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The Eternals #1
The Eternals: Beneath The Fading Sun
Soon, the Earth will be no more.
Jean is the last of the vampire lords. Born to immortality, his race now faces the waning sun. Some have accepted their fate, while others are ready to fight for their future.
But when Jean takes the life of Princess Chantelle, his life changes. Suddenly, he's a man on the run, falling in love and rediscovering his humanity.
With the sun's clock ticking, Jean tries to reconcile his past... but instead stumbles into age-old conspiracies and beyond.
This is the large print edition of The Eternals, with a larger font / typeface for easier reading.
Jean is the last of the vampire lords. Born to immortality, his race now faces the waning sun. Some have accepted their fate, while others are ready to fight for their future.
But when Jean takes the life of Princess Chantelle, his life changes. Suddenly, he's a man on the run, falling in love and rediscovering his humanity.
With the sun's clock ticking, Jean tries to reconcile his past... but instead stumbles into age-old conspiracies and beyond.
This is the large print edition of The Eternals, with a larger font / typeface for easier reading.
492 pages, Paperback
Published August 12, 2021
About the author
Richard M. Ankers
25 books30 followersRichard M. Ankers is the English author of The Eternals Series and Britannia Unleashed.
Richard counts himself fortunate to have been published both online and in print by such wonderful magazines as Daily Science Fiction and Love Letters To Poe, as well as anthologies by Third Flatiron Publishing and Leap Books.
The cumulation of his storytelling has arrived in the form of The Eternals Series published by Next Chapter.
The Eternals is set on our Earth in the far distant future as the sun prepares to set one final time. Neither human nor vampire, the Eternal Hierarchy look to waltz their way into oblivion. Jean, a brooding and disillusioned outcast, would have it different.
Aided and abetted by the hapless dandy Merryweather, Jean's tale unfolds to a backdrop of love, death and deceit.
With the sun’s clock ticking, Jean must find time where there is none to reconcile his sordid past with the promise of new love.
The Eternals, Hunter Hunted, and the final chapter, Into Eternity, see the vampire genre reinvented and turned on its head.
Richard's latest novel, Britannia Unleashed, is a steampunk, alternate-history extravaganza.
Richard counts himself fortunate to have been published both online and in print by such wonderful magazines as Daily Science Fiction and Love Letters To Poe, as well as anthologies by Third Flatiron Publishing and Leap Books.
The cumulation of his storytelling has arrived in the form of The Eternals Series published by Next Chapter.
The Eternals is set on our Earth in the far distant future as the sun prepares to set one final time. Neither human nor vampire, the Eternal Hierarchy look to waltz their way into oblivion. Jean, a brooding and disillusioned outcast, would have it different.
Aided and abetted by the hapless dandy Merryweather, Jean's tale unfolds to a backdrop of love, death and deceit.
With the sun’s clock ticking, Jean must find time where there is none to reconcile his sordid past with the promise of new love.
The Eternals, Hunter Hunted, and the final chapter, Into Eternity, see the vampire genre reinvented and turned on its head.
Richard's latest novel, Britannia Unleashed, is a steampunk, alternate-history extravaganza.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 17, 2022
The world the author created was interesting (vampires in a post collapse world where humans no longer exist) and if only we had gotten to explore it with a character even marginally less unpleasant than Jean it might have been a great book. That world is the only reason I gave this book 2 stars instead of 1.
Jean is the epitome of mediocre, his attraction to Linka is ridiculously pedophilic in nature (though the character is later said to not be a child he describes her as one and calls her "my child" way too often for comfort, I could go on and on about all the ways this relationship was all sorts of not okay), he is fatphobic to a level where it's just goofy and it never adds anything to the story. People act as if he is something special but throughout the book he accomplishes nothing through his own merit and is barely a nuisance to everyone and nothing happens to warrant his fabled reputation or the sacrifices people make for him.
The dialogues were unnatural and rather than have speech patterns of their own to make them easy to follow the characters used an overabundance of pet names which ranged from silly/nonsensical/unearned to gross.
