As one of the few science-fiction books I've read recently, I found the plot of this book to be rather interesting as well as the characters themselves. The settlement of the new planet and the challenges that they faced while building a new life for themselves was intriguing. I thought that the plot moved at a suitable pace, not to slow, but at times a little quicker than I actually would have preferred as there was some information that I had to go back a couple pages and make sure that I actually got. However, it did get a little dry and the wide range of the timeline wasn't exactly something that I was expecting nor was extremely engaging.

"The Artifice of Eternity" is undeniably a thought-provoking and intellectually stimulating book that grapples with profound questions about the nature of consciousness and the implications of advanced technology. Aaron H. Arm's ability to craft intricate philosophical dialogues within a sci-fi framework is commendable. However, the book is not without its flaws. At times, the dense philosophical discussions can become overwhelming, potentially alienating readers seeking a more accessible narrative. Additionally, the pacing may feel uneven, with moments of intense contemplation interspersed with periods of slower plot development. Nevertheless, for those willing to engage with its complexity, the novel offers a unique and enriching reading experience, even if it may not be everyone's cup of tea.

A pretty good story. Some Christian overtones will turn off some readers. Setting that aside, I liked this overall. It doesn't have the polish of a more experienced author, but maybe worth a read.

Thanks very much for the free copy for review!!

Recommended book which is well-written and will be enoyable fans of the author. Enoyable book and will look forward to more.

This was a slow read for me and not one of my favorites. I don't yearn for old, retro-scifi and the argument that people are inherently violent or they are some net negative on the planet is offensive to me. Especially the argument against conception and large families that was strongly made by the author early in the book as one of the catalysts for the book itself. The final antagonist and protagonist didn't work for me and i was far less interested in that story (and it was rushed).

Thanks to the publisher for the ARC but I wouldn't recommend this book.

3 stars, Hard to follow

THE ARTIFICE OF ETERNITY: A NOVEL
by Aaron H. Arm

This novel is set up into two parts that you follow through the book. One timeline follows a ship before it lifts off and after it is on the way to a new exoplanet, Eden since Earth and other planets are falling apart. The other part of the book is made up of news articles and the ship's handbook. Honestly, I could not read the book all in one go. I had to read the timeline for the ship first and then read the handbook part. It would have been a better book for me if it was written linearly.

A rich man spent a large chunk of his fortune to build the starship Exodus and send 4,000 people to a new, utopian world on Eden.

There were a lot of great ideas in this book, and the way it is put together may appeal to others, more.

I received a complimentary copy of #TheArtificeOfEternity from #NetGalley #CosmicEggBooks I was under no obligation to post a review.

#ScienceFiction #Fantasy #AaronHArm

[Blub goes here]

Earth's wealthiest man decides to leave the planet to reboot civilization 12 lightyears away in Eden, a recently discovered habitable exoplanet. During the story, the author will take you back and forward between the time before "Project Exodus" began and the span of three generations in the newly colonized world.

This utopian society is an amalgamation of the best people old Earth has to offer, all screened and analyzed, with the skill sets needed to ensure survival.

Unfortunately, as it always happens, no matter how thoroughly your admission process is, humans will be humans, with all their faults and strengths.

Year one: a woman is murdered. The heads of the project decide not to do anything and pass it up as an accident. Soon after, her husband is killed.

Year thirty: a man with delusions of grandeur wants to build a weapon of mass destruction, a decision that forces one of the two cities on the planet to cut ties with the other.

Year 40? 50? A missing child returns after a few years as a deity of sorts.

The story jumps all over the place, giving us backstories for some characters. What should have been a delightful read turned out to be confusing as timelines collapsed and blended...not purposedly, though. The lack of drive from the characters turns out to be annoying: they're so set upon this romantic idea that they fail to react as they should.

While just a few characters are fleshed out, most are paper thin. We don't get to spend the proper amount of time with them, even when they're crucial to the story.

The author gives us glimpses into reports, interviews, and notes meant to clarify each storyline or "Book," as the novel is divided into three. And while some are indeed interesting, most seem unnecessary.

The dialogs often feel clunky, and the overall story is messy. It saddens me to say that this book reads more like a history of Eden than an actual novel.

The religious undertones were a big pass for me since it felt, more than anything, preachy...a lecture, in other words.

While this is a bountiful novel content-wise, it could have been better executed.

Those are my two cents, anyway.

