Does anyone have any thoughts on how much time has passed since the Great White?
At one point Elspeth says something about how the weaponmachines have been sleeping for hundreds of lifetimes, which implies many centuries have passed, but there are other indications it has been a much shorter time.
It's hard, I'm kinda inclined to think between 200 and 400 years, but not entirely sure why, but it could have something to do with things like beforetime books being in circulation within Elspeth's short lifetime
Argh - I remember Isobelle mentioning once in an interview (maybe?) how many generations of D'rektas there had been since Cassy, which would have helped determine this. I have a vague memory of 50 generations, which is a fair while.
Actually, maybe that doesn't help - since Cassy was in cryo for a time after the Great White and we don't know how long that was :-/ and because my memory isn't what it once was. Does anyone else remember the number of generations, or did I dream the whole interview/number?
I can't remember the interview, but I've always thought 1000+ years, and that Cassy and Hannah were in cryo for a hundred years or so.
I remember reading something about Chernobyl a while back and that they thought it would be around 1000 year before the radiation would have faded enough to make the land around it "habitable" again... So the radioactive half-life would fit the timeline of the receding blacklands.
Though if it was 50 generations of D'rektas after Cassy it would be more like 1000-1,250 years after Cassy woke up (assuming each generation had kids between 20-23yo or so...)
There are a few places that state 'hundreds of years' so I'm thinking less than 1000. More like around 500 but it's all guess work.