I honestly thought about not finishing this book when I read Jean and Linka's first encounter, but I had hoped maybe it was a case of unlikable narrator or giving him ample room to grow later in the story, I'm still not sure we were expected to root for Jean but at the end I was almost disappointed by his survival and there really was no growth on his part. Long story short I should have DNFed it.
Jean is the epitome of mediocre, his attraction to Linka is ridiculously pedophilic in nature (though the character is later said to not be a child he describes her as one and calls her "my child" way too often for comfort, I could go on and on about all the ways this relationship was all sorts of not okay), he is fatphobic to a level where it's just goofy and it never adds anything to the story. People act as if he is something special but throughout the book he accomplishes nothing through his own merit and is barely a nuisance to everyone and nothing happens to warrant his fabled reputation or the sacrifices people make for him.
The dialogues were unnatural and rather than have speech patterns of their own to make them easy to follow the characters used an overabundance of pet names which ranged from silly/nonsensical/unearned to gross.
I honestly thought about not finishing this book when I read Jean and Linka's first encounter, but I had hoped maybe it was a case of unlikable narrator or giving him ample room to grow later in the story, I'm still not sure we were expected to root for Jean but at the end I was almost disappointed by his survival and there really was no growth on his part. Long story short I should have DNFed it.
August 3, 2016
I'm sharing this for Terry Tyler's #AugustReviews and #FridayReads. Links on my blog: https://kyrosmagica.wordpress.com/201...
Rating 4 stars
Well I love a good old vampire story, so I was really looking forward to reading this. The Eternals isn't quite a traditional vampire story. This is something else. These creatures are 'neither human nor vampire.'
I enjoyed The Eternals - particularly the descriptive passages, (you really can tell that the author, Richard. A Ankers is a poet too, ) which for a bit of a poetic soul like myself is absolutely wonderful.
I also really found myself chuckling along to some of the little touches of humour that liberally peppered the story. But, I did find the instant love, and some of the terms of endearment (at the beginning of the story,) between Jean, and Linka a little difficult to relate to, particularly if you consider that Jean has just lost his wife, (not much of a grieving period for our hero!) and killed Linka's sister, Chantelle. Though, there is more to this sibling relationship between Linka and Chantelle than meets the eye...... Either way, perhaps Eternals aren't prone to having much of an emotional attachment to their siblings. The Eternals is exciting in parts. Particularly in the second half of the novel, the pace picks up, and the eloquence of the prose more than made up for some minor irks that I had.
Overall, I'm a great fan of beautiful prose, and without a doubt The Eternals is absolutely chocka block full of wonderfully descriptive writing, and the dialogue flows well too.
So I'd recommend The Eternals for readers who:
Appreciate a more poetic type of writing.
Who'd enjoy going on an adventure with a hero who is used to women swooning at his feet, (or even dying for his return,) - perhaps a kind of ruthless, but charming Sean Connery - James Bond of Vampires! Sean Connery always was my unchallenged favourite James Bond - us ladies do like the charmingly rugged Scottish bad guys!
I do believe this is the first in a Trilogy so I will be interested to see how this series progresses.
Rating 4 stars
Well I love a good old vampire story, so I was really looking forward to reading this. The Eternals isn't quite a traditional vampire story. This is something else. These creatures are 'neither human nor vampire.'
I enjoyed The Eternals - particularly the descriptive passages, (you really can tell that the author, Richard. A Ankers is a poet too, ) which for a bit of a poetic soul like myself is absolutely wonderful.
I also really found myself chuckling along to some of the little touches of humour that liberally peppered the story. But, I did find the instant love, and some of the terms of endearment (at the beginning of the story,) between Jean, and Linka a little difficult to relate to, particularly if you consider that Jean has just lost his wife, (not much of a grieving period for our hero!) and killed Linka's sister, Chantelle. Though, there is more to this sibling relationship between Linka and Chantelle than meets the eye...... Either way, perhaps Eternals aren't prone to having much of an emotional attachment to their siblings. The Eternals is exciting in parts. Particularly in the second half of the novel, the pace picks up, and the eloquence of the prose more than made up for some minor irks that I had.
