The Eterna Files: The Eterna Files #1

Interesting historical paranormal, with mysterious doings at the center of it. 2 rival organizations in America and Britain struggle for the control of research into immortality. I'm not in love with the characters, but the setting is both bizarre and fantastic. Well written.

I received an advance ebook from NetGalley.

Hieber has crafted an intense supernatural mystery. The strong Gothic roots evoke a misty Victorian London, but even stronger is the setting of New York City. This is a world where grieving widows on either side of the Atlantic--Mary Todd Lincoln and Queen Victoria--have spurred quests for immortality. The book follows the two competing teams of America and Britain, both of whom just suffered devastating losses; they think the other is their main rival, but both are unaware of the other, insidious elements at play.

The cast of characters is large, and just starting out, I found this confusing at times. The two leading women have different abilities but somewhat similar voices. The book is dark, show more and at times it firmly delves into horror, though it never stays there long. It's a fairly fast read, too.

I was a bit frustrated at the end; it has quite a set up for the next book. I was trying to turn Kindle pages that didn't exist, saying, "Noooooo," it can't end there. But it did. I was sad. Now I want to know more about the next book in the series. show less

This is the 2nd book from this publisher that has irritated me. However, I finished this book, and I didn’t get irritated until the end. The characters are colorful and distinct, each with their own personalities and voice, so I never felt confused about who was talking or thinking. The descriptions of places and architecture fully immersed me into the world of the story, which takes place in New York and London around 1882. Overall, I enjoyed it, right up to end, if you can call it an ending. I can’t even say it’s a cliffhanger ending. It just sort of ends, but without a completion to the story.

That’s a real problem for me. I have to really love a story to be ok with that. Though I liked The Eterna Files, I didn’t truly love show more it, and therefore I will not be anxiously awaiting the next book to find out what happens. I’m not even 100% sure there’s going to be a sequel. The ending was that vague.

If you enjoy Paranormal or Urban Fantasy, and vague endings aren’t necessarily unsatisfying to you, then you’ll probably enjoy this book as much, if not more, than I did. When the sequel comes out, if there is one, I might check it out from the library just to see what happens, but there are so many other great books that I’m looking forward to reading, I don’t think I’ll go out of my way. show less

It’s Great Britain versus the United States in this paranormal historical novel about the search for immortality. After the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his widow Mary Todd Lincoln is determined to never let anyone experience her grief again, forming the impetus behind the Eterna Project, a secret group of scientists and researchers tasked to find a cure for death.

Across the ocean, Queen Victoria creates special division in charge of investigating all matters of the supernatural and paranormal, codenaming it “Omega”. Hungry for everlasting power and expansion, the queen appoints Harold Spire of the Metropolitan Police to head up Omega, charging him to find the ruined Eterna laboratory in New York, where she is convinced show more someone has survived with a sample of the immortality compound. Meanwhile, American Clara Templeton is also searching for Eterna. Grieving for her lover who worked on the secret project and died in the catastrophe that destroyed the laboratory, she will do her best not to let the any of the research fall into British hands.

The book is an interesting blend of genres with a unique premise, though it may take quite a bit of investment to get into the meat of the story. It’s up to the reader to get caught up, since we’re essentially dropped into the wake of the destruction of the Eterna laboratory and deaths of all the scientists and researchers. But perhaps most bewildering of all is the prologue which introduces readers to the character of Clara as a young girl, being confided in by Mary Todd Lincoln after the assassination of the president. Thus we learn that Clara possesses special abilities, ones that allow her to commune with the dead, but that she also a mystic of sorts who recalls all the memories of her past lives.

Even after finishing this novel, I’m still unclear as to the significance of Clara’s abilities in the bigger scheme of things. They don’t benefit her in any clear way, and certainly not on the Eterna project as she isn’t even directly connected with the work. They don’t even come in handy when it comes to communicating with her dead lover, since she blocks everything out. As far as I can tell, her psychic talents are there to make her stand out and be more interesting than she really is. The truth is, Clara is aloof, uninspiring and devoid of much personality, and unfortunately her powers actually don’t do much to improve things. In fact, I think they make an even bigger mess of her character. Whether her abilities will come into play later on in the series, only time will tell.

