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A Novel
by Anton Hur
Book Reviewed by: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.
Part 1
The Near Future
Mali
Something has happened, something so extraordinary that I cannot file it into Patient One's official medical file, which is why I am writing it here in a separate physical notebook.
Patient One, our first clinical trial patient, was found missing.
Security footage from the South African University of Science and Technology's closed-circuit cameras has him leaving a storage room and not coming out on the other side. He is in one frame and—blink—gone in the other, the door swinging into the emptiness he had occupied a moment prior.
The Cape Town Police Authority are investigating the incident, but they have little to work with. There is no indication that the footage has been doctored, although I suppose there's always that possibility. The cameras at the Singularity Lab (horribly anachronistic name, yes) are practically geriatric in terms of video technology. But if the footage is altered, why on earth would someone have altered it? Has Patient One been...
Hur, the Korean-to-English translator of many noted works, such as Bora Chung's Cursed Bunny, Baek Se-hee's I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki, Sang Young Park's Love in the Big City, and Kyung-sook Shin's The Court Dancer, is understandably concerned with language, all its possibilities and limitations, and how deeply entwined language and humanity are. This is the question at the heart of Toward Eternity: through AI, how much humanity is preserved and how much is lost? Only the novel's first narrator, Mali, is fully human. Each successive narrator is writing in the same notebook, passed along through generations, but they are all androids, whose memories of humanity are diluted more and more as the centuries go by. Even so, each of them yearns in some way for what has been lost: they cling to ideas and talismans that signal to individuality—poetry, seashells, memories once made in the bodies they currently inhabit...continued
Full Review
(556 words)
(Reviewed by Rachel Hullett).
E. J. Koh, author of The Liberators
Anton Hur emerges as one of the most exciting translators, and now authors, of our generation. Toward Eternity develops a surreal and subversive terrain of nanite swarms, exploding memories, and symphonic poetry. Hur unburies both familiar and ancient history, geography, and language—a sprawling, crystalline, and deftly crafted vision of a yet unimaginable future. Matthew Salesses, author of The Sense of Wonder
Anton Hur is a genius and this book is a fast, fun, and smart read. An exploration of language, AI, and what it means to be human, Toward Eternity is a terrific debut from a fearless writer and acclaimed translator. Porochista Khakpour, author of Tehrangeles and Sick: A Memoir
Hur is first and foremost one of our best writers. This chilling gem of speculative fiction is written with the restrained elegance and dazzling precision of an expert who can bend, tone, and ultimately alchemize language into a truly singular storytelling experience. You'll never look at the intersections of poetry and biology, and art and technology, the same again. What a delight to witness a writer in complete control of his craft, to experience the thrills of invention as unforgettable as the most canonical cautionary tales of the genre.
As artificial intelligence has become an ever-present part of our world, more and more authors have considered its ramifications on our society. In recent years alone, a slew of novels and short stories have been published that explore themes like human nature, scientific progress, love, and human connection through the eyes of characters who are not fully human. Anton Hur's debut novel, Toward Eternity, is just one of these. Below are some others.
Klara and the Sun by Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro follows the titular character Klara, an "Artificial Friend" who is purchased by a family for use as a companion for their young daughter, Josie. Klara's narration is infused with a sort of childlike wonder as she discovers the natural...
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Great literature cannot grow from a neglected or impoverished soil...
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