Overall, I'm a great fan of beautiful prose, and without a doubt The Eternals is absolutely chocka block full of wonderfully descriptive writing, and the dialogue flows well too.
So I'd recommend The Eternals for readers who:
Appreciate a more poetic type of writing.
Who'd enjoy going on an adventure with a hero who is used to women swooning at his feet, (or even dying for his return,) - perhaps a kind of ruthless, but charming Sean Connery - James Bond of Vampires! Sean Connery always was my unchallenged favourite James Bond - us ladies do like the charmingly rugged Scottish bad guys!
I do believe this is the first in a Trilogy so I will be interested to see how this series progresses.
July 31, 2016
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of vampires. I find them somewhat overdone in popular media and usually used as a crutch for creators to make something fantastic yet still familiar.
Imagine my surprise picking up The Eternals and finding something that took the whole "immortal child of the night" concept and actually tried something new with it.
Richard Ankers' novel asks a question that most stories about immortal beings fail to ask: exactly how long is forever? In The Eternals, humans have been supplanted as the dominant species on Earth by the titular eternals, who have spent untold years pissing their time away doing pretty much anything they want. When they discovered that the sun is set to explode before long, the eternals devolve into an aristocracy based around meaningless stature and nightly parties to debauch the last moments of eternity away, before everyone is inevitably disintegrated.
The story follows Jean, an eternal who sees the rampant hedonism for what it is, and is dead set on rocking the establishment by, ironically, being far more hedonistic than his peers. Known as a loose cannon amongst the other eternals, Jean attends their social gatherings only because there's literally nothing else to do and to see how many people he can offend. After taking things a bit too far and murdering a well known princess, however, Jean sets off a chain of events that show him just how far the eternals have fallen, and makes him reconsider everything he's known in his countless years.
As someone who's been burnt out on vampires for quite some time, I heartily recommend giving The Eternals a chance. Jean's sarcastic and indifferent attitude lends an air of dark humor over the often violent premise, and the premise is interesting enough that it made me want to see where it leads. 5 stars.
Imagine my surprise picking up The Eternals and finding something that took the whole "immortal child of the night" concept and actually tried something new with it.
Richard Ankers' novel asks a question that most stories about immortal beings fail to ask: exactly how long is forever? In The Eternals, humans have been supplanted as the dominant species on Earth by the titular eternals, who have spent untold years pissing their time away doing pretty much anything they want. When they discovered that the sun is set to explode before long, the eternals devolve into an aristocracy based around meaningless stature and nightly parties to debauch the last moments of eternity away, before everyone is inevitably disintegrated.
The story follows Jean, an eternal who sees the rampant hedonism for what it is, and is dead set on rocking the establishment by, ironically, being far more hedonistic than his peers. Known as a loose cannon amongst the other eternals, Jean attends their social gatherings only because there's literally nothing else to do and to see how many people he can offend. After taking things a bit too far and murdering a well known princess, however, Jean sets off a chain of events that show him just how far the eternals have fallen, and makes him reconsider everything he's known in his countless years.
As someone who's been burnt out on vampires for quite some time, I heartily recommend giving The Eternals a chance. Jean's sarcastic and indifferent attitude lends an air of dark humor over the often violent premise, and the premise is interesting enough that it made me want to see where it leads. 5 stars.
January 26, 2017
Richard Ankers has constructed an unusual and exotic future world where vampires . . . Eternals rule the night and humans are a practical myth. Or are they? I loved the Sunyin characters and how their lives were distinctly important to revealing the depth of humanity in the main character Jean's soulless soul. The book is full of passion, love, violence, rage, compassion, and sacrifice. I'm looking forward to diving into Hunter Hunted!
December 2, 2025
Not your every night, average vampire story!
I don't want to give too many spoilers away, so I will try to keep my review succinct yet relevant to the story.
As is not unusual for a vampire tale, the main character proves himself to be both the protagonist AND antagonist of his story as he is the instrument of his own downfall, and not in the least undeserving of it. Not to mention that he's not very likeable, knows it, revels in it, shoves it in everyone's face and seemingly all out of a need to have his ennui ended for himself; maybe even permanently if his foils and foes can manage it...
