The End of Eternity

My first reaction to The End of Eternity as soon as I finished the book was one of discomfort with its many flaws. I instantly ranked it as one of Asimov's minor works for the reasons I describe below. But as I let my thoughts about the book settle down, I started enjoying it more and more, and finally concluded it is a quite important piece in Asimov's complex universe, especially after revisiting Foundation's Edge and finding in it a direct reference to Eternity and Eternals and how these help explain why in the Reality of the Galactic Empire, the whole universe is only inhabitted by human beings--not by chance but by careful selection made by the Eternals among the infinite possible Realities. I'm always learning more about how Asimov managed to connect all of his books in a single context, which is not a small task considering how prolific he had been. And in the particular case of EoE this is even more of an accomplishment, as the themes here are much more apart from the thematic environs of the Robot and Foundation series.Still, there are many plot holes and logic loopholes in this book that are difficult to digest. The way Asimov describes how Time is structured and can be manipulