slow to start. I still think about it. Plus, it's based on a real place in you can visit.

By: elle.jeezy

elle.jeezy — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:43:04 -0800

Octavia Butler's Patternist series (Wild Seed, Patternmaster, Mind of My Mind, etc.) deals with two immortal beings. Hari Seldon of Asimov's Foundation series is immortal, or very nearly so.

By: CurlyMan

CurlyMan — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:47:54 -0800

The best epic fantasy series I have ever read, "The Malazan Book of the Fallen" by Steven Erikson , features several characters who deal with living for hundreds of thousands of years; one race which commits itself to an eternal war and ends up outliving their Gods, another race which has lived for so long their main enemies are apathy and ennui.

I can't sell how great this series is, even though it is not yet complete. It is better than Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and George RR Martin all added together and pumped full of steroids. A bit dark and cynical, but that just adds to the attraction for me.

Obviously, being fantasy, the history they observe and describe isn't real....

By: domi_p

domi_p — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:05:13 -0800

All men are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir.
I read it a while ago and it really impressed me back then.

By: JimN2TAW

JimN2TAW — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 15:11:56 -0800

Hari Seldon of Asimov's Foundation series is immortal, or very nearly so.
Actually, he's a hologram. AFAIK, the real Seldon had a normal lifespan, but was digitized in order to deliver his message to future generations.

Class Goat, did you know that "Hic Haec Hoc" was the standard nomenclature for drunken hiccups used in the Asterix comics?
/totally not relevant
posted by 5MeoCMP at 5:44 AM on August 20 [+] [!] I've seen these words also in another context as some sort of incantation. What does it mean?

How could we forget Heinlein's other immortals, the Howard Families, who have intentionally intermarried so as to be genetically long-lived. The book I remember is "Methuselah's Children." Lazarus Long, mentioned upthread, may have been a descendant of the Howard Families.

Enjoy. You're in for some great reading.

By: Wayman Tisdale

Wayman Tisdale — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:46:02 -0800

Yes, Cosmicomics and T-Zero by Calvino might qualify. That is, if you are loose with your terms "character," "lives" and also "history." And "story." But yes, a great book.

By: ten pounds of inedita

ten pounds of inedita — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:57:59 -0800

Luckily, they qualify if you're very narrow with those terms, too.

By: qvtqht

qvtqht — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:06:52 -0800

The Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

By: mysterious1der

mysterious1der — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 18:47:13 -0800

A.I.

By: GregWithLime

GregWithLime — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 20:18:24 -0800

Wow! So many great ideas, I think I have my reading list for the next decade. :)

If you are still reading this thread and have reached this comment, help me and others highlight the best of the best here. If you could recommend two titles mentioned amongst all the comments here (that were not mentioned by you), which two would you recommend?

By: Pronoiac

Pronoiac — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:13:49 -0800

You might like the TVTropes page on immortality.

By: niles

niles — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 17:50:24 -0800

JimN2TAW: Latin Personal Pronouns

By: localroger

localroger — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 17:27:13 -0800

While I wouldn't be tacky enough to pimp my own book, since qvtqht did it for me I will add that you can read it for free, which might be a plus :-)

By: GregWithLime

GregWithLime — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:52:29 -0800

I just finished watching the movie Orlando and it was a very interesting story. It definitely fits in well with the theme. Thanks for the recommendation.