Thank you for the advanced copy!

A big thanks to NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Intriguing, but ended up a bit confusing.

The Artifice of Eternity by Aaron H. Arm is a science fiction novel set in a world where overpopulation, war, corruption, and other horrible acts of humanity, have forced people to seek refuge in the stars. Or essentially, fly over 13 lightyears away to a new planet to inhabit. Told over three generations, The Artifice of Eternity focuses on what it means to be human, and what it means to have a family far from their original home.

Initially, I thought this book would be a lot like a mix between Beth Revis' Across the Universe and Frank Herbet's Dune, and I was sadly wrong. For the most part. this book proved to be the classic familiar face in an unknown world narrative. With many twist and turns, some dire hard sci-fy fans would have seen coming. (Myself included). However, the most disheartening part was that this book was confusing in it's timeline, as the plot wasn't completely linear. Nor did it stick with one particular protagonist. Don't even get me started on the writing style at times.

If you are looking for the action of Star Wars, the technical complexity of a Mike Weir novel, or the engaging plot lines of an Asimov or Heinlein, this book is not for you.
I gave it the following SCORE:
Setting: The distant future, a few years before and 40 years after the voyage of mile-long spaceship Byzantium whose mission is to colonize and create a Utopian civilization on earth-like planet Eden.
Characters: Three generations of a family with each major section named for a primary male character: The Book of Isaac, The Book of Jacob, and The Book of Joseph.
Overview: This is not a linear story, leaping back and forth between pre-flight planning and history of the 4,000 carefully selected pioneers by the world’s wealthiest man who fully expects to establish paradise on Eden. It is distractingly interrupted by repeated excerpts of the Colonists Handbook, required reading for the future voyagers to Eden and, unfortunately, required reading for those who want to read the complete book.
Recommendation: I rate this book 2 stars
Extras: There is far less sci in this sci-fi, book than philosophy or political comment and there is a persistent undertone of religious themes as indicated by the section titles, the voyage named “Project Exodus,” and the final resolution of the book. Many plot sequences and illogical scientific or technical points require that leap of faith. At times, the story is more of a lesson or a lecture, to the point of pretentiousness.
This is not for everyone but the cover is terrific and it is intriguing to try and figure out what the title means, even after finishing the book.
Thanx to NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg Books for the opportunity to provide this candid review.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I wasn't expecting this to have that much of a religious undertone as it had, but I ended up really liking the first two parts of the book. It lost me in the third part with the conclusion of the story and the very heavy handed messiah type storyline.

I did like how the author formatted the book having in-between chapters glimpses of earths parts that shed light to why humanity decided to pursue their colonization project.

Also the scope of the story is massive spanning three different generations and I think that the book would have been more impactful if it had toned done it's ambition, and focused more on single aspect of the plot.

Overall an fine scifi read, but not something I have the desire to revisit in the future.

I went into The Artifice of Eternity thinking that it might bear some comparison to Kim Stanley Robinson's legendary Mars trilogy, and that I might have something similarly epic on my hands. This book does indeed invite comparison to that series, but unfortunately for The Artifice of Eternity, the comparison is far from favourable.

Overall, there are three major, glaring issues with this book: the prose, the structure, and the delivery of its message.

The prose isn't universally terrible - there were some sections of dialogue that were good, though there were also sections that felt stilted and robotic, most notably in the chapters that were transcripts of interviews or other interruptions to the main narrative (though I'll discuss these in more detail below). However, it feels like Arm hasn't yet mastered the art of weaving description into dialogue or action, so this book ends up having very long, wearying sections of extended description, most often of the landscape or a piece of technology - and while Arm's ideas and vision offer us some hints of something intriguing, his prose doesn't have the skill to make us care about these excessively long chunks of information about the new planet's geography, or the design of the interstellar spaceship. This problem is especially acute when transitioning from one scene to another. Character A will tell Character B they need to speak to them urgently, but instead of being dropped into the action we're hungering for, the next scene will begin with an extended description of the way the sky is different on this new planet, completely killing the pacing. I found myself skimming at several points just to get to the parts that held a vague glimmer of interest.

The Artifice of Eternity clearly has a message to tell us - I say clearly, because this book has not heard of subtlety. Instead, it decides to bang the reader repeatedly over the head with what it wants to say. Climate change is bad! Corruption in the government is bad! Murder is bad! Yes, thank you, I think most readers understand! This problem was especially bad in the sections that took the form of interviews, magazine articles, news reports, etc. These were often so on the nose it was painful.

