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The book covers multiple story lines, and takes place over different times.

The main story is about a multi-universal war against winged-spider like aliens that feed on the fear chemicals in sentient beings. One protagonist is a centipede-like alien from another dimension/universe from which the spider creatures are scooping out pieces of the centipede alien's universe to convert to energy. One story line is a love story involving a space city that hurls itself into a black hole to escape the spider aliens.

The book was written prior to 2004, and was part of a series exploring time, space, and dimension.

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  • Hi, welcome to SF&F. Do you happen to recall any details of what the cover looked like? Also check out the other suggestions to see if they help you improve your question.
    – DavidW
    Dec 8 '20 at 21:08
  • Thank you! Unfortunately I don't remember much about the cover, other than I think it was a generic spaceship in space motif. Sorry I can't remember more.
    – Magic Fox
    Dec 8 '20 at 21:18
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This is The Last Legends of Earth by A.A. Attanasio, which I've already answered here. There are other questions about the same story with unaccepted answers here and here.

The main story is about a multi-universal war against winged-spider like aliens that feed on the fear chemicals in sentient beings.

These are the zotl.

One protagonist is a centipede-like alien from another dimension/universe from which the spider creatures are scooping out pieces of the centipede alien's universe to convert to energy.

This is Gai, also known as the Rimstalker. She has created a mini-universe with resurrected humans as bait for the zotl in a scheme that is supposed to lure them to their destruction.

One story line is a love story

(literally) Star-crossed lovers Ned O'Tennis and Chan-ti Beppu chase each other back and forth across time and space.

a space city that hurls itself into a black hole to escape the spider aliens.

Without giving too much away, the city of the Aesirai launches itself off the planet it's on to fall into the black hole, which is an artificial intelligence named Saor.

The preceding novel In Other Worlds is mostly set in another such mini-universe created by the Rimstalkers for the same reason.

Cover

(source: Amazon via ISFDB, thanks DavidW)

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5
  • Here is a link to view the various covers for The Last Legends of Earth.
    – DavidW
    Dec 8 '20 at 22:12
  • @DavidW Thanks, I used the cover of my copy.
    – Spencer
    Dec 8 '20 at 22:19
  • Thank you very, very much! I've been trying to remember this book for years!
    – Magic Fox
    Dec 8 '20 at 22:20
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    @MagicFox If you check the green checkmark under my answer, the question can be officially marked as a duplicate.
    – Spencer
    Dec 8 '20 at 22:22
  • Man, his books were uniquely strange. I couldn't even remember the story but I read that crazy description and thought 'Attanasio'.
    – Hopalong
    Jan 21 at 23:39

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