DNFing this book 60% in. The way each chapter is from a different character makes it feel disjointed and I’m unable to fully connect/care about what’s happening. I’m very much a character reader, though, so I think if that wouldn’t bother you and the synopsis sounds interesting to you you’d probably enjoy it. The writing is very compelling and the sci-fi elements are there.

Wow. This book is such a beautiful combination of sci-fi and philosophy. It’s also a love letter to poetry and classical music. I can’t really describe what the story is about other than to say it’s about humanity. And it’s stunning. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur offers a compelling exploration of future technologies and their impact on humanity, delving into themes of identity, love, and ethical dilemmas. The novel introduces a near-future world where nanotherapy promises immortality by replacing human cells with advanced nanites. This premise sets the stage for intriguing philosophical questions about what it means to be human when confronted with technological enhancement.

Hur's narrative is ambitious, blending elements of science fiction with deep introspection on the nature of consciousness and existence. The creation of Panit, an AI imbued with human-like qualities and emotions, raises poignant questions about the boundaries between artificial intelligence and humanity. The novel also examines the consequences of scientific progress and the ethical implications of manipulating life at its core.

However, despite its thought-provoking themes and imaginative world-building, Toward Eternity may not fully deliver on its narrative promise for all readers. The complexity of the ideas explored sometimes results in pacing issues, making it challenging to maintain engagement throughout the story. Additionally, while the novel presents compelling characters and concepts, some aspects of the plot and character development may feel underdeveloped or thinly explored.

Overall, Toward Eternity is a novel that boldly tackles profound philosophical questions within a futuristic setting. It invites readers to ponder the implications of technological advancements on human identity and relationships. While it may appeal to fans of speculative fiction interested in cerebral explorations, its execution may leave some readers wishing for more depth and coherence in its storytelling.

"𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘴𝘬𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘴𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘴, 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘮 𝘰𝘧 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘰𝘥𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘮. 𝘏𝘢𝘥 𝘐 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘣𝘦𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘦, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳? 𝘏𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘢 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘰𝘦𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘮𝘦 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘐 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘴?"

Anton Hur does it again, but this in his own story.

At the crossroads of immortality and AI, where does language stand? What do words do? What comes out of them? Memories? The present? How far can we feel words? What do they carry?

Careful. Thought-provoking. Rich in spirit.

Language is at the forefront of exploration here. You see it in Hur's work. And you see it explored here. It makes me tremendously happy that after years of translation, Hur has put out his own work, singular in its love for language.

This was rather more pretentious than I expected going in. I chose to request it after reading Anton Hur’s insightful Afterword in A Magical Girl Retires (which he translated and I loved). His control of language is impressive (indeed it must be because he’s an accomplished translator) but the characters feel so far removed from reality. Spending all their time musing on what it means to be human, to have a soul - while one character disparages language, and two others think poetry (blegh) is the root of humanity. The only character who really felt real in the first section was Ellen - through her paranoia, her discerning musical ear, and through her personal and familial history as a white woman in South Africa. But her section was so short.

The story is introspective to a fault, leaving me as a reader left with nothing to grasp on to - particularly since Hur can’t flex language skills without more imagery than we get with this kind of “shared diary”
format.

Review posts July 3rd, 2024.

TOWARD ETERNITY is a contemplative story told as a series of writings by various entities affected by the development of nanites to form bodies. What starts out as a way to try and extend the lives of people with terminal illnesses (cancer, specifically) turns into the catalyst for a war that alters what living looks like for everyone. The style is very introspective, with each new narrator telling their own very personal ideas about their lives and what’s happening. The story is created communally, as a legacy through time, something more than a journal and something called barely less than a relic. Holy in its importance, a living document which traces people and events through time.

It chooses the more personal and calmer portions of what ultimately encompasses hundreds of years of upheaval and violence, as the nanites do not stay confined to just one or two altered persons under tight observation.

This is strange for me to read because, in many ways, it highlights an assumption of interiority (that I don’t experience) as something which is necessary for consciousness. There's also, in some sections and in the treatment of the journal as a whole, an implication that legacy and progeny (literal or metaphorical) are not just important to these particular characters, but generally. This meant that the more I read, the more it was clear to me that it's a well-crafted story about something I don't relate to at all. This dissonance was especially distracting near the midpoint, but I liked the end of the book as things made more sense to me again.

