Across a Billion Years

Cover of the first edition, published by The Dial Press. Cover art by Emanuel Schongut.

Across a Billion Years is a 1969 science fiction novel by American writer Robert Silverberg.

Plot

Set in the year 2375, it follows Tom Rice, a young archaeologist attached to a two-year dig on the planet of Highby V. He is searching for artifacts belonging to a long-lost and ancient race known simply as The High Ones. Throughout known space, details of this billion-year old civilization have been uncovered on many planets. What seems like a fairly straightforward expedition becomes a galactic odyssey when an artifact never seen before is uncovered. This device hints that perhaps the High Ones are not extinct at all.

External links

• Across a Billion Years title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• Across a Billion Years, by Robert Silverberg, SFReader review