 Most of Reynolds's novels contain multiple storylines that originally appear to be completely unrelated, but merge later in the story.Five of his novels and several of his short stories take place within one consistent future universe, usually now called the Revelation Space universe after the first novel published in it, although it was originally developed in short stories for several years before the first novel.Although most characters appear in more than one novel, the works set within this future timeline rarely have the same protagonists twice.