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.
