In the Ocean of Night (1977) Through the Sea of Suns (1984) The Great River of Heaven (1987) The Tides (1989) The Mad Bay (1994) A Journey Through Sparkling Eternity (1995), The series consists of six novels written over a period of twenty-five years. Events, What they say is CM..... [ cover the period from 2000 to 37,518 - a giant period! - and are united by a common focus - the Center of our galaxy 28 light-years away , and actors, And those who go there.... to take part in all-galactic intrigues. In addition, I really wanted to bring to the reader an idea of the incredible scales of time and space inherent in our galaxy. We're just tiny May midges circling in the background of a scene lit by the lights of the stars. Good science fiction should not forget about it. The plot of the novel “In the Ocean of Night”, published in 1977, is associated with the discovery that computer-based life dominates the entire galaxy. An English astronaut working in the NASA program, Nigel Walmsley, discovers that “advanced calculating machines”, as he calls them, inherited the ruins of ancient, naturally developed civilizations on Earth. This came to us when the wreckage of an ancient spacecraft on the moon was discovered and when a wandering machine belonging to the ancient space community invaded the solar system to study it. The novel "Through the Sea of Suns" tells about the adventures of Walmsley during the first interstellar expedition. Guided by a sense of pure curiosity, people seek to learn more about nearby star systems, where strange creatures with mysterious properties live. In particular, Walmsley discovers that “naturals” organic beings like us have been destroyed or altered beyond recognition by aggressive machine civilizations. During the time that this flight lasted, creatures living in the ocean environment invade the Earth. This is the method by which machine civilizations destroy advanced "natural" civilizations. As soon as they become aware of our existence, they immediately decide to crush us, just as they destroyed their other dangerous rivals. The novel ends with a small number of survivors, including Walmsley, taking over the spacecraft. They go to the Center of the galaxy to find out the situation on the spot. At the core of our galaxy, a few light years from its true center, for each light year there are about one million stars. Even worse is that the main focus of interest of machine civilizations is the Center of the galaxy - destructive gamma rays, boiling clouds, incredible energy processes. The action of the novel "The Great Celestial River" takes place against the background of these unusual landscapes. The very name of the novel comes from the name given by the ancient tribes of American Indians to the Milky Way. The central character of the novel is a man named Kailyn .. Together with the Bishop family, he flees through the ruins of abandoned cities, fleeing from death. The defining element of the celestial vault is a huge black hole - the true center of the galaxy, which people call the Eater of All Things, although they do not know for what reason. The terrible landscape symbolizes the fact that people have lost the protection of God. Although the Walmsley expedition still reached the Center of the galaxy and even successfully settled there, creating its rather numerous civilization, they failed to save humanity from the enslavement of machines. They are pursued by a mysterious fur - a mechanism - named Mantis, for whom people are a species of creatures doomed to extinction, whose death is inevitable. Mantis wants to record in his memory everything related to people, which seems to him important and interesting, the owners of which are the remaining few human communities. Never since humans settled on the giant Candelabra space station have they been able to stand on an equal footing with furs. The Bishops flee to their home world of Snowglade in the hope of finding salvation there and solving numerous mysteries regarding the true nature of the furs living near the Black Hole. In the fourth novel, The Tides, they reach another planet and form something of an alliance with other species of organic beings, one of which is also threatened with destruction by ruthless furs. Here we meet with other types of furs . Machines that reproduce themselves must certainly fall under the influence of the laws of natural selection, and they have to specialize narrowly in the use of local resources. They, in fact, repeat the entire biosphere: parasites, predators, game. Bishops hope to cope with the situation, trying to decipher the mysterious messages from the mind, enclosed in magnetic fluxes, breaking through the center of the galaxy. The Mind tells them of a place he calls the Wedge, where people can find a safe haven and may even find the legendary Galactic Library, containing all the information relating to the history of the galaxy. In the fifth novel, "Raging Bay", we find ourselves in a huge bay washing a giant Black hole, and find another "bay" separating minds generated in different areas. Our - human - mind is connected with morality and individualism. These features are inherent only in organic beings .. In the eyes of other minds that have not passed through the filters of Darwinian laws, they do not matter. If we can reproduce ourselves countless times, why worry about the fate of some individual copy? What civilization can arise on the basis of such ideas? And what will she think of us - "naturals" - constantly making mistakes, determined by our biological purpose?So, The narrative gradually introduces the theme of the interaction between consciousness and the "substrate" , About , How big are the differences between human and adaptable machines? and how this affects the nature of consciousness itself. Since the writing of the second novel, we have not met with Nigel Walmsley, although from time to time in the pages of other novels we have come across references to the fact that in ancient years he was active somewhere in the region of the Center of the galaxy. The traces of his story are found in the description of the ruins, then in the mysterious messages .. The search and acquisition of "Veja" again draws us people who have resisted the fight against furs, surviving in the incredibly complex intertwining of space-time. In Journey Through Sparkling Eternity, the sixth novel, completed in 1995, all the main characters come together. In Veja, they discover that the people themselves are the possessors of information that they did not even know they had. This information is extremely important and can stop the attempts of furs to destroy organic life. Twenty-five years have passed since I wrote Ocean of the Night, and our vision of the Center of the Galaxy has changed unrecognizably. Some chapters, especially the first two books, do not correspond to our modern ideas. And in the descriptions of the place of action a lot of mistakes. The theme of the series is decided in favor of man as something unique and worthy of salvation even in that completely hostile galaxy that I created in my imagination. However, I suspect that if organic life is as stupid and as vulnerable as it is, apparently, in fact, then machines may well inherit the galaxy and sit there, staring at us with astonishment and cold indifference. In the add-on to the series offered to the reader, a very important question faced by people at the very beginning of the period of their decline, that is, about 36 LLCs in the year is analyzed. In addition, some aspects of the terrifying Mantis are considered here, for which there was no room in previous novels. Gregory Benford