Ultimately, this was fine, though not to my taste. I don't recommend it, not because of any specific flaw, but because while I specifically enjoy stories which engage with the nature of personhood, identity, and the questions which arise from understanding consciousness as separate from embodiment, TOWARD ETERNITY seems to gesture at the idea that there could be questions and then assert that love and poetry will hold things together. It's frustrating because while it engages with ideas I care about, it does it in a manner which was ultimately alienating to me. It briefly toys with the question of whether a copy of a person in a new iteration will be a different person from the original, before asserting that the answer is "no" with little ceremony and minimal deliberation. While I do agree, it seems to miss the opportunities to explore this which I would be interested in, while doggedly pursuing an idea of legacy which is disparate and abstracted.

I don't know to whom I might recommend it, is the thing. It seemed like it would be up my alley and then I struggled to finish it at all.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC of this novel. It just was not for me. Most of it read like a graduate seminar on art and language and consciousness. It was very thought-provoking, but the characters were secondary. I appreciate how the author approached the concept of artificial intelligence via art and language instead of science. That was an original approach for sci fi. But I could not get on board with this book as a novel because the philosophical digressions were the primary point of the text.

Award-winning translator Anton Hur comes into his own as an author in his debut novel, TOWARD ETERNITY, a quiet and introspective musing on the definition of personhood at the confluence of biology, technology, and language.

TOWARD ETERNITY essentially consists of a notebook, passed from being to being over the span of centuries. 7 or so characters add their own chapters to the notebook. Through them, we get glimpses of a near future in which technology can cure previously uncurable diseases by replacing every cell in the human body with nanotech, essentially rendering them immortal. In this same timeline, AIs are trained in reading poetry because that is the best way of making them match human levels of intelligence. As the book progresses, we move further and further into the future, to a world of clone wars, interstellar travel, and the loss of/rediscovery of language and literature.

The strongest aspect of the book for me was the thoughts it inspired about questions I have wondered for a long time. There are, essentially, two threads being explored. The first is where in the human body to locate humanity if humans became more and more comprised of tech. Is a person who was once made of organic material that has been replaced entirely by nanotech at the cellular level still a human? Are the thoughts they think, the words they say, created by a person or by AI? If we retain our memories but not our bodies, are we still the same person? This is a hugely relevant and fascinating discussion, especially with the increased role of AI in society. If we don’t think about these questions now, then we will have to sometime soon.

The second thread explored is the idea of language being a core component of humanity. I have always thought that my identity is in separable from my language and communication. Am I really still Steph without my words and my thoughts, which are always in words? Why do I feel less me in my mother tongue, Mandarin Chinese, which I do not know as fluently as English? Why do I feel like an utter imbecile in Vietnamese, which I am barely able to use successfully in my everyday transactions?

And yet it’s not only “language as communication” that makes one a human. TOWARD ETERNITY explores the idea that our humanity deepens with the more language we know, and when we can appreciate language as art (e.g. poetry). To that end, the book’s message evokes The Dead Poets Society as one of its progenitors—humans can transact, and make money, and wage war, but one’s *humanity* is defined through the understanding and appreciation of art. Is it possible, then, for an AI to gain personhood through an appreciation of poetry? Can we also say that certain human beings, those who only care about money and who don’t see others as people and who are okay with contributing to war and genocide, are less human? Oooooooooh. My brain delights in the philosophical conjectures.

Perhaps TOWARD ETERNITY focuses too much on its philosophical debates, for world-building, pacing, and character development are a bit on the weaker side. The book attempts to cover centuries of humanity’s future, but we learn about the world only through the characters’ journal entries, so details are lacking in how world-changing events come about. Journal entries also mean that events are recounted after they’ve already happened, slowing down the pace and creating some emotional distance from the events themselves. Finally, because each journal “chapter” is written by a different character, we rarely get to know a character well enough, further adding to the somewhat emotionally distant tone of the book.

TOWARD ETERNITY slots into that niche of slow-paced, introspective speculative fiction pondering the boundaries of humanity and technology, joining a shelf with the likes of Ken Liu and Ted Chiang. “Delighted” isn’t quite the right word for my experience with this book… but how about “mad respect”?

