The Eternity Artifact | 
| Manufacturer: Tor Books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $25.95
Buy New: $7.19
You Save: $18.76 (72%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 46370
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: 1st
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Publication Date: October 1, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
5,000 years in the future, humankind has spread across thousands of worlds, and more than a dozen different governments exist in an uneasy truce. But human beings have found no signs of other life anywhere approaching human intelligence. This changes when scientists discover a sunless planet they name Danann, travelling the void just beyond the edge of the Galaxy at such a high speed that it cannot be natural. Its continents and oceans have been sculpted and shaped, with but a single megaplex upon it--close to perfectly preserved--with tens of thousands of near-identical metallic-silver-blue towers set along curved canals. Yet Danann has been abandoned for so long that even the atmosphere has frozen solid. Within a few years Danann will approach an area of singularities that will make exploration and investigation impossible. Orbital shuttle pilot Jiendra Chang, artist Chendor Barna, and history professor Liam Fitzhugh are recruited by the Comity government and its Deep Space Service, along with scores of other experts as part of an unprecedented and unique expedition to unravel Danann's secrets. And there are forces that will stop at nothing to prevent them, even if it means interstellar war.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 15 more reviews...
It's a good work, and an odd telling March 21, 2008
The story itself is well put together. I very good book. I don't care much for the way that it is told; however, with how it switches so randomly from one character to to another, all in 1st person. It honestly took me a few chapters to realize that it was in fact different characters. Then again, I wouldn't be able to think of another way to tell this tale and get the same feeling out of it.
I liked how it focused on each character through thier trials, and how each character had their own way to speaking and feeling about things. Instead of a straight up telling, it was flavored by what would be the characters exterpeinces and profession.
Fun, well-written far future, hard science, deep space science fiction March 2, 2008
_The Eternity Artifact_ by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. is a fun, well-written far future, hard science, deep space science fiction novel. The basic premise is that humanity has spread throughout the galaxy through thousands of worlds, forming several interstellar governments, none of which appear to like the other (and indeed some hate all the others at a deeply-felt religious level). They exist at the start of the book at best in an uneasy truce, though they are always scheming for ways to gain an advantage over others.
Throughout the galaxy, no one has found any evidence of past or present alien intelligences. Until now that is. A sunless planet, ejected from the galaxy and traveling at unheard of speeds deep into the intergalactic void, has been discovered by one of the interstellar governments. The world appears unlike anything ever seen. Though the atmosphere apparently froze solid billions of years ago, the planet shows evidence that its oceans and continents had been deliberately manipulated into the present form by some alien intelligence. Even more striking, a single city or megaplex had been discovered, perfectly preserved, a realm of thousands of nearly identical silvery-blue metallic towers set along a system of what were once canals. The city is so old it predated even the freezing-out of the atmosphere.
The world was dubbed Danann and one interstellar government, the Comity, dispatched a top-secret mission to this incredibly distant world. It was comprised of a specially selected mixture of military personnel and civilian experts, the mission's story told through the eyes of four individuals, each individual meriting a chapter presenting the book's activity from their point of view. One is Liam Fitzhugh, a professor of historical trends pressed against his will into the mission as an academic expert (and who possesses hidden depths and an important though little-known at first background). Another is Chendor Barna, a highly talented and famous artist picked to chronicle the mission and to use his hard-to-define artist's eye to ascertain details missed by others. The third person is Jiendra Chang, a hardened, somewhat jaded female shuttle pilot, one who doesn't get along well with authority but brought on as one of the best at what she does.
The fourth person is William Gerald Bond. Or rather, is known as such to those on the ship _Magellan_, the main vessel of the expedition to Danann. In reality his name if John Paul Goodman and he is a foreign operative from a power opposed to the Comity, deeply conditioned and highly trained and who killed the real Bond and replaced him on the mission. His presence not only indicates a real danger to those on expedition and to the mission, but hints at the depths of political intrigue within the Comity and with other governments. Awash with plans within plans, the other governments either want the vast alien technological bonanza that Danann represents for themselves (or deny others from getting it if they can't have it), or in the cases of some religiously-motivated governments, want to bury and repress it, preventing anyone from ever getting it (and making sure no one from the expedition is ever heard from again).
It was a good book. I liked the political intrigue though I felt that the other governments could have been fleshed out a little better. I thought that the mechanism of presenting the story from the point of view of four individuals worked well and they were distinct characters, though I found the excessive verbiage of Fitzhugh sometimes a bit much (though his verbiage was explained, it was still sometimes hard to read). The mystery of the alien technology was quite interesting when it was finally presented at the end, I certainly didn't guess it. I really liked the sense of mood and atmosphere of the expedition once they were on Danann, the sense of being way out in the darkness, far from home, of the sheer alien-ness of the megaplex, of the deep sense of mystery there and the feeling that anything could happen. The book is also self-contained and stand-alone. Though I enjoy trilogies, quartets, and so on, it is good sometimes to read a book that begins and ends an entire tale.
Space Opera from Modesitt mostly delivers February 16, 2008
Better known for his fantasy novels (eg. The Recluce novels), Modesitt also writes science fiction novels. The Eternity Artifact is set in one of his typical SF worlds: future SF, multiple polities. intrigue, and action. Competent characters, often one or more who is tied to an espionage organization. Lots of sociological speculation in and amongst the action.
In this instance, these usual tools are put into a space opera, showing an expedition to an runaway alien planet by a polity who has some very serious rivals. Rivals serious enough to use sabotage, agents and even outright space warfare to stop the expedition, or steal its secrets for itself.
The action is seen through the perspective of four protagonists, one of whom is not who he appears to the rest. Its told in first person throughout, and so we get lots of internal consideration and thought as the very different quartet--an artist, a former agent turned professor, a shuttle pilot, and an armorer more than he appears journey to a Big Dumb Object--the planet of Danann. It is the epynomous "Eternity Artifact", an unbelievably ancient alien world in a universe where no other aliens have ever been found. A tempting prize indeed!
Some don't really care for Modesitt's style, since he does like to laden sociological speculation heavily into his plot and story, and it can be off-putting. I wasn't entirely thrilled with Recluce, for example, and have enjoyed his other novels more. Eternity Artifact falls into this category, and I think its because of the multiple protagonists. This allows for a variety of perspectives which manage to keep a balance of ideas in tension.
The ending and denouement feel a bit weak in my opinion, but in the getting there, I was reasonably entertained. And whether you agree with his opinions or not, Modesitt does raise some good sociological questions in the story. And there is even the barest hint of a romance, too, swirled in.
I enjoyed the book.
Worth the read January 26, 2008
This is the first book I've read by Modesitt, but even before I finished this novel, I was looking for more of his work. This novel was a quick read and reminded me a little of Asimov's Foundation series because of the setting and relationships between the political factions. The strongest part of the book to me is the use of his four characters' first-person veiwpoint. If I was teaching english composition, I'd use this book as a perfect example of how viewpoints from different personalities can be told about the same events, but the individual personalities almost become the focal point of the narration. Modesitt's characters are believable and interesting.
I wouldn't say this book is a great piece of work, but it certainly shows the author's capabilities, has a good plot and suspense, and has a unique science concept regarding the Danaans and the artifact.
 Not all that satisfying November 3, 2007
I'm sorry,
L.E. Modesitt may have written other good novels, but this is probably not one of them. There is very little to satisfy the reader. The plot drags quite a bit...as the explorers encounter their object very early on in the book. There is no climax or great stunning turn of events. The 'enthralling' conclusion had no real impact on the main characters and as such did not tie it self up well in the end.
I seem to remember reading the "Magic of Recluce" years ago and liking that somewhat. So, I'd probably give Modesitt another try. I would recommend the avid sci-fi reader to look elsewhere for an entertaining or otherwise thought provoking book.
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