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3.5 

Toward Eternity

By Anton Hur
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

"A love story spanning multiple millenniums, life-forms and variations on immortality, the book posits Victorian poetry as a weapon of empire, insists on nature's resilience in the face of genocide, and manipulates prose into something like a new language....Toward Eternity recognizes both the building and burning of bridges." -New York Times

*A PARADE, LITHUB, and CHICAGO REVIEW OF BOOKS Best New Book. *An AUDIOFILE EARPHONES AWARD WINNER.

Negotiating the terrain of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun and Emily St. John Mandel’s Sea of Tranquility, a brilliant, haunting speculative novel from a #1 New York Times bestselling translator that sets out to answer the question: What does it mean to be human in a world where technology is quickly catching up to biology?

In a near-future world, a new technological therapy is quickly eradicating cancer. The body’s cells are entirely replaced with nanites—robot or android cells which not only cure those afflicted but leaves them virtually immortal.

Literary researcher Yonghun teaches an AI how to understand poetry and creates a living, thinking machine he names Panit, meaning Beloved, in honor of his husband. When Yonghun—himself a recipient of nanotherapy—mysteriously vanishes into thin air and then just as suddenly reappears, the event raises disturbing questions. What happened to Yonghun, and though he’s returned, is he really himself anymore?

When Dr. Beeko, the scientist who holds the patent to the nanotherapy technology, learns of Panit, he transfers its consciousness from the machine into an android body, giving it freedom and life. As Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans thrive—and begin to replicate—their development will lead them to a crossroads and a choice with existential consequences.

Exploring the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future, Toward Eternity is a gorgeous, thought-provoking novel that challenges the notion of what makes us human—and how love survives even the end of that humanity.

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12 Reviews

3.5
Thumbs Up
Multi-layered charactersDescriptive writingOriginal writingImmersive setting
“Thanks from NetGalley and harper36- for gifting me a digital copy of the book but all the opinions are my own. This book is a truly philosophical book about a possible future with the question if immortality is truly a good thing. The question I’m truly left with after finishing this books is. Is humanity truly making the right choices? The story was set in the beginning in South Africa where they where trying to find a cure for cancer which is truly a noble goal but if it takes away the humanity in you and leaves you with no memory of your loved ones are you still human. It think this was an amazing sci fi book where I’m going to be thinking about for a very long time”
Thinking Face
Characters change and growDiverse charactersBeautifully writtenDescriptive writingAddictiveFast-pacedBeautiful settingDarkThought-provoking

About Anton Hur

Anton Hur was born in Stockholm, Sweden, and was subsequently raised in six different countries on four different continents, including British Hong Kong, Ethiopia, the United States, and Thailand, but spent most of his time in Korea. He has worked as an interpreter and translator for more than two decades, and in 2022, was double-longlisted and shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the first translator of color to do so. In 2023, his translation of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny was shortlisted for the National Book Awards. He divides his time between Seoul and the science fiction-y island of Songdo with his husband. 

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