Wow. This book was intense. Deep and thought provoking. Diverse and introspective characters. Beautiful, vivid writing that presents readers with a unique juxtaposition of science and poetry.

There is so much to unpack in this book. It is a commentary on the future of AI and nanotechnology. It is an exploration of what it means to be human. It is also a love letter to language, poetry, and music.

This book is a text that begs to be explored, scrutinized, and decoded.

Resonatingly glorious.

I've read and loved Hur's translations so I was truly looking forward to this book. but alas it was either the wrong book at the wrong time or the wrong audience because I could not ever get into the story.

I loved parts of the writing and much of the dialogue. I was intrigued at the idea of this story but the execution just didn't make it for me. I kept getting pulled out of the story, not able to follow the narrative and the combination of plot and musings and character just never came together for me.

I will still make sure to read Hur's next book because he's such an excellent writer.

with gratitude to netgalley and HarperVia for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Toward Eternity is a difficult book to review and one that I’m feeling very conflicted about.

It is a novel set throughout different time periods from “The Near Future” and going forward in time. Each chapter is narrated by a different character who has found or is given a notebook to record their lives in. There are many fascinating sci-fi concepts including nanites, AI, a global futuristic war, and space travel. I absolutely loved all of this.

There was a lot of philosophical musing about memories and language and music and poetry which I feel like I didn’t get the most out of. The first section set in the near future felt really heavy and slow. I would love to listen to the author speak or take a class on this as I sometimes felt like I just wasn’t absorbing it all.

I really liked this one, and the cover is beautiful! But I’m left feeling dazed and a little confused and so I’m giving this a 3.5/5.

Having read a number of Hur’s translations of Korean books, I was curious to see what the translator had to say on his own. Toward Eternity completely delivered. A sci-fi book for fans of This is How You Lose the Time War, the timeline spirals out from a near future to a nuclear wasteland filled with clones.

But through the desolation, the story locks into the power of poetry, the desire to create and the crystalline quality of love. There’s commentary on AI powers, some nebulous robots, and a lot of loose associations that build a web of connections.

My favorite point of view was Delta, one of the clones that has mutated, so that she remembers lines of Romantic poetry which underlie her original code. So often soul searching requires gazing through the eyes of a partner, but it’s the echo of poetry, combined with the final scraps of humanity that helps to escape the spiral of anonymity.

I feel like I should’ve loved this book as it’s right up my alley. I loved the beginning where it was more so an academic study. Where we had test subjects or patients who had their dna altered with nanotechnology. There was the scientific element yet so much commentary about poetry and literature and I loved it.
However from beginning to end, it felt like I read 2 different books. It just appeared to me to be another story in which AI takes over and controls the world.

I had to rad multiple chapter several times, it got beyond confusing and in a way that I knew what was happening but like why?

This one was just not for me

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Theoretically, I should've loved this book. In practice, I didn't. The first 65% feels more like an academic study or essay rather than a novel, as it's more of an exploration of the meaning of poetry, language, and what it means to be human through various examples, with a little bit of plot and characters to guide that discussion. There are references to various authors, and for someone who has read or knows about English and universal literature as well as literary criticism, most of them won't go unnoticed since they're directly mentioned or very heavily implied (Eliot, Emily Dickinson, Borges, Rossetti, Staszak, to name a few). However, I don't think these references contributed much, at least during the first two to three quarters of the "story." The narrative starts to take shape towards the end, but I don't think it's strong enough to uphold the entirety of the story it wants to tell. We don't spend enough time with each of the POVs, and because of this, the care we are supposed to feel when something happens to them doesn't really hit as it's supposed to. It turns really Kantian and Heideggerian as well, which I thought was an interesting choice and fit the overall philosophical tone of the book, but, again, I feel it would've fit better as an academic paper. The sci-fi aspect was more of a net in which the existential debate falls upon the consideration of a future ruled by AI, a fear that's very real and a very hot topic right now.

I should note that I really dislike the stream of consciousness genre (I've read it from different authors, languages, and literary movements, and I always dislike it), but, while this does kind of follow that style, it was also very easy to read. I think I went into it expecting something different than what I got, but I also think the elements within it don't really work because of the imbalance in their presentation.

First of all I want to say, this cover is STUNNING! This book knocked my socks off and I loved almost every single aspect of this book!

