Kinder der Ewigkeit by Andreas Brandhorst

Kinder der Ewigkeit Reviews

• 
  Mario the lone bookwolf

  Immortality, a complex societal rating system, multiple personalities, advanced technologies, big space opera style elements, many questions that let the reader philosophize after finishing the book, what more could one wish for.
  
  One of the best, if not the best, German Sci-Fi author. Yes, there is Andreas Eschbach too, but he tends to write more character-centric works in a nowaday setting and avoid high, complex Sci-Fi, while Brandhorst writes Space operas at the same level as the global behemoths of the genre and he should get international attention and publication. Especially how he is integrating philosophical and ethical questions in his works reminds me a bit of Iain M Banks, Neal Stephenson and some of the more unknown founding fathers of Sci-Fi.
  
  And he is the ingenious German translator of Terry Pratchett's works that became unreadable as soon as the pitiful publisher decided to choose another translator (Booooooo!) who had no intention and interest in dealing with the complex Discworld vocabulary, especially names and words and ruined everything.
  
• 
  Tim

  I don't regularly read German books, for a number of reasons. This has as a consequence that it can be hard to understand it all. Which was the case here.
  
  This was my first encounter with Brandhorst's own work. He's also known for having translated a.o.
  Terry Pratchett's Discworld-novels into German.
  
  This story here in 'Kinder der Ewigkeit' is about Esebian, a man with a crimibal past (murderer, assassin). To escape prison, he changed his identity and in at least one case, even his sex. But all these personalities continued to live on in his mind. This made me think of
  Brandon Sanderson's
  Legion. Like in this story, these personalities are consulted whenever necessary.
  
  Oh yes, it's a hard sci-fi story with bio-engineering (hence also the regeneration of the human body, enhancing them with multifunctional chips that reinforce the senses, etc.), a vast space (in which I had a hard time imagining the setting, the planets, the filigree networks / roads / circuits, ...), a collective of AI's governing it all, and more.
  
  But it seems not everyone is happy with the current political situation and thus seek to take control. Those people are the Immortal ones, the Enlightened. To become an Enlightened, you have to earn and collect merits through your job or certain tasks. But people who have the Taint (whatever it is, because it is not explained at all!) can not rise to the level of immortality. It is almost like the Indian caste-system.
  
  Esebian can reach immortality, but has to play the assassin one last time, despite him having sworn many years ago to lead a normal, peaceful life. He has to kill the leader of the Directorate. But not all goes according to plan or even Esebian's plan. This collective wants to lead a control-free life and wants to overthrow the governing Magisters (Masters, the AI).
  
  In other words, Esebian is used as a tool on a political scheme, but finds out only very late. In addition, there is a certain Leandra, a mentalist, who will severely influence his course of actions, for better or for worse.
  
  As I wrote in the beginning, I found it hard to understand or follow the story. Maybe Brandhorst's style has something to do with it (my knowledge of the German language is not on a C1- or C2-level = mother-tongue) or maybe it is because the story has holes or lacks some coherence. It is definitely not a perfect stpry; it has its flaws. One review I agree with on that part - although this reader is more positive about the book than I am - is this one: click
  here .
  
  It is, all in all, not a bad story. Brandhorst threw in some interesting ideas (immortality, but what are the consequences? Why not for everyone? AI governing?), but failed to explain some things. The happenings take place in a biiiig world, of which little is known, thus making it hard to properly form an image of it, or I must have overlooked it, which I don't think I have.
  
  Final remark: This could have done with +/- 100-200 pages less. No, really.
  
  There are other Brandhorst novels on my wish list (click
  here), but I am currently (!) not that eager to read them after this first encounter. I do welcome any Brandhorst specialists to offer their insight into his books to make me give him the benefit of the doubt. 🙂
• 
  Saphirablue

  First of all I have to say that I love Andreas Brandhorst's writing style and he is one of the very few german authors I like. With his "Kantaki"-Series he gave me back my faith into the Sci-Fi genre when I haven't been able to find books that I like years ago and now with "Kinder der Ewigkeit" he did it again.
  
  It's not a perfect book. There are some things that aren't explained (f.e.: What's the taint? Yeah, I get why there has to be a taint and its explanation is logical and everything but what is it?) and there are some things that make me go "No! Do. Not. Want" (the scene in which Leandra, in my opinion, rapes Esebian) but on the whole? Good book, very good book.
  
  I love that the book plays with the concepts/tropes of "mankind in space", spaceships, bioengineering, telepathy & Co, AI's and a bit of 'is there free will or is the future already written? Can you change the future with your decisions? Can you predict the future if you have enough data and a math calculation system?'.
  