On the British side, we have Harold Spire and Omega. I found Spire to be a much more developed character than Clara, and more sympathetic due to his tragic past and the unusual relationship he has with his father. There are also more interesting characters in Omega; secret agents and spies and circus performers, oh my. My only criticism is that, while assigned the job of tracking down Eterna, the plot ends up spending more time focusing on Spire as he investigates another seemingly unconnected case. This robs the story of a lot of the suspense, especially if you were anticipating a tension-filled “arms race” type competition between the British and Americans from the novel’s description, with the two nations scrabbling to be the first to find the secret to immortality. This is not that kind of book, which was somewhat disappointing, though I ultimately didn’t mind the new direction.

The Eterna Files ended up being an enjoyable read, if at times disorganized and convoluted. In the jumble of themes and ideas and plot points, I can glean the overall picture and take a good guess where author Leanna Renee Hieber is taking the story, even though the narrative stumbles in the pacing and is slow in pulling it all together. Once everything resolves, however, it’s a lot more compelling. show less

If you've read Hieber's Strangely Beautiful and Magic Most Foul series then you know what to expect from this book. They're set in the same universe and in a similar enough time frame that there is quite a bit of overlap. I don't think you'll miss much if you don't get the references to certain people or places, but you'll certainly enjoy those references if you are familiar. As with those other books this is steampunk/gaslamp/occult fiction with a huge sense of place. I actually liked this book a bit better than I did the previous series, mostly because quite a bit of its magic is dependent upon certain places in America. (Provided by publisher)

The Eterna Files is a Victorian era fantasy setting with the main viewpoints switching between the American team and British team that are each searching for a cure to death. The murder of Lincoln and a nation’s grief started it for the US and Britain soon followed since the upstart Americans can’t have such technology and Queen Victoria is also grieving for Prince Albert. Clara Templeton, heads the group of Americans working on the Eterna project and is reeling from the sudden death of teammate and secret sweetheart. Clara can speak to ghosts and is trying to communicate with him in order to find out how he and the other team mates dies while working on a solution. The British team is headed by a policeman that is not happy to be show more pulled of a large murder investigation to run this department that he is very skeptical about.

The book spends time shifting focus between the two teams and introducing everyone on the team and why each member is important to the team. Of course team members still keep secrets from each other only to have them come out at inopportune times. The setting is very much a character in the story and social roles and societal pressures are constantly remarked upon. Just as the book gets going a third player in the race to the Eterna Compound starts working against each of them while keeping themselves hidden from view.

The idea of the story is interesting but even with the action it dragged a bit to me. And with this being the start of a series there is no good conclusion at the end of the book and much of a feeling of waiting for the next book of the series.

Digital copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley show less

I won this book through a goodreads giveaway.

Since this novel has been released for awhile I won't give synopsis. You're here so you're interested in some capacity and I bet you've already read at least one.
I am falling in love with Gaslamp fantasy novels. I already have a fascination with Victorian fiction so this novel had some advantages as far as my genre tastes go. This one has been on my TBR list for a while so when I won the giveaway I was thrilled.
As always I will start with my complaints. The pacing is a little slow for me but if the story is captivating, like this one, I can overlook that. My biggest issue was with the characters. Not them individually but because the characters on opposite sides were so much alike that they show more were a bit hard to keep clear at first. I found that I could easily confuse them.
Individually the characters are likable. There are some strong women and some diversity that is really appreciated. The character relationships are one of the best things about the novel. They are dysfunctional in some ways and is balanced with a little bit of romance. This plot is amazing. It's different from anything I have read in a while and the mystery kept me wanting to read and I found myself thinking about it at times that I wasn't reading. There is also enough action that helped the slow pacing.
Overall I really enjoyed this novel. This was my first experience with the author and I will be reading more of their work. I also recommend this one to anyone, especially if you like this genre. show less