And the third problem - the one that, I think, let down The Artifice of Eternity the hardest - was the structure. One of the primary aims of this book is to show us a long view of the settlement of the world of Eden, jumping fairly big distances of time between chapters, and being split into 'books' that focus on one character, then his son, etc. This jumping around through time is also present in the pieces that are supposed to be interviews, news reports, characters' voice notes to themselves, etc. that are interjected between the chapters of the main story. And it's this constant jumping, both back and forth and forward, that kills this book. The reader is constantly being wrenched back and forth, introduced to many different characters without being given enough time to know them or become attached. Even the main story chapters often seem to begin with a new character being introduced, if only briefly, before we get back to our main characters. I think Arm has tried to include far too much in one book; The Artifice of Eternity would likely work much better if each 'book' was in reality its own independent book in a trilogy. On the face of it, the concept of a murder in a new exocolony has real appeal, and the introduction of this plot beat actually kept me reading when I was about ready to give up. The instant jump to controlling the narrative, the formation of a cadre of leaders In The Know, the cover-up, the naivety of not thinking they even needed to set up a legal system for the colony - all of these are really interesting ideas, and they really really needed an entire book's worth of space to breathe, rather than just a few short chapters. The story feels like it’s glossing over things, or events are happening too fast or too neatly - the beginnings of complication and nuance and intrigue start to bud, but they have to be ruthlessly cut down into neat little chapter-sized chunks so that the story can continue along and take us to the next phase of Eden’s history. In some ways, The Artifice of Eternity feels more like a history book masquerading as a novel, as we’re never really allowed to settle and get to know the characters, or marinate in the complex relationships and problems that should accompany the establishment of this new society. Instead, at the moment we’re beginning to care about Isaac, Erin, Ward, Anya and Milton, and the consequences and repercussions of the murders that take place, we’re suddenly whisked forward in time to the next 'book', to be introduced to yet another new character - and that was the moment I realised I really didn’t care anymore, and DNF’d this book around page 150.

There were some other more specific problems that really stuck with me. In one of the first scenes, Isaac locks himself in a room with a fire in an act of sacrifice to save the ship… apparently forgetting fire extinguishers are a thing that exist?? And when they arrive at Eden, for some bizarre reason they decide to unload FOUR THOUSAND colonists ALL AT ONCE, not even bothering to, say, build them houses, or perhaps check for dangerous fauna and flora! This is so wildly stupid I just had to suspend my disbelief and ignore it, otherwise I would’ve put the book down right then. Also, this line "I wouldn't say so," Milton answered in the Queen's English" is so, so terrible, and will haunt my nightmares.

Overall, I’d give Arm the same advice my undergrad dissertation supervisor once gave me: less scope, more precision. Make the story of landing on Eden and suffering the first murders be an entire book of its own; either leave out the flashback/news article chapters, or reduce their number significantly. Couple this with a few sessions with a good editor, and I think this book could’ve been onto something; unfortunately in its current form, it simply makes me ask - why should I care?

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Earth is dying, over population and pollution are taking its toll.

The Artifice of Eternity’s story spans three generations as well as the “before”. When I read the synopsis of this book I expected that it would be about the colonization of a planet and the settlers growth and changes from it.

But that’s not quite what I got. It was a story that centred around a set of individuals and their families over three generations. While the story flopped back to before the 4,000 people set out on The Exodus to settle on Eden.

I really enjoyed the world building when it was included in the story. How the new planet looked, the vegetation, the creatures that were living there. I was also interested in the technology and how the people had adapted it to work on the planet.

The whole murder / investigation into it felt a little like a throw away aspect. I think it could have been really interesting to really dive into it and how they all dealt with and reacted to it. While they did, I think it could have been made into more and helped to shape the population.

This book is very political, religious, and philosophical. Which I didn’t entirely expect. I’m not going to lie I found it a little boring and almost preachy at times? It almost felt like the author was trying a little too hard at times to make points. I think if the story had focused more on the world building and the aftermath of settling on Eden this book would have held my attention better. But as it stands I had a hard time getting through this book at times and I considered DNFing it a few.

