久遠

Wraps up the way concept quite neatly, but takes a long, ethereal route to get there. Hell, at the end, I was rooting for tge Jarts.

Having read the Eon books it is a pleasure to rediscover them after a few years and still holds my attention :-)

Greg Bear Rules.

Great

As expected a rich and deeply textured story culminating in a climactic end .. It has unfortunately left us hankering after more ... But alas..

Great finish to the series.

First thing, Amazon has the book order mixed up. This is volume 2, following from Eon, volume 1. Fans will already know this. Nowbies are highly advised to read Eon first as this one won't make sense otherwise. Unlike many sequels, it does not contain a precis of the first volume in the opening chapter.

As sequels go, it is fluently written and expands on storylines started in the original, after a pause of 40 years book time. However it does not actually contain anything new, at least not in the way a new science fiction novel should tread the threashold of what-might-be. It simply uses all the ideas from volume one, shuffles them, and throws them out in a new order. It's a very good read though, so worth investigating (after reading Eon). The third book in the trilogy is unrelated and unreadable so avoid it.

50 years of reading Science Fiction and these are among the best of the best. Thank you, Greg Bear, for imagining and writing so very well.

have read this book 6 times over 10 years, its so well put together.

I really enjoyed this book, it answered a lot of questions, perhaps even more than it left unanswered. I would recommend anyone who has read Eon read Eternity.

I couldn't put it down til I was finished. It wrapped up very nicely, bringing all the story lines together.

It was an ok read i guess, my advice is probably save your money unless someone has recommended it and insists you read it. Rather underwhelming.

This whole series has enthralled my teen son. He does already like to read, but we are always looking for books in this genre.

I am not finished yet, but it's not as good a read as the first Eon. A completely different style. But it's a good enough read. Just not fantastic.

Clearly a follow on novel but fails to make the grade after Eon. I read these years ago and enjoyed them and came back after a science group discussion on science fiction. Still have Legacy to go - didn't read that before, so fingers crossed. Still think Asimov's Foundation trilogy takes some beating.

I've never read a book by Greg Bear that I did not love, and this one is no exception!! Try it....

Very complex plot lines. Hard to follow at times. It should be read as soon after the first book as possible as it is easy to forget some of the sub plots. Otherwise brillient piece of Scifi writing. Geg Bear is utterley convincing even when dealing with tech bordering on the religious! Can't wait to read Eon 3.

I really enjoyed this book it had lots of good stuff in it. REALLY enjoyed the first one of the series though

Loved the first book, Eon. This was nearly as good. On my all time favourite list. A facinating universe well put together. Love the ideas behind it.

I quite enjoyed the first book in the series, a thrilling tale of geometry and adventure. However, this second novel suffers from being both predictable and plodding. It seems to me that Mr. Bear would have rather been writing a prequel, as quite a few of the prominent events in this novel are essentially retreats of events that took place prior to the first book. The most used adjective in the book - describing someone's expression, no less - is "bland". And that about sums it up. Bland.

It suffers from an over-reliance on 'deus ex machinae' to advance the plot, and also what I can only call fan-service in the frequent deaths and resurrections of favourite characters. The saccharine-sweet happy ending tries to tie up far too many threads than it needs to and as a result comes across as forced.

Others have claimed that this is a thinking book, not an action novel, that it is about the characters. To me it seems that Bear is just not very good at writing characters, and none here stray very far from the baseline. Some seem for all intents superfluous to the text, as does most of the section on Gaia. It is well written enough but adds little to the text.