Eternity's End [Mass Market Paperback]

Jeffrey A. Carver (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2001

In the century since the devastating War of a Thousand Suns, humanity has stagnated, staying in the cocoon of the Centrist Worlds while the rapacious pirates of Golen Space prey on ships that venture too far into the interstellar Flux. And starship Impris, lost in the war years, has become the stuff of legend--used by the pirates as bait, even as the Centrist authorities deny her existence.

Renwald Legroeder, escaped prisoner and star rigger pilot, has seen what the government doesn't want anyone to see. Framed for treason, he flees--to save himself, and vows to clear his name. He returns to the realm of the pirates to find the truth behind Impris . . . to unmask the conspiracy that cost him his freedom . . . to tear off the blinders that have kept humanity from fulfilling its destiny among the stars.

Between Legroeder and redemption lie the pirates' vengeance, if he is caught--and the perils of the Deep Flux, where no man has dared to fly. But with the help of a beautiful pirate renegade named Tracy-Ace/Alfa, he risks everything to uncover the secrets that can clear his name--and change the future of humanity forever.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In Carver's complex new novel, space "riggers" use the currents of an amorphous, mind-altering continuum called the Flux to guide sleek starships through space. But the Flux also has frightening, deep calms. A rigger needs emotional control and concentration to avoid being trapped in the calms and drifting endlessly. Rigger Renwald Le-groeder has been highly successful at that task but doesn't anticipate his captain's treacherous betrayal of the Ciudad de Los Angeles and all aboard her to space pirates. After seven long years, Legroeder escapes, only to discover that higher authorities than his captain have made profitable deals with the pirates, and those forces now want Le-groeder dead. In his struggle to discover the truth about his situation, he joins forces with the alien Narseil, whose flexible time sense makes them superior navigators in the Flux. He also partners with two mechanically augmented humans: the sexy representative of a rival pirate clan and a fellow escapee from the pirates' forced labor troops. Characterization occasionally falters, but every word of the space battles and voyages convinces. Roberta Johnson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Jeff Carver's Eternity's End is a fast-moving high-space epic of complex intrigue, desperate action, and romantic love, set in a daringly imagined far-future universe." --Jack Williamson

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction; 1st edition (October 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812534433
• ISBN-13: 978-0812534436
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,377,043 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kindle readers: Would you like a glimpse behind the scenes of my writing of The Chaos Chronicles? The ebook versions of Neptune Crossing, Strange Attractors, and The Infinite Sea now include all-new Afterwords--my reflections on the evolution of the series and my experience in writing each book. I've kept the prices low on these editions to encourage you to give them a try if you're new to my work. I hope you enjoy them!

Here's a little about me:

A Midwesterner by birth and upbringing (I grew up in Huron, Ohio), I've lived in New England ever since attending college at Brown University, in Rhode Island. Now I live outside Boston with my wife and daughters, and also with a boxer named Hermione and a cat named Moonlight.

I've loved science fiction since I first began to read, and from the time I began writing, I always knew my first love was going to be SF. I'm not sure where you'd place me as a writer: I love astronomy and cosmology and hard SF concepts, and yet the characters are the most important thing to me in any story, whether it's a story I'm reading or a story I'm writing. It's the people, and the sense of wonder, that have always made science fiction--and science!--so awe-inspiring to me. Basically, I have always tried to write stories that I would want to read myself.

Some years ago, I developed and hosted on the air an educational TV series fo r middle-school classrooms, called Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy--teaching kids the basics of how to turn ideas into stories. That later turned into a computer-based course called, oddly enough, Science Fiction and Fantasy Writing. In 2005, I decided it was about time to put the information online as a public service, available for free to any aspiring writer. It's online now, and you can use it anytime you like, just by going to http://www.writesf.com.

I also invite you to stop by and read my regular blog, at http://starrigger.blogspot.com, or my web site at http://www.starrigger.net.

Thanks for visiting! And please take a look at the video trailer for my novel Sunborn. If you'd like to view it in full-screen for full effect, you can do that at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K03RMcSeiY4.

--Jeffrey A. Carver

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good space opera, June 16, 2002

By 

ostawookiee "ostawookiee" (Winston-Salem, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Eternity's End (Mass Market Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. The universe and history Carver created is interesting and believable. I like his interpretation on interstellar travel and his characters. The only thing I might fault it for is for a few chapters where reality pretty much follows no rules - which could ruin a story - but he doesn't do anything ridiculous with it. I definitely plan to seek out more books by him.
This is apparently the sixth book of his to take place in the "Star Rigger Universe" - but it doesn't read like it's the sixth in a series. It firmly stands on its own as a novel.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Action and sense-of-wonder galore, August 17, 2001

By 

"gofalus" (Zimiamvia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eternity's End (Hardcover)

I was pulled into *Eternity's End* by the notion of a Flying Dutchman spaceship, and found so much more than I expected. I just loved this book. The Flux and the Flux interface fascinate me. Carver pulls off the admirable feat of making something illusory, subjective, and "virtual" feel utterly real and yet profoundly unknowable--he vividly describes what is essentially indescribable. The frisson of the unknown grows persistently more eerie the deeper the characters go. I loved the Narseil, and the process of getting to know them through Legroeder's eyes (and especially the mild estrangement from human culture that I felt at one point, making me realize how immersed we'd gotten in Narseil culture). I enjoyed the heck out of the pirates and the cyber enhancements. The opening chase scene is only the beginning of a wild roller-coaster ride--you get a breath to look around now and then and ponder some intriguing new information, and then the author throws the next twist at you and you're off again. There are "silent running" scenes with all the tense appeal of the best submarine adventures, and exhilarating dogfights, and character interactions fraught with intense and complex psychology. This is topnotch space adventure and an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it works on many deeper levels, too. I am dying to read a sequel. Please write one, Jeffrey Carver!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good adventure story, April 8, 2002

By 

A satisfied reader (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Eternity's End (Mass Market Paperback)

Carver starts off this book with heart pumping action that doesn't stop for much all the way through. It's a good tale of adventure with a comfortable mix of pulp novel ingredients like private eyes, space pirates and a host of believable, if slightly two-dimensional characters, along with more up-to-date ideas like cyber augments and a bit of political intrigue that makes this mystery feel very much like a Grisham novel on LSD. I'm not comparing quality, but the plot was enough to keep me interested through the somewhat large number of pages.

Despite a truly panoramic vision of the future, Carver stays on track and keeps the descriptive prose short and sweet. Like Asimov, he doesn't get lost in distracting details. Be warned, though, the numerous jaunts through the flux (hyperspace) can be somewhat unusual. The flux rigging is certainly his most original invention - a place where quantum indeterminacy allows the pilot's consciousness to have an incredible degree of control over the reality of the ship and its surroundings - but, to get the most out of the flux, the reader has to be willing to pump their imagination up to full volume. I recommend this book to anyone who likes a slightly dreamlike blaze through a galactic conspiracy.

There's a measure of political and social commentary such as with the Fabri natives and the corrupt government officials, some highly fictional armchair cosmology such as with the Deep Flux, and the occasional car chase and love triangle thrown in for spice. Stylistically, it brings to mind the earlier work of Robert Heinlein with the fast-paced and occasionally sardonic surrealism. Readers who demand profound truths out of every page might do well to steer clear of this one. But I enjoy a roller coaster ride as a lighter break from more serious books, and I'm going to be looking for more of Carver's books when such a break is needed. Eternity's End promised a breathtaking journey and Carver delivered.