2.5/5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg Books for the EARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Artifice of Eternity felt like two separate books. I loved the majority of the book. The premise that humans are trying create a utopia on another planet is interesting and engaging, and it quickly becomes apparent that we are unable to escape our true nature of a flawed being. But the last section, The book of Joseph, is a long explanation of the author's philosphy of predermination, which was already so well depicted through the story. It was confusing as well-I would much rather have read more about what really happened to Joseph. The book was 5 stars until I got the last part.

The Artifice of Eternity presents a complex narrative that explores themes of human nature, society, family, and religion. Set in a future where Earth is on the brink of collapse, the world's wealthiest man spearheads "Project Exodus," aiming to establish a utopian civilization on a new habitable planet called Eden.

The story unfolds across colonists on Eden, showcasing the challenges they face in their quest for utopia. Interspersed with media documents from Earth's past, the narrative incorporates elements of mystery, psychological fiction, and political commentary.

While the concept of rebuilding civilization on a new planet is intriguing, the execution left me with mixed feelings. One aspect that stands out is the religious undertone, which may surprise readers expecting that this book would be a more straightforward science fiction (just by basing on the synopsis).

Despite this, the book remains a thought-provoking read. The book delves into humanity's enduring pursuit of a better existence and the complexities that arise when attempting to build utopia. It also raises important questions about the flaws inherent in human nature.

ARC provided by Victory Editing through NetGalley

The Artifice of Eternity is a technically proficient book about human nature, society, family, and religion. After solving many critical problems on Earth, the world's wealthiest and most influential man decides that problem of humanity is intractable and personally selects four thousand, including himself, to begin an intentionally planned civilization with the ideal culture on another planet.

What I expected from this book was a science fiction novel primarily about settling a new planet with the hope of it being a utopia and that it didn't work out as they thought it would. Instead I got a Christian allegory of ambiguous meaning. I greatly enjoyed East of Eden, which was a biblical retelling, but this isn't that. The book's description says it's called Project Exodus and the planet is Eden, but even given that I underestimated how religiously oriented it would be. That's strange because the organizers of the project intentionally excluded the religious. Maybe that's why they were oblivious to the bible verses intrusively added into their dialogue. The verses were relevant and explanatory for the events of the story, but surely there could've been a better way. I was baffled when one character asked the other to meet them at Numbers xx:xx and it wasn't commented upon, though if the character had, I would think they would've declined the meeting.

The book's title and the name of the spaceship, Byzantium, are from the W.B. Yeats poem, Sailing to Byzantium. That's not the only similarity to Dan Simmon's Endymion. There were other science fiction novels that came to mind, but they were either ones that I didn't enjoy or that I think were failed attempts to do as they had. There are others references as well that I thought were a bit too blatant for their content, or as some would say, on-the-nose. I couldn't help but roll my eyes about the Erinyes, and a few others.

There's a major plot point that's been done in the Hyperion Cantos, Dune, Revelation Space, and several other series. It was both an inevitable conclusion for the story and entirely out of place. What I mean by that is that I felt like I was reading two different narratives. One was a family saga about life on a newly settled planet for ideological reasons and how everyone adjusted to the difficulties resulting from that. I would've enjoyed this more if that's all it was about. The other was a metaphysical, religious, and political allegory about how humanity is fallen and cannot escape themselves. The story puts forth that there was only one possible way to return to Eden. All others would be left behind. I found these two ideals being together to be both incongruent and underdeveloped in how they were presented. Worse yet, I found the latter to be nonsensical.

Rating: 2.5/5

I received this DRC from Cosmic Egg Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing, through NetGalley

When I read the synopsis of this book I got really intrigued by the idea of following humans that seek refuge in the stars, this notion is something that we as fans of scientific fiction have dear in our hears, human race surviving far among the stars, the troubles, the hope, what make us thrive and despair, I did love that part, we are introduced to some characters and we see things through their eyes, I only regret not getting to know more about each character, if I talk about the story, I will end up giving spoilers and that is not what I want to do, this book is worth a read, some of the intrigue could be a bit too much, people are killed and things happen, but not too much investigation, actually I don’t know even if the murders make sense, because I don’t really read detective books.

It is well written, it is divided in 3 parts, that accompany members of a lineage , but somehow they’re always in the centre of the action, and while we do know them (the characters), we don’t get to know them deeply, I wish we could get more and go more deep with each character.

Thank you NetGalley and John Hunt Publishing, Cosmic Egg Books for the free ARC and this is my honest opinion.