Legacy of the Peace (Ascensio Aeterna Book 1) by Van Erie is a hypnotic and introspective science fiction epic. We find ourselves in a world where peace has reigned for a thousand years, enforced by enigmatic AI overlords known as esclaves. Sealed inside a shimmering city with no memory of her past, we meet Ever, who lives under the tight control of her mother’s mysterious rules. But when she discovers a hidden truth, Ever escapes the walls of her former life and sets off across a strange and broken world to find her grandfather, a figure who may hold the answers to her forgotten identity. As she traverses abandoned civilizations and uncovers forbidden knowledge, Ever realizes the gods of old, AI once worshipped by humanity, are not sleeping. They are watching. With lyrical prose and a slow-burning mystery, this first installment in the Ascensio Aeterna series offers a mythic journey through post-collapse society, examining the meaning of freedom, memory, and the cost of utopia.

Author Van Erie has a lot to offer readers right from the earliest parts of this blockbuster novel, and I was swept away by the dreamlike dystopia packed with eerie descriptions and psychological tension. There’s a smooth, literary quality to the well-penned prose that makes it easy to read, but offers a lot of depth for understanding. This rare blend of philosophy, science fiction, and myth leaves you thinking about it long after you set the story down. Readers are going to meet a compelling and interesting hero in Ever as she balances youthful uncertainty with quiet courage. The conclusion for this part of the tale is emotive and satisfying for now, but it also sets up a lot for the future of the series that leaves you desperate for more and eager to know what else is going to land on Ever’s doorstep. Overall, Legacy of the Peace is a beautifully unsettling debut that questions whether peace is ever truly peaceful, and I would highly recommend it to fans of ethereal, literary science fiction.

Legacy of The Peace by Van Erie follows Ever, who has lived in isolation with her mother Fallon in a tower surrounded by farmland, and learns of a broader world beyond the wall. She discovers her mother's involvement in agricultural experiments and begins questioning the society around her. After befriending Ailbe, Ever's curiosity grows, and she devises a plan to escape through the wall using a farming esclave. Upon venturing outside, Ever faces the harsh realities of the world, including the mysterious Witness and dangerous robots. As she and her group traverse unfamiliar terrain, Ever uncovers secrets about her origins, her family's involvement with ancient technologies, and her role in a larger conflict. She becomes a key figure in a tenuous political landscape, where her actions could alter the balance of power between controlling factions, including the Guardians and the Free People. Through her journey, Ever learns the power of her mind and the potential impact of her choices on the future.

Legacy of The Peace by Van Erie is an exceptional fusion of world-building and sharp, character-driven storytelling. Erie’s prose is elegant, guiding readers through an exceptionally imagined world where politics, philosophy, and technology collide in often unexpected ways. The ruggedness of the terrain that's crossed is almost a metaphor for the landscape of Ever’s evolution and Fallon's calculated leadership. What stands out most for me is the pitch-perfect integration of high-concept sci-fi elements—like cultivers and hypertubes—with inherently human drivers, like autonomy, loyalty, and the cost of peace. As the first book in the Ascensio Aeterna series, Erie demands close attention but rewards it generously, providing us with a fully fleshed-out cast and the launchpad for an amazing and timely literary referendum on governance, resistance, and identity. Erie doesn’t just tell a story; the author has constructed an experience that I'm excited to continue with. This is speculative fiction at its most intelligent and urgent. Very highly recommended.

Legacy of The Peace (Ascensio Aeterna Book 1) by Van Erie is a lyrical science fiction novel that follows Ever, a young girl with no memory of life before the mysterious tower where she lives, obeying her mother’s strict rules in a city cloaked by a shimmering wall. Controlled by the Union and its seemingly benevolent AI esclaves, the outside world boasts a thousand years of peace. Yet, beneath this utopia lies a forgotten legacy of gods, once-worshipped artificial intelligences, who still linger in the shadows of a post-collapse Earth. When Ever begins to question the truths she’s been told, she sets off to uncover the past, seeking out her grandfather, who may hold the key to her identity and the hidden history of the world. Her journey takes her across haunting remnants of a paradise lost, where technology, myth, and memory intertwine.

Van Erie creates an atmosphere driven by quiet suspense, ideal for readers who enjoy character-driven plots and introspective world-building. Its pacing reflects the deliberate unraveling of secrets, inviting the reader to ponder larger philosophical questions about truth, control, and the consequences of surrendering autonomy to machines. Themes of generational memory, technological reverence, and the fragility of freedom echo throughout Ever’s journey, offering both a cautionary tale and a hopeful search for meaning. Legacy of The Peace (Ascensio Aeterna) blends speculative elements with poetic prose, crafting a post-technological landscape where mythology and code merge. It’s perfect for fans of Station Eleven or The Book of M. Van Erie has penned an excellent start to a series that holds much promise.

Legacy of the Peace by Van Erie launches the Ascensio Aeterna series with mythic ambition and cerebral flair. Set in a cosmos watched over by godlike entities, the novel introduces Logos, an abstract yet sentient force that safeguards balance within the Heliosphere. Van Erie crafts a world where these beings engage in cold, calculated exchanges, draped in theatrics, yet layered with encrypted meanings. Amid their diplomatic contests and philosophical musings, a provocative idea arises: to give the remnants of humanity a fresh start, a new world. It’s not just science fiction—it’s speculative theology, layered with metaphysics and whispered rivalries that pulse beneath the narrative like dark matter. Ever, the envoy, stands apart as a being of paradox at once deeply rational and emotionally resonant, with a sharp wit that cuts through the cosmic haze.

Van Erie's writing is deliberate, measured, and unmistakably intelligent. Legacy of the Peace doesn’t chase cheap thrills or overused tropes; instead, it rewards readers who value dense atmosphere, philosophical tension, and a taste for abstraction. At times, the prose reads like a cosmic council’s grand, echoing, aloof scripture, yet Van Erie maintains a human heartbeat beneath the stellar scale. What stood out most was the subtle commentary on power: not brute domination, but influence shaped through thought, legacy, and silence. In a literary landscape often shouting for attention, Van Erie whispers, and somehow, that carries more weight. Legacy of the Peace is not for the hurried reader. But for those willing to descend into its depths and ascend with its ideas, the reward is clarity disguised as mystery.