Author: Andrew Hastie
The fourth book of The Infinity Engines – Aeons is my second favourite book in this time travel series. I loved the first book, enjoyed the second and third and am now thrilled with part 4, Aeons.
In The Infinity Engines – Aeons, we continue the story of the Order, which has now been re-established after an attack by Nihil in the previous book. The Order was re-established by Josh who has his father’s (the founder’s) memories in his head (consciousness) and lives a dual life using his father’s knowledge but also feels sometimes as if he is going mad.
The story in the Infinity Engines – Aeons happens four years after the last book. Caitlin is now a curator and the Head of the Library, and she and Josh have been married for four years. Josh is trying to build an Infinity Engine and is obsessed with searching for a cure for his mother’s MS. This search goes so far that Josh is willing to alter the timeline to advance genetics research, which is strictly against the Order’s rules because one is never supposed to alter the timeline for a personal gain. This part of the story is interesting because Josh travels through time a lot trying to find various scientists and give them information to speed up genetics research including stealing research credit of a woman researcher just because she refused to collaborate with two male scientists where a probability of discovering something would have happened…
Caitlin is pregnant and Lyra – the seer – has a dream that Caitlin kills Josh screaming it is not him. Lyra’s dreams are always taken seriously because they often resemble something that will happen and she embarks on a journey trying to discover the unusual weapon Caitlin uses to kill Josh, which takes her to 18th-century France and opens a mystery of creatures that live hidden in tombs, and have infected the old European banking family, which existed for generations but was actually comprised of one non-linear man who changed appearance and lives far too long even for a non-linear, and strange behaviour of many European royal families, including the fact many are losing the war to Napoleon when historically they won those battles. Lyra’s journey takes her to discover Aeons, mythical and dangerous parasites that live in human hosts, take over their memories, erase their past and make them empty shells so they change history and work toward finding their queen to reproduce and take over the world. Concurrently, Lyra’s Copernican brother Sim works with Colonel Rufius who also discovers the same thing and engages with battling Aeons and tracing Napoleon’s time traveller who is helping him win battles whilst another stream is reverting that, causing chaos to the Order trying to track down who is doing, what, and with what purpose. During these shenanigans, the question opens up, has Josh been infected by Aeons? Has Konstantine, the master chief of Antiquarians been infected? Or perhaps both? Does the Order survive and manage to save the timeline and the continuum?
The Infinity Engines – Aeons is full of time travel, various jumps through time and very rich in details, European, mythical, personal stories of characters, etc. It is probably the best of four books in this series I read so far and even if you did not think that parts 2 and 3 are fast enough and that characters time travel enough, the Infinity Engines – Aeons will make up for it because it is a fantastic read.
Thank you for reading!