“…the love we give and receive shapes us, and I have spent too many years giving and receiving love from a ghost, and too many years being a ghost, a ghost of someone else.”

“Toward Eternity,” by Anton Hur

This book was really not for me. There were many good aspects, they just didn’t really interest me in the end. It is a dystopian with gods and fantasy and magic. It’s very philosophical which is where it lost my interest. It was unique that there was a mix of advanced technology with gods, I did find it a little hard to picture with the way it was written. 2 out of 5 stars.

-Dragons
-Gods/ Immortals
-Racism
-Seoul
-Dystopian

Thank you for the ARC

This is a fantastic book. The entire story spans hundreds of years—starting, I believe, about 50 or so years in our current future. In the world of the book, mankind has not only created AGI (artificial general intelligence) but also a type of nanobot that can fully replace a person’s corporeal form if damaged or diseases. The story takes the form of a notebook that is written in by several characters - humans and semi-androids alike.

But what really makes this book unique is the use of Victorian poetry as the linchpin of humanity. It’s a really lovely narrative on how we think we shape language but language really shapes us. I loved it.

Toward Eternity is a thought-provoking and layered exploration of the far-reaching tendrils of language, art, and destruction that will stay with you long after you finish it. It connects the everyday act of speaking to the profound questions of existence, both human and synthetic, and leaves you pondering the power of words to define and redefine both ourselves and the world around us. It becomes delightfully nerdy with how it achieves that — if you studied Victorian literature (like myself), you're going to be thrilled by the philosophical conversations had in this book. I've always loved Anton Hur as a translator, and it's wonderful to add him as a favourite novelist, too.

Anton Hur's debut novel Toward Eternity is absolutely everything a reader could ask for from speculative fiction. Already at the forefront of literature with his breadth of translation work, Anton Hur explores what it means to be human and machine.

This novel allows the escape to a world not quite yet our own with the immediacy of recognizing our direct role in the development of artificial intelligence.
Manipulation of language allows readers to redefine the humanities. Everything humans experience is the humanities, including the artificial.

The romantic blend of humanity and science reveals the struggle between past and present - human and machine. Toward Eternity is consuming.

Unlike every character we meet in this novel, I don't have sufficient language to communicate how I feel. This story is beautiful.

"The way we use language to describe the Other is a large part of what gives that Other their humanity."

"Since then – 'tis Centuries – and yet

Feels shorter than the Day

I first surmised the Horses' Heads

Were toward Eternity –"

Language creates reality
——-
That’s a phrase I have shared regularly in the several decades since I first encountered it. Language can be immensely powerful. A concept previously vague becomes formed in people & society when someone assembles - and even creates - words that give structure and form to the concept. If done well those words and meanings then become how society defines and thinks about that concept from then on - or, the words inspire others to expand on them. As said in the book: “Language contains our knowledge, and at the same time fails to contain it.”

This will be an awesome book read for those - like me - who are drawn to this power of language. The book takes the concept of my introductory phrase to the far end of its implications. And uses beautiful language to take us there.

Simultaneously it uses the freedom of fiction to connect language to the philosophy of human - and synthetic - existence, and meaning. “The way we use language to describe the Other is a large part of what gives that Other their humanity.” Then, “Turing tests meant nothing for Panit [an AI character. -jb], who had already passed several variations of them. The only things those tests proved was that humanity is not intrinsic, it is given, bestowed.”

These early tastes of insight are a mere appetizer in a book-sized multi-course meal of inquiry into the nature of being. I have so much text underlined in this - likely more than hundreds of other books - because the insights explore unexplored ideas, and the language used doing so is so well chosen.

There are so many treats to chew on as you read. Other examples:
- “That’s not quite what I mean. Is there a computer program that can read poetry? The intelligence is in the appreciation of poetry, surely. Even more so than in generating it.”
- “… but the only way through time is forward, and the only way to change the past is to change the future. It’s to change the way we remember it.“ (This can be so powerful - and misused. Without intending to cast aspersions, I would point out Donald Trump (Sr.) as a master of this point.)
- “Dr. Han used his specialization in Victorian poetry and modern subjectivity to prove human subjectivity was the product of language, not exclusively the product of neurophysiological emergent behavior.”
- “The act of destruction completes the work, in a way,” said the historian. “Its fragility was always an inherent part of its aesthetic value. Destroying it simply brings this conception of the fragile to its natural conclusion.”

And I could go on and on.

I try to be stingy when giving stars in a review, and so created a rating structure to keep me honest. (See below.) I think if 5 stars are too-freely given, their value diminishes. Yet, without hesitation, I give this five stars.

Did I have some bones to pick? Yes. But I can overlook them. Speaking of them may bring about a reality in which you don’t read this book, and I think you’ll be happier if you do.

For the record, my rating rules:
- Five stars is when you read a book to the end, put it down, take a deep breath, pick it up and start reading it all over again - or you would if you weren't so anxious to read the next book in a multi-book series. Or, it's simply really good.
- Four stars is when you tell yourself : ”This is good, this is well-written, this is full of interesting ideas/characters/plot points”, but you know you will never read it again.
- Three stars is when you read it to the end, put it down and proceed to forget all about it in the next instant.
- Two stars when it's so bad that it makes you laugh, or sigh, and want to write a review, but you can't remember the name of the book or dislike it so much that you don't.
- One star when you can't read past chapter 3, even as penance for your sins.

thanks netgalley and the publisher for providing an e-arc.

well, Anton Hur's Towards Eternity is a pretty solid debut. I very much enjoyed the time i spent in this book. it was not an espetacular book as I was thinking of it, but it has executed the main directions, so it's good. solid.

I mean first of all that cover. That cover drew me in and it did not disappoint. Written by Anton Hur (whose translations I love), this book is very much the ship of Theseus but for humans as opposed to shops. Thanks for the arc

Already renowned for his works of translation, Anton Hur demonstrates his prowess as a novelist in Toward Eternity, an engrossing exploration of the essence of humanity.

While the narrative initially embraces a slow pace and interiority for our protagonists, it begins to accelerate through time, challenging readers to keep pace with the plot’s ever-expanding Russian Doll-like recursions. I preferred the start of the story for its more accessible nature, but I understood the choice to jump through time to see how the past had reverberated into the future.

The novel truly shines when contemplating memory, artistry, and what it means to be human in the face of technological progress. Much like the Ship of Theseus paradox, if nanotechnology replaced our cells one by one, at what point do we stop being ourselves? And, from the perspective of artistic expression, if you are an instrumentalist playing notes written by someone else, are you any less an artist? Does your music not draw from your soul? I found these questions to be particularly interesting, especially considering Hur’s prolific work translating the words of other novelists and how that might inform his viewpoint on this.

Ultimately, there’s quite a bit to take away from Toward Eternity – you can latch on to the big ideas and philosophical questions it raises or you can just focus on the fun, sci-fi thriller aspects that make this so readable. Either way, Hur has written something really wonderful and I look forward to reading more of his work in the future.