It was the first novel set in the Revelation Space universe, although the then-unnamed universe had already been established by several published short stories.

The universe of print book dealers is well established, and sales of print titles are statistically weighted to represent all outlets nationwide.

Subsequently, the universe depicted in the animated series Challenge of the GoBots and follow-up film GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords was established as an alternate universe within the Transformers franchise.

In effect, a relative universe of regular users is naturally established over time after which any significant expansion of that universe becomes extraordinarily difficult.