The 1st two Block novels have hazy timelines primarily because they use the novel form to illustrate a set of theo-ries. Blockade is more specific in it's timeline and that timeline doesn't seem to fit into the other two novels, but that's a technicality. If, upon the remote chance the re-maining material can be put together into the final Block volume, it will be seen the timeline has no relationship to the order of the novels. Along those lines, however, the novels have to be read in order because each subsequent volume contains illusions to characters and events in the prior novels. In case the final volume never sees daylight, it takes place at the end of Block's, as well, as civiliza-tion's life, as efforts at establishing a unified planet col-lapse in chaos, with nationalism, feudalism, piracy and nomadic existences becoming the rule of the day.