Eight Keys to Eden
Reviewed date: 2025 Feb 28
Rating: 1
160 pages
Eight Keys to Eden starts out with an intriguing premise: a newly-established colony on Eden goes silent. Earth sends Calvin Gray, Junior E to investigate.
E?
E—short for Extrapolator. As science grew more complex, humanity recognized the need for new kinds of thinking. Thus, the science of Extrapolation, or E. Only the best, brightest, and most particular sort of mind can undergo the training and become an E. The E's job is to sift information, think in new ways, and come up with new and innovative solutions. The E's role in society is so crucial that an E is completely above the law.
Above the law?
Yes. Completely immune. Extrapolators must be "free to extrapolate without fear of reprisal." Nothing—but nothing—must interfere with the E's ability to think and act. Naturally not everyone agrees with this, and the law enforcement faction on Earth is agitating and scheming for more oversight. If Calvin Gray, Junior E bungles the Eden investigation, that's just the sort of scandal that will let Attorney General Gunderson exert some oversight and authority over Junior and possibly even Senior Es.
What happened on Eden
Calvin Gray and his crew arrive at Eden and see that everything man-made has disappeared: the buildings, the farms—all gone. The colonists are still on Eden, but even their clothes have disappeared. Nothing remains except the people themselves.
Gray and his crew land to speak to the colonists and determine what happened. When they do, all their man-made items disappear too. Their entire spaceship vanishes, as does all their equipment, even their clothing.
They try to speak to the colonists, but something is interfering with their minds. They're docile, incurious, and lack the ability to focus long enough to carry on a meaningful conversation.
What it all means
Up until this point it's been a fantastic book. Now it devolves into metaphysical drivel. After way, way too much nonsense, it boils down to this: the universe is home to an intelligence made not of flesh and bone but of crystalline vibration. The vibrating entities tried to contact the protoplasmic entities, but were unable to communicate. Thus they retreated and created Eden: a lure designed to attract someone of just the right mental qualities as to enable communication with the vibrating entities. Someone like an Extrapolator. Someone like Calvin Gray, Junior E.
Did I say Junior E? He's a Senior now, for sure. Having picked up all the information from the vibrating entities, Calvin Gray can now manipulate matter and space with his mind. He can teleport himself (and others) across vast distances. And this has opened up new vistas of knowledge, knowledge which the E's will learn and provide to humanity.
I wasn't convinced that this was a good outcome. I'm not sure that having humanity ruled by a class of elite supermen who can use their mental powers to literally teleport things is a good idea. This will end poorly.