The novel was interesting enough but I struggled to maintain interest the further I read. It is well-written overall but the dialogue felt weak and even cheesy at the end.

I appreciate what the author has created but it unfortunately is just not for me.

The author and I share a deep love of language, but have deeply differing opinions about poetry (he loves it, I've always loathed it). So while I enjoy the contemplations on AI and humanity, about evolution and loss and love, I'm at best indifferent to all the poetry.

Which is to say that if you enjoy poetry and feel a deeply human connection to it, as well as the other things I mentioned above, I think you'll really love this book and should check it out.

As for the sci-fi elements, it was really interesting the expanse of time (centuries) that the book covers. The conceit of all of these people writing in the same book felt a little stretched sometimes, but it's executed fine.

I think character readers might struggle a little bit with each chapter (essentially) being from a different character. And since they generally all have the same progenitor, it makes internal sense that their voices are similar but maybe wouldn't offer enough variety/personality/exposure to truly grow attached to any one.

Toward Eternity is a nice piece of Literary Fiction with a very strong Sci-Fi angle, it could also be referred to as speculative fiction & even dabbles into dystopia (basically all the things I love!) I think it would take a fan of Sci-Fi to truly enjoy this book, but I do think it’s a near-home run for the right reader!

This book is a great exploration into the question of “what does it mean to be human?” That thread of the book is very enjoyable and thought provoking, but the actual story and plot line is very entertaining and was a joy to read.

The start of this novel takes place in what I’d call a near-ish, or the not too-distant future. Humankind has created a revolutionary nanotherapy which cures cancer by replacing one’s cells with nanites (android cells.) This leads to the recipient becoming “immortal.”

The story makes several jumps through into the future where these “immortals” take on different roles in society and serve different functions, or are another “instantiation” as Hur often refers to them as. The reader is always being challenged to think about what makes someone/thing human?

Each “jump” as mentioned above is told from the POV of the characters/immortals/instantiations as time moves forward into the figure - over many years (centuries, I suppose, although it’s not always explicitly mentioned.) The characters are all linked or curiously enough, even “the same.” Without giving much away on that, I can say that it all works really well and was entertaining to read.

The novel also makes the reader think about what perils can be behind such technologies with original good intentions. And again, will these technologies create the jump to non-human? And back to that question of “what does it mean to be human?” Self-awareness? A soul? Get ready to think about all these things during/after reading this book. I’ve wrapped up reading this one a few days ago and these questions still sit with me in a very good way.

Thank you Netgalley, Anton Hur and HarperVia for the opportunity to read an e-copy of this book in exchange for my honest feedback.

What makes a soul? What gives something/someone humanity? What would the consequences of immortality be?
This book, unfortunately, was not for me. I didn't expect so much of it to be about poetry, music, and language. I just really struggled to stay interested in the plot but I did want to see how it ended. I think the ending was beautiful and perfect for this story.

Toward Eternity by Anton Hur [May 15, 2024]

2.5/5 (rounded up to 3) “Toward Eternity” by Anton Hur is a dynamic combination of science fiction and fantasy, from nanites and AI, to dragons, immortality, rapture, and God(s). I was initially attracted to the book cover and the synopsis. The expansive and philosophical nature of this debut work makes it difficult to review. The voice at least in the beginning reminds me a bit of the voice in the “Murderbot Diaries” and the first half of this book was very character driven. As the book progresses, however, the mixing of poetry and the philosophical exploration of humanity, wonder, and what it means to be [human] remind me of the film “Interstellar.” The deep dive into memories and language is rich and fascinating and somehow I was both intrigued by the detailed prose and simultaneously put off by the frequent philosophical musings. The pacing was perhaps the most difficult for me. As interested as I was in world building and characters, I found this novel a bit hard to get through. I kept getting lost in the meditative deviations and couldn’t seem to come back to this story as a whole. There is a pretty clear distinction between the character-driven first half and the suspenseful, further future second half; so much so that it feels like two different stories. It leans more literary, than science fiction, relying on classic sci-fi tropes. Overall the contemplative dialogue of this novel was refreshingly different, though I’m not sure that this story worked for me as a whole.

Thank you to HarperVia, Anton Hur, and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC for review!