books in space with very old people

[fuzzy_memory]

Hi all,

I remember reading years ago I think a couple of books with two notions of ageing, pretty sure they were different books. In both cases, I think you had (variants on) humans that were effectively immortal, where

• in one of the books, people were engineered to deliberately have gaps in their teeth, which made them easier to clean, or resist decay better over the years
• in another book, people didn't stop growing; their growth would slow down over the years, but continue; and you could tell generations apart just by their height

Do any of these sound familiar?

 

[PaulMmn]

Your first book sounds like Niven's Ringworld series, especially World of Ptavvs... but as you aged, you ended with more of a beak, not just gaps between your teeth...
.
--Paul E Musselman

 

[Bick]

No, its not Niven. Can't help myself though, sorry.

 

[ralphkern]

The first,reference the teeth thing, is from one of Gregory Benfords Galactic Center books. I can't remember which one specifically as it is a series of 6 that, whilst it forms one overall story arc, is divided into two sections.

It's definitely NOT (because humans hadn't been modified by then in the story arc):

In the Ocean of Night
Across the Sea of Suns

I don't THINK it's:

Great Sky River

But it could be:

Tides of Light
Furious Gulf
Sailing Bright Eternity

I suspect it is one of the latter two for some reason, but likely in the last three somewhere. Although they weren't immortal as such, their brains could be downloaded into chips and inserted into other people.

As to the second one about the people who keep growing, that sounds like Alistair Reynolds 'House of Suns'. Were these giants studying the disappearance of the Andromeda galaxy? if so then that's your book.