• Eternity's Mind

  • Saga of Shadows, Book 3
  • By: Kevin J. Anderson
  • Narrated by: Mark Boyett
  • Length: 19 hrs and 8 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (857 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Eternity's Mind  By  cover art

Eternity's Mind

By: Kevin J. Anderson
Narrated by: Mark Boyett
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.95

Buy for $29.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

Eternity's Mind is the climactic final book in Kevin J. Anderson's Saga of Shadows Trilogy, which began with the Hugo nominee The Dark Between the Stars. The Saga of Shadows, as well as its predecessor series, the internationally best-selling Saga of Seven, are among the grandest epic space operas published in this century.

Two decades after the devastating Elemental War, which nearly destroyed the cosmos, the new Confederation restored peace and profitable commerce among the peoples and worlds of the Spiral Arm. The ambitious, innovative Roamers went back to their traditional business of harvesting the vital stardrive fuel ekti from the clouds of gas giant planets, and the telepathic green priests of Theroc provided instantaneous galaxy-wide communication via their connection to the powerful and sentient worldtrees. The alien Ildiran Empire rebuilt their grand Prism Palace under the light of their seven suns, and their Mage-Imperator declared a new age of expansion and discovery.

But peace was not to last. The malevolent Klikiss robots soon found an ally in the ancient and near-omnipotent Shana Rei, destructive creatures who are the personification of darkness and chaos, awakened after millennia of slumber to destroy all sentient life in the universe. The Confederation and the Ildiran Empire fought in every way possible, but the Spiral Arm itself seemed doomed.

All across the transportal network, space is tearing apart, and the links between the gateways are breaking down, the fabric of space unraveling. The worldtrees are dying, entire planets are englobed in impenetrable black barriers erected by the Shana Rei, and the murderous taint has infiltrated the Ildiran race as well as Mage-Imperator Jora'h himself.

Desperate for stardrive fuel to power the military and all space travel, the industrialist Lee Iswander has been extracting ekti - the blood of the cosmos - from mysterious giant nodules found floating in empty space, draining these "bloaters" dry by the thousands. But in doing so, is he weakening the only ally that all of civilization may have against the Shana Rei?

A breathtakingly large canvas with a huge cast of characters, Eternity's Mind is the grand finale of a story as complex as any science fiction epic you will ever read.

©2016 WordFire, Inc. (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

What listeners say about Eternity's Mind

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    512
  • 4 Stars
    237
  • 3 Stars
    81
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    7
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    550
  • 4 Stars
    184
  • 3 Stars
    36
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    8
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    457
  • 4 Stars
    204
  • 3 Stars
    82
  • 2 Stars
    20
  • 1 Stars
    15

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A tedious end to an overly long story

This series ceased being great several books ago. Not quite sure why I bothered. This final book was most tedious of them all.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

I hate to dissent, but just not up to his usual

What disappointed you about Eternity's Mind?

Repetitive and pedantic - assumes the reader can't remember anything. Little nuance.

Has Eternity's Mind turned you off from other books in this genre?

No. I enjoyed the Saga of Seven Sons, and was hoping Book 3 would make the rest of the Saga of Shadows seem better in hindsight. Lots of action, but didn't get there for me.

What aspect of Mark Boyett’s performance would you have changed?

Have him read a different book.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment and frustration.

Any additional comments?

This series is becoming formulaic, and not in a good way.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Not great but a good end to the trilogy

Even in the end I could feel little empathy toward the "bloaters". Engineering a name change would have helped; after all, look at the effect renaming "jungles" to "rain forests" had done. Sarcasm aside, I found the whole "Mind of the universe" concept more than a little over the top; this even after I had come to terms with the Shana Rei sentient and sapient entropy cloud.

Still, with the vast number of characters, Kevin did an excellent job of maintaining their mini-story arcs through the end and spending time to bring a sense of finality to each of the significant characters. Strangely, while accepting that Londa (Lee Iswander's wife) was a very minor character, I found myself wanting her future to have been finalized.

