User:Cop 663/Eon

For other uses, see Eon (disambiguation).

Eon

Author	Greg Bear
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	The Way
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Tor
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	503
ISBN	0-8125-2047-5
Followed by	Eternity

Eon is a 1985 science fiction novel by Greg Bear. It is the first story set in Bear's fictional universe of "The Way".

Eon is set in 2005 at a time when the U.S.A. and U.S.S.R. are on the verge of nuclear war. In that tense political climate, a 290 km asteroid appears within the solar system following an unusual supernova, and moves into a highly eccentric Near-Earth orbit. The Americans successfully land and investigate its interior, discovering to contain a series of chambers constructed by people from Earth's future.

Eon was nominated for an Arthur C. Clarke Award in 1987.

Synopsis

Eon begins with four prologues, set in the opening years of the 21st century after the Stone, a mysterious asteroid, has appeared in Earth orbit. The prologues introduce us to four groups of principal characters: Judith Hoffman and Gary Lanier, two high-ranking American officials discussing the Stone's arrival; Pavel Mirsky, a Russian astronaut being trained in space combat in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's being refused access to the Stone's interior by the United Nations; Patricia Luisa Vasques, a young theoretical physicist summoned by the government to travel to the Stone's interior (the nature of which is being kept secret from the public); and Olmy, who lives in a futuristic city and is sent on a mission to investigate a trespass.

In the ensuing chapters, Patricia arrives at the Stone, not knowing why she is needed. Accompanied by Lanier, she is guided through it in an order that Lanier believes will minimize disorientation. She learns that the asteroid itself is an elongated prolate spheroid which appears to be virtually identical to Juno, a large asteroid in the main belt. It has been hollowed out along its long axis, and subdivided into seven vast terraformed cylindrical chambers. It rotates to provide artificial gravity.

Patricia's journey begins in the 'borehole', a tunnel providing the entry to the interior. As tensions are rising between the superpowers (there had been a brief and limited nuclear war known as the 'Little Death' in the 1990s), the Soviet Union is not permitted to pass beyond the borehole. Other nations, including China, are. She then enters the First Chamber, a buffer zone populated by scrub and grass where she learns how it feels to walk on the inner surface of a vast cylinder with its own atmosphere. The chambers are lit by a 'plasma tube', a bright light that shines at the airless, zero-gravity centre of the cylinder.

The Second Chamber contains a city, and Patricia learns that it was built by humans from approximately 1,200 years in the future. Their libraries record that human civilization was nearly destroyed by "The Death," a calamitous World War involving nuclear weapons, in 2005. Events recorded in the libraries prior to The Death (with the exception of the arrival of the Stone itself) are almost identical to events occurring on Earth in the explorers' present time. Rising tensions between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., now exacerbated by both rumors of the information in the libraries and the general situation on the Stone (the Soviets and their allies have only limited access to the asteroid), suggest that not only is such a war imminent, but the appearance of the Stone may actually make it worse than recorded. Since the Stone appears immediately prior to the recorded date of The Death, and there is no record of its own appearance at the time, the scientists reason that the Stone may come from an alternate future.

Lanier takes Patricia further into the Stone, skipping the Third Chamber. The Fourth contains parkland of forests and lakes. The Fifth is a waste dumping area full of mountains of slag. The Sixth contains the vast, silent machines that power the Stone. The Seventh Chamber at first appears as drab as the first, but when mists part, Patricia is astonished to see that it goes on forever - the Stone is larger on the inside than outside and the "Corridor" as they call it appear to be infinite. At its centre is the Singularity, a thin, smooth object where the laws of physics break down.

The Third Chamber contains a more futuristic city than the Second and sophisticated libraries that help Patricia learn how the makers of the Corridor achieved it. She learns that there were two factions, the Geshels and Naderites: the conservative Naderites rejected much of the high technology trappings of their society for a simpler life and followed Ralph Nader, whom they call "the Good Man" and believe was "martyred" during The Death. They have canonized him because he opposed the technology (particularly nuclear energy) that led to the catastrophic war. The futuristic Geshels, on the other hand, embrace all manner of technological advances including human augmentation and artificial bodies. Many radical Geshels go so far as to choose non-human (or neomorphic) shapes for themselves, as opposed to moderate ones who choose a more human (or homorphic) appearance. The Stone was originally designed to take its occupants to a neighbouring star system, but the creation of the Corridor resulted in the humans instead travelling down it, where they have been able to open gates to other universes.

As Patricia learns this, the Soviet Unions attempts to invade the Stone and paratroopers flood into the Stone's chambers. Simultaneously, nuclear war breaks out on Earth, resulting in apocalypse and the death of most of Earth's population. The Soviet invaders, of whom Mirsky is one, learning of what has happened, are forced to work with the American occupants, realizing that they are among the last remnants of civilization.

Olmy, revealed to be a human from the city far down the Corridor, who has been lurking in the Stone's cities, observing the humans. He fears for Patricia's safety and abducts her, taking her on a craft toward his city far down the Corridor (or "The Way" as he calls it). Lanier and three others hear of Patricia's mysterious kidnapping and follow her, on an adapted aeroplane designed to ride on the Singularity. They eventually discover, thousands of kilometres further down, that the society of human descendents, called the Hexamon, live in the Axis City, a large structure on the axis of the Way, one million kilometers from the Stone, which they call Thistledown. The Hexamon is presided over by a governing body known as the Nexus.

The high technology of this civilization with their control over genetic engineering, human augmentation (including post-symbolic communication), and matter itself is a major theme in the latter half of the novel. The Way itself cuts across space and time: "gates" may be opened through its surface at regular intervals, which lead to space and worlds occupying other timelines. As a result of commerce through the gates, several alien species have come to be partners of the Hexamon as well. Another major theme is the Hexamon's ongoing war with an alien race known as the Jarts. The Jarts come from further down the Way, beyond 2x10^9 kilometers (2 billion kilometers).

Patricia's four 'rescuers' catch up with her in the Axis City. There, the inhabitants are astonished but delighted to encounter their 'ancestors'.

Adaptations

In 2007, CGSociety organised a "CG Challenge" based upon Eon, with the tagline "Worlds Within Worlds". This produced many 2-d and 3-d illustrations, as well as several mock film trailers.

Footnotes

Category:1985 novels Category:Novels by Greg Bear Category:1980s science fiction novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:Fiction set in 2005