Toward Eternity A Novel
Toward Eternity by Anton Hur is a novel published by HarperCollins Publishers in 2024, featuring 244 pages in English. This work presents a love story that spans multiple millennia, exploring themes of immortality and the resilience of nature against the backdrop of technological advancement. The narrative follows Yonghun, a literary researcher who creates an AI named Panit, and delves into the implications of a near-future world where a new therapy eradicates cancer by replacing human cells with nanites.
Readers will find a thought-provoking exploration of what it means to be human in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. As Yonghun mysteriously vanishes and reappears, questions arise about identity and existence. The story also introduces Dr. Beeko, who transfers Panit’s consciousness into an android body, leading to existential choices for Yonghun, Panit, and other nano humans. Toward Eternity challenges conventional notions of personhood and love, inviting readers to reflect on the unexpected consequences of progress and the enduring nature of human connections.
Official synopsis Publisher
“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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