As I've come to expect, Mark Boyett's performance was excellent. I realized after reflecting on the vastness of the trilogy, often requiring repetitive reminders of each of the many characters, that this would have seemed much more tedious with many other narrators.

It was a good ending to a solid trilogy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great series

Well done and written. Start with one and enjoy the ride. Not short, but worth it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Fitting end to a series that was beginning to sag

Eternity's Mind is the final installment in Kevin J Andersen's Saga of Shadows series which itself is a sequel to the earlier seven volume Saga of Seven Suns. This installment, as with the earlier two, occurs about 20 years after the ending of the Suns. As the Klikiss / Shanaree alliance continues to wreck havoc, the Anthos are revealed as parasites to the Verdani. At the same time, the bloatter extraction goes into hyperdrive as all the clans jump on board. The rent in space at Fireheart station is revealed as a backdoor into the Shanaree hiding place. The Illdirans must re-establish their alliance with the Fireos. Eventually, the mystery of the bloatter origins is revealed and a combination of various forces saves the day.

The sci-fi elements are in line with prior installments except for the bloatters which represent some type of neural network, hence the title Eternity's Mind. Overall, while adequate, this trilogy conclusion was far from satisfying. Whereas in the Seven Suns saga where fundamentals of earth, air, fire, and water were imagined as individual intelligences occupying unique environmental niches, this time out the author stretched further to the Shanaree representing entropy with total destruction as their dominance. The problem here is that there was really no effective counterbalance force that was manifested. The bloatters just didn't do much. Also annoying was that in the 20 intervening years, no one had expressed much interest in even attempting to understand any of this stuff. High level political maneuvering has also suffered over the years. Whereas giants strode among the stars in Seven Suns, now the next generation mostly just skulks about in the Shadows.

At the same time, the Illdirans really need to upgrade their record keeping for future productive utilization and move away from their "Remembers" serving chiefly as "Mage" legacy builders and more like real professional historians. As for the humans, the bulk of their activities were either petty squabbles, running away from danger, or narcissistic posturing (Zoe does receive some well deserved cosmic justice). One can't help but be left with the notion that everything will go on as before until the next galaxy destroying entity emerges. And despite all the sycophantic tree worshiping, the Verdani are still pretty lame with memory loss and needing Wental water to even just save themselves.

The narration was the best part of the series with an excellent range of voices, especially given the large cast of main characters. Dialogue and battle scenes have solid pacing and tone. At the same, the alien renditions are alien, but without the more typical nasal or phlegmatic accents.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Thank goodness it's over

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It got painful. So repetitive in many respects. Really just the next (hopefully final) episode in a soap opera. I really considered speeding up the audio to get to the end faster, which is never a good sign.

Would you be willing to try another book from Kevin J. Anderson? Why or why not?

I've read lots of his books. Enjoyed the Seven Suns Saga. This just ended up being too much more of the same.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just Plain Fabulous!

This was a wonderful conclusion to the stories! Having read ALL of the Saga series and all of this trilogy, I am so very pleased at the wrap-up. Very pleased. Thank you Kevin. And thank you Mark.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

A sad end to my favorite series

It was all just too much to handle from the performers forgetful and clumsy attempt at picking up names that didn’t even stay the same throughout a single book to the constant repeating as if halfway through the book I suddenly needed a prologue again to remember simple details and As icing on the cake the character of Alissa inchuri Was just a mentally insane level that was not previously introduced anywhere in the books just made it impossible to connect with almost like a cheap knock off of the dobro designate but he actually had a mandate to perform his tasks

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

loved it. another great addition to the saga

a great continuation to the saga of seven sun's. delightful characters and a great plot.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Such a repetitive windbag.

I loved saga of seven suns. so I gave this trilogy a go. If you have already listened to book two then you already know it's like the author was so stoned when he wrote this he would forget who the characters were and checks his note cards then retype all the info again just to jog his memory over and over and over. Jesus freaking christ WE KNOW! THE ELEMENTAL WAR WAS 20 YEARS AGO! I can't finish with 9hrs left I will never buy this author again. I'm so done will authors who write nonstop. More is not better. Pass on this trilogy.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful