Book Review: Eternity's End

Author: Jeffrey A. Carver 

Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates 

Year: 2000Genre: Sci-fi
Rating: 4 reading glasses

Eternity’s End takes place thousands of years in humanity’s future, on distant planets and solar systems colonised by mankind. But after fighting amongst themselves for control over space in a devastating war called The War of a Thousand Suns, humans divided into two factions; Centrist Strength controlling the Centrist Worlds where humans live peacefully with aliens and the Kyber; cyborg space pirates who believe the galaxy belongs to humans only.

The story begins with the daring escape of Renwald Legroeder and Maris from a Kyber stronghold after seven years of forced servitude. They race for the nearest Centrist World-Faber Eridani seeking asylum.

Instead of a hero’s welcome Legroeder is detained under allegations that he deliberately flew Ciudad de Los Angeles into Golen Space to be captured by pirates. And nobody buys his story that the “ghost ship” Impris is real and lured his ship into strike distance with fake distress calls. But with Maris in a coma, there’s no witness able to corroborate Legroeder’s innocence.

Fortunately a sympathetic attorney, Ms. Harriet Mahoney posts Legroeder’s bail and helps him escape Faber Eridinai to prove his innocence. In space he teams up with amphibious alien lizards called the Narseil and a sexy Kyber,  Trace/Ace Alpha,  whose pirate stronghold wants to see an end to pirating. Together they hatch a daring mission which includes; clearing Legroeder’s name, clearing the Narseil’s tarnished name in humanity’s history books and locating and returning Impris to Eridani.

Carver goes into painstaking detail describing the incomprehensible technology humanity uses to dominate the Milky Way. The way he describes the flux, (a hidden realm of space where fast moving currents can sweep ships anywhere in the galaxy in a jiffy) and how riggers see it from their rigger stations (riggers ‘sail’ spaceships in the flux by using their imaginations) plus the description of the different alien species and augments (electro-mechanical devices that replace body parts and enhance brain functions) contorted my imagination. Plus with all the neutrasers, flux torpedoes, explosions and implosions it really felt like I was watching an action movie in a surround sound theatre.

But Eternity’s End is so long that it is separated into four parts and there are so many characters moving in and out of the storyline that I soon became overwhelmed and gave up trying to keep up. I also felt like some of the creatures fit in better into a children’s fantasy book rather than an adult sci-fi novel.

In an era where people cram into cinemas to watch 3D CGI sci-fi movies based on books instead of reading the actual books, this is quite a good read that captures a reader’s imagination in ways a fancy movie can never accomplish. If you’re looking for an excellent introduction into the world of science fiction novels or want to delve really deep into Jeffrey Carver’s Star Rigger Universe series in just one novel, buy Eternity’s End.