If You as the reader can get past that, well then you are in for a surprisingly convoluted game of Machiavellian Jenga that Jean suddenly finds himself the center of when he accidentally and unapologetically kills the Vampiress Princess of the realm by draining her to death at one of the realms nightly, and tediously in Jeans mind.....
There.....that's not anymore of a spoiler than the authors book blurb on Amazon. *wink*
I admit, at first I had a difficult time reading halfway through this book, so it sat in my Kindle Library for about umm...ten other series worth of books and had forgotten why I hadn't finished it or what it was about. So this time, I restarted reading from the beginning.... I hate leaving a book unread to begin with, even when I purchase it for free, and this time after catching on to more of the nuances of the first half I just kept reading until the end. I'm glad I did and hopefully you will be too, even if you too have to take an extended pause before you finish it. Just make sure you go back and finish it. It'll be worth it. That all being "succinctly" stated (LOL), it's time for me to grab book #2 and continue this surprisingly refreshing tale.
I don't want to give too many spoilers away, so I will try to keep my review succinct yet relevant to the story.
As is not unusual for a vampire tale, the main character proves himself to be both the protagonist AND antagonist of his story as he is the instrument of his own downfall, and not in the least undeserving of it. Not to mention that he's not very likeable, knows it, revels in it, shoves it in everyone's face and seemingly all out of a need to have his ennui ended for himself; maybe even permanently if his foils and foes can manage it...
If You as the reader can get past that, well then you are in for a surprisingly convoluted game of Machiavellian Jenga that Jean suddenly finds himself the center of when he accidentally and unapologetically kills the Vampiress Princess of the realm by draining her to death at one of the realms nightly, and tediously in Jeans mind.....
There.....that's not anymore of a spoiler than the authors book blurb on Amazon. *wink*
I admit, at first I had a difficult time reading halfway through this book, so it sat in my Kindle Library for about umm...ten other series worth of books and had forgotten why I hadn't finished it or what it was about. So this time, I restarted reading from the beginning.... I hate leaving a book unread to begin with, even when I purchase it for free, and this time after catching on to more of the nuances of the first half I just kept reading until the end. I'm glad I did and hopefully you will be too, even if you too have to take an extended pause before you finish it. Just make sure you go back and finish it. It'll be worth it. That all being "succinctly" stated (LOL), it's time for me to grab book #2 and continue this surprisingly refreshing tale.
June 13, 2017
My love of vampire tales goes way back to my early teens, though I've never really been drawn to the teen vampire genre. I like my vampires with bite, if you'll pardon the expression. The vampires in The Eternals have that bite, and even when the "romance" in this tale was cloying and not to my taste, the vampires were mostly true to nature, and yet the author manages to make them uniquely his.
I found the premise intriguing, and well painted. The protagonist is nearly a typical anti-hero, and as I started the story I wasn't sure I liked him, but over the course of the story he grew on me, aside from that whole romance thing anyway.
As to that romance, I found it unbelievable and love seemed to turn the hero into a bumbling idiot, or more so than he already was. Jean doesn't seem to think anything through with anything that resembles logic, he just barrels from one mishap to the next, somehow managing to blunder his way back out or be rescued by some conspiracy or accident.
Still, I ultimately was rooting for the two love birds by the end, and I'm intrigued enough to look for the sequel once I dig down through my to-read pile a little more.
I found the premise intriguing, and well painted. The protagonist is nearly a typical anti-hero, and as I started the story I wasn't sure I liked him, but over the course of the story he grew on me, aside from that whole romance thing anyway.
As to that romance, I found it unbelievable and love seemed to turn the hero into a bumbling idiot, or more so than he already was. Jean doesn't seem to think anything through with anything that resembles logic, he just barrels from one mishap to the next, somehow managing to blunder his way back out or be rescued by some conspiracy or accident.
Still, I ultimately was rooting for the two love birds by the end, and I'm intrigued enough to look for the sequel once I dig down through my to-read pile a little more.
