"Centuries" by A. A. Attanasio was first published in 1997 and has the tag line "The towering novel of the next Millenium", and indeed goes from the late 1990s to the year 3000. Fiona lent it to me after I reviewed Cloud Atlas (
Book #30 this year) I can now see the reason for the recomendation. Centuries moves forward throug the centuries interlinking the characters, their skills and adventures. Really a little too far fetched but since it is well written it is what I consider readable, and I would consider reading more by this author, but not in the next 2 months as I need to complete 8 books to reach my 50 book target, and 400 plus pages takes time to read!