Shattered superheroes on an emotional quest to finally defeat the AI algorithm killing humanity
The Last Eternity is set years after the super-powered clones of historical icons learned that they can resurrect themselves, presenting readers with a surprising and depressing reality: The Phoenix Elite’s enemy, Alexis Imperato, is an evil algorithmic infrastructure installed in a stolen human body.
Years after implanting her mind-control brain implant into millions around the world, she’s extending her tyrannical rule, while the clones are suffering at levels previously unimaginable to those untouchable by death. They have lost hope and gone deep into hiding after five devastating years of failure to save humanity from Imperato’s evils, and their inability to escape both their enemy and immortality.
A significant part of The Last Eternity explores the mental health effects of failing to save the world despite being built entirely for this purpose. Several clones struggle with suicidal thoughts, with some agreeing to take part in a final save the world mission because their freedom to die is offered in exchange.
Alexis Imperato (initials “A.I.” conveniently in line with the truth of her existence) has successfully “seized the levers of power…and conquered the internet to ensure that she is the author of the only truth. The world has bent its knee to her.” Even so, her plan is incomplete. She has “moved past recycling living bodies and repurposing clones. Now she marries those methods with 3D bioprinting technology, fabricating beings to her specifications.” Before eliminating humans, Imperato’s secret factory lab must complete growing humanoid super-soldiers in huge vats of glowing liquid.
“The Age of Imperato” is surreal, horrific, and not far from our reality: Under her control, “bus stops display SEE SOMETHING, SAY SOMETHING posters with AI caricatures of the enemies of the state;” surveillance drones are ready to kill within seconds as “their black metallic bodies circle the rooftop like birds of prey on fresh meat;” human life competes with skyrocketing fuel prices, grocery store access dependent on your Imperato-brainchip implant status, and leadership that “burns libraries and rewrites history.”
The Phoenix Elites are isolated, starved, and stewing in all their darkest thoughts. It’s been five painful years of terror, with every brain-chipped human synced to Imperato’s surveillance system and acting on her kill-orders. These resurrections are ruining their lives and wrecking team morale. They’re physically and mentally exhausted after surviving more lives than they could ever have hoped for; the bravest among them has spent twenty-eight deaths mapping Imperato’s headquarters.
Life sucks and death won’t come, but the Phoenix Elites find comfort in the place between death and resurrection—a liminal space to rest, recharge, and reunite with Kebe, father-figure and architect of their clone family. These reunions, and the clones’ reluctance to leave this safe space as the impact of their compounding failures increases, are fiercely emotional. Each return makes it more evident that “grief is nonlinear, winding in ways no analysis could predict.” Grief makes them fight harder, quicker to anger, cling more desperately to their beliefs, and sacrifice themselves sooner.
Superpowered as they are, and clones of iconic heroes they may be, the Phoenix Elite are still human—and humans were not built to cope with the global scale of loss for which they face public blame. They are living proof that heartache and guilt do not fade in the light of immortality. The only way to stop Imperato is if all sixteen Phoenix Elite clones (including those who were banished, those who abandoned the team, and a double-agent in Imperato’s inner-circle) can work together.
The ambitious plan splits them into four simultaneous operations at four different locations. Sixteen people who feel like failed versions of themselves—superpowers malfunctioning, trust in each other broken, their families far apart—have one chance to succeed together, under immense pressure, with unfamiliar tools, using unprepared tactics. In the past, even their most advanced inventions couldn’t compete with Imperato’s futuristic technology. Now, they must fight for humanity’s survival without any of their cutting-edge devices, “dusting off the prototypes built before the encrypted software, the ones that still run on batteries and diesel.”
The Last Eternity is perfect for readers who loved Quantico, the TV series where dual timelines and a mysterious shocking event display complete shifts in trust between government-spies-in-training. Apologies heal fractured Phoenix Elite friendships, offering support when forced to bring enemies (who betrayed, disabled, or tortured them in previous books) onto their team, but the mistrust lingers. C. T. Clark packs serious, emotional punches as he extends his brilliant run of providing fresh hellish circumstances for his characters that remind readers of humanity’s healing potential.
One of my favorite things about this series is that the Phoenix Elite aren’t shielded from being disabled by their epic battles. Even with access to science from the future, Clark’s heroes have lasting, debilitating physical changes that reflect an understanding of the difference between a character’s disability and personality. Clark’s characters go on to develop mobility devices and assistive tools that anyone would envy, harnessing the power of making multifaceted disabled heroes undeniably cool.
This is a gorgeously human story. Clark’s prose shines with humanity, history, and humor in phrases you’ll want to read aloud and write down to remember. Every page is a compelling, entertaining joy to read—even when it’s heartbreaking—because readers are emotionally invested in these complex characters who are haunted by their dark childhoods and somehow still hopeful they can change the world.
I cried in the final chapters, at the exact points where Clark deployed his obedient soldiers (the actual words inside my Kindle) to stab me in the heart with razor-sharp precision. Just another way the author managed to convey the full weight of each character’s extensive emotional journey.
The Last Eternity reminds us that immortality is not invincibility and that our greatest heroes are passionate people acting out of love: “Their presence is immortal not because they sought glory but because they answered when the world asked something extraordinary of them. They did the right thing at the right time, no matter the cost.”
All five of the Phoenix Elite books have loved humanity and believed in our power fiercely, even against algorithms that own the world’s politicians, the wealthy, and the hope of our superheroes. As far as the right thing to do at the right time, these books, right now, feel like a triumph.
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