March 19, 2025
Mostly Felt Confused
The worldbuilding at the beginning of this book was interesting, and I really wanted to get into it, but I just couldn’t. The concept of what an Eternal is had potential, and I was curious about the mysterious end of the world hinted at throughout the story. However, the lack of deeper exploration into these elements left me feeling disconnected. I wanted to understand more about why the world was ending and how it tied into the characters’ actions, but those answers never came.
Jean, the protagonist, was another stumbling block for me. His almost-immortal nature made him apathetic, and his lack of motivation made it hard to root for him. While there were moments where he reflected on loss, hese reflections felt hollow because they were more about imagining emotions than truly experiencing them.
The first half of the book seemed aimless, with Jean avoiding his main goal until halfway through. The writing itself didn’t help matters—typos and run-on sentences were everywhere, making the prose feel clunky and unpolished. By the time I reached the ending, I was left confused about how we even got there.
The worldbuilding at the beginning of this book was interesting, and I really wanted to get into it, but I just couldn’t. The concept of what an Eternal is had potential, and I was curious about the mysterious end of the world hinted at throughout the story. However, the lack of deeper exploration into these elements left me feeling disconnected. I wanted to understand more about why the world was ending and how it tied into the characters’ actions, but those answers never came.
Jean, the protagonist, was another stumbling block for me. His almost-immortal nature made him apathetic, and his lack of motivation made it hard to root for him. While there were moments where he reflected on loss, hese reflections felt hollow because they were more about imagining emotions than truly experiencing them.
The first half of the book seemed aimless, with Jean avoiding his main goal until halfway through. The writing itself didn’t help matters—typos and run-on sentences were everywhere, making the prose feel clunky and unpolished. By the time I reached the ending, I was left confused about how we even got there.
August 2, 2017
Deliciously fast-paced & full of twists, this wonderful tale blends shifting landscapes, cloned monks & 500 year old princesses. Add to that, a main character who is a roguish vampire & you cannot fail to be enchanted from the first page. Not my usual genre but definitely one that I'll be dipping into in the future. Well done.
October 31, 2017
Nice book, easily readable, yet entertaining. Full of plot twists that would keep everybody attentive through all the journey.
October 6, 2023
Different kind of vampire tale. Engaging and intriguing.
September 9, 2016
Quite a fan of the gothic noir scene I hoped for a merging between another appreciated genre, vampires, and the rich gothic fantasy world and was not disappointed. A good writer can write in a genre, a really good and memorable writer will write in multi-faced genres. Ankers is a nimble author, his prose often has the eloquence and depth of poetry, whilst pulling the story along at a pace that never runs dry. He fleshes out his characters both male and female, with equal understanding of their dimensions and this is the key to any good fantasy novel, because so often a character is fantastical rather than believable within the fantasy. Ankers had me by page two which is quite rare as often a trilogy takes some getting into. I compare his work to none because he's a new genre in of himself, by boldly creating worlds and people who speak for themselves quite aside from narrow labeling. As such his writing will surprise you. You will stay up late with this one, ensuring you read every line and you will not be tempted to speed-read because his prose is too alluring for that. This is the kind of book you'll read a second time, and long for more. As such I claim it as a highly recommended read, from an exciting new author, whose enthusiasm and knowledge go hand in hand with a fabulous imagination and an evocative world of memorable and vivid characters. Five stars. Read it.
April 5, 2017
This book is a page turner. From the moment you open it, you will not be able to put it down. Ankers draws you in and holds you there, as the story of jean unfolds, and his adventures take form. The imagery will have you feeling like you're on the airship with the main and secondary characters. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is into vampires, but be prepared. Jean is not your ordinary vampire...you'll have to read the book to find out why.
December 5, 2016
Poetic, dark, brooding, occasionally humorous, always entertaining, the grammar and style are impeccable. I found this most unusual book of a most unusual vampire at the end of Earth's ages so intriguing that I didn't mind the length of it nor the almost apologetically too swift ending, obviously in preparation for a sequel.
September 14, 2016
I confess I am not a fan of creatures that live in the night, prone to nightmares, but these characters, even as immortals, develop a sense of humanness for me, shrouded in mystery. Elegant language weaved throughout a determinable story. Well done.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews