Life And Time

All literature is about life and time. A biographical novel can begin with its central character's birth and end with his return in old age to the place of his birth. We appreciate time passed and can also experience vicarious nostalgia. Science fiction adds time travel, time dilation and other tricks with time but can also address time in the same way as other fiction. Poul Anderson's titles include Time And Stars and The Horn Of Time.

The opening sentence of Anderson's Genesis promises that the story is of a man, a woman and a world and that ghosts, gods and mysterious time pass through it. Does the novel keep its promise about time?

First, it covers cosmological periods of time:

many galactic orbits;
enough time for a slower than light intergalactic crossing;
long enough for humanity to become extinct  and to be re-created.

"'I made the first of them about fifty thousand years ago.'"
-PART TWO, XII, p. 243.

Secondly, it informs us of different timescales. See Days And Eons.

Thirdly, the node of the galactic brain that recreates humanity also emulates (consciously simulates) alternative timelines.

Fourthly, when asked why she has recreated human beings, the node Gaia replies:

"'That humankind might live once more.' A sigh as of time itself blowing past."
-ibid.

And there indeed time passes through the narrative.