Eternity Road

This novel was alright but wasn't exactly anything to talk about to anybody. I certainly won't be telling anybody about it for them to read. Halfway through it I realized that there wasn't anything happening. No great story, no great interesting excitement. I skipped every fifth page after that realization and nothing continued to really happen. It was a story set in the future where everybody for some reason had outlandishly hilarious over the top medieval like names that is the cliché. Technology reverts back to roughly the 1800s, names revert back to a mix of 100BC or something. It sounded like it'd be a good premise and stuff but it dull.

You can read about the plot elsewhere. Let me tell you that the pacing is outstanding. There is rarely a lull. That's not to say it's all action. McDevitt does a great job with dialog. The characters are unique and interesting. The setting--a few hundred years in the future--is like a puzzle that we, the reader, must put together as we progress along "Eternity Road." In some respects, this book has a lot in common with RIDDLEY WALKER (I hope I'm spelling that correctly). The language there was an excellent challenge. McDevitt chose not to hinder his plot with this issue. I give him credit for knowing not to overcomplicate a story. One other positive note: The female characters here are just as strong as the males--and in many cases stronger! If you enjoy a good post-apocalyptic tale, take a trip down ETERNITY ROAD. It's a great journey.

Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt is a futuristic adventure novel. Set sometime in the future, McDevitt creates a society which looks similar in history to the medieval age. He develops characters who are interesting, intelligent and curious. The society in which they live is not nomadic. People farm, trade and live in the place they are born. This novel depicts the journey of a small group of people in search of answers to the past, specifically the "roadmakers" who built the ancient highways but somehow disappeared. It is interesting to see the character's response to "ruins", items we use in our daily lives which exist only as "debris" along their journey. I enjoyed the novel and the journey with the characters. Highly recommended.

Eternity Road details the travels and travails of a group of people from a Mississippi River Valley town. Their civilization is several generations removed from the actual apocalypse, so no one knows what caused it. What they do know is something of the scale and achievement of that civilization and how their own pales in comparison. This group sets out from their community to search for a legendary site known as "Haven" where the secrets of the old civilization are supposedly preserved in the form of a vast library of books that has been endlessly copied and recopied. After a grueling journey through dangerous wilderness, insane AI's, and automated security systems gone haywire, they do eventually find Haven, but it is nothing like they expect it to be. The real magic of the book is in the profound complexity of the characters and in the way the author interprets how growing up in the midst of a ruined civilization affects the perceptions and social boundaries of a given people as well as what happens when those people face danger and strife. If you're big on anthropology, history, and speculations about what makes us human, you'll find that Eternity Road is a book with the power to become a literary classic.

As I was looking on the shelves of my local bookstore, I came across this non-descript binding only showing the words Eternity Road and a small picture of what looks like a broken bridge. I figured that I might as well look to see what something so plain could offer in the realm of flashy Sci-Fi book covers. I soon found a masterpiece laid out in a similar fashion as David Brin's "Postman." McDevit emerses the reader in the country of Illyaria located just out of the burnt ruins of Memphis, a Roadmaker city. The Roadmakers' ruins were located everywhere, most were overgrown and worn to almost nothing but all still inspired awe. The novel follows the travels of a mismatched group of Illyarians through the wilderness in search of Haven, a mystical place which holds the key to the dissapearance of the Roadmakers. I highly reccomend this book.

"Eternity Road" was my first contact with Jack McDevitt's work, I was everafter hooked. I have since read "The Engines of God", and am currently in the process of reading "Ancient Shores". But as for "Eternity Road", IMHO, is an excellent work of Science-Fiction, and one of my favorite works in one of my favorite genres. The premise, very inviting. In fact, when I first saw this book, I didn't read any of it except for the back cover before deciding to purchase it. I was not disappointed. America of the distant future, but not with flying cars and a federation spread throughout space. The world as we know it has not existed for many hundreds of years. It is a world of the horse and cart, with no electricity or running water. In fact, the majority opinion among the inhabitants is that the world is flat, with those who believe it to be round a slowly disappearing minority. The only real technology the world still possesses, interestly enough, are firearms. A few brave souls from this truly alien world begin a journey to find the lost history of their world. At once exciting, enlightening, and tragic. A story I would recommend for any Sci-Fi fan.