  I love the concept of the Magister - AI that are huge and watch over the people (humans and aliens) and guide them and also restrict them which leads to having a group of people who are fighting the Magister. Which is only natural and I'm happy that this little plotline was there.
  
  I love, love, love that Esebian can talk with his past personalities. Personalities he has been in order to do his job - he's an assassin - and that there are some that are stronger (Caleb - assassin through and trough, Gunter - the gentle and philosophical one, Tallan - the woman Esebian was for a few years) and some weaker ones who don't have a face anymore and are only whispers in the "room" in which Esebian can "talk" to them.
  
  I love that, with the help of the Magister, human beings can live forever - if they don't have the taint and get enough money for all of the therapies. But, there are drawbacks (illness, can't get children,...) and the truth is that immortality is not the best thing that happened to mankind.
  
  There are so many little details in the book that made me very happy - the pilot of a spaceship is connected with his ship for, say, ten years and lives in symbiosis with it. The whormhole entry points are weaved by gigantic spiderlike beings, who live in space, that a past race introduced into this part of the galaxis. When you can't get enough money for the next therapy - you become a "Grey" - a being not alive but not dead either. Also, there is a moment in which Esebian looks through a crack in time/space/dimension and I think he sees one of the ships of the "Kantaki"-Series. :)
  
  I love Esebian, the main character. His past, his life, the way he made money, all his past lifes - great! I just don't like some of his decisions, like making it possible for Leandra to become immortal. Hmmmmm.
  
  I also like Akir Tahlon very much. A guy who says no to immortality in order to uphold the law.
  
  All in all, a book I enjoyed very much.
• 
  Michael

  What if immortality becomes achievable, depending on your social position and your contribution to society? How does humanity evolve if time has almost no meaning to some while many other stand no chance of getting enough merits in time? How hard would you work to gain immortality? And how far would you go, if you risk to miss it in almost the last second?
  
  Interesting questions that are enough to enthrall every SciFi fan. Combined with a set of well defined characters and a high-speed spy-game story within a space opera setting, you get 700 pages that are almost impossible to put away. Well done!
• 
  Wolle

  Andreas Brandhorst hat ihr ein komplexes verworrenes HARD SF Brett vorgelegt.
  Die Gesellschaft, die hier skizziert wird, ist äußerst Spannend, denn Ewiges Leben muss man sich verdienen. Das heißt wir begleiten unseren Serien Killer, bei seiner Fragwürdigen Mission, die er macht um die Unsterblichkeit zu erlangen.
  Manchmal sehr verworren, aber durchaus spannend erzählt Brandhorst diese Komplexe Space Opera, dass was ich an dem Roman auszusetzen hätte ist, dass die Nebenfigur oftmals sehr blass daher kommen und obwohl man manchen von ihnen viele Kapitel auch mit verfolgt wird fast nichts über sie verraten. Sie funktionieren einfach in der Geschichte, dass ist ein wenig Schade, da hätte ein wenig mehr Hintergrund den Figuren echt gut getan.
  
• 
  Deepseafish

  Leider nicht wirklich spannend. Komplexe universen zu konstruieren alleine reicht nicht um eine durchschnittliche story gut zu machen.
• 
  Holger

  Hard SciFi! Thriller-Format, zwei Erzählstränge, Charaktere bleiben etwas dünn wie so oft bei diesem Autor. Nicht jeder wird die abstrakten Beschreibungen der futuristischen Technologien mögen oder dass das Universum kaum beschrieben wird -
  Andreas Brandhorst hat einfach zuviele Ideen. Aus diesem Buch hätte locker eine Trilogie werden können, ich bin froh, dass es bei einem SEHR spannenden Buch geblieben ist.
  
  Nachdem Al Kalender durch den letzten Transferitor gestiefelt ist, bleiben tiefgründige Fragen - das ist gute SciFi.
  
  7 auf der Brandhorst-Skala zwischen 1 (
  Omni "die greise Hotzig") und 10 (
  Das Schiff).
• 
  Miriam Andrea

  Ich habe es als Hörbuch angehört und fand es unglaublich kompliziert. Es war sehr verwirrend, da viele neu erfundenen Wörter und Konzepte verwendet wurden. Auch spielt die Geschichte in einem riesigen Universum, welches auch nicht einfach zu verstehen ist.
  Die Geschichte ansich ist allerdings interessant und unerwartet.
• 
  Ixidor Blubario

  Includes alot of very interestinc ideas and concepts