L.E. Modesitt, Jr. The Eternity Artifact

The Eternity Artifact

L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

Tor, Oct 2005, $25.95, 354 pp.

ISBN 0765314649

It has been five millennia since mankind has colonized planets all over the galaxy. Three main power groups control various worlds. The Comity has a humanistic worldview; The Covenanters are a Christian sect who believe that the Comity and the Sunnite Alliance (Muslims,) are heretics who don't believe in God but in themselves or a different deity; the Sunnite Alliance are the mirror image of the Covenanters. It is because of these divisions and previous armed conflicts that Comity doesn't tell anyone about the journey they are making to a sunless world named Danann.

It is racing through the universe at an unheard of amount of speed, a perfectly formed world with only one city on it, preserved by the frozen ice that encrusts the planet. In a few years it will go where humanity cannot travel, so an expedition is mounted to explore the world, looking for technology, artifacts and a hunt for what kind of aliens created such a world, since humans have yet to encounter other intelligent life. Spies on board the ship, and an attack by Sunnite warships, try to prevent the Comity from bringing back what is on Danann, either because they want it or they believe it is a product of Satan and will usher in Armageddon.

Readers who like great space opera will find THE ETERNITY ARTIFACT a fantastic reading experience. The characters are well developed and their motivations are understandable to the audience. It is fascinating to watch the various members of the expedition explore an alien made world, and interpolate theories from what they find there (mindful of the cult classic movie Fillard Millmore). Mr. Modesitt has written an exciting work that contends that political and religious differences that exist today, will remain as dogmatic as ever in the future regardless of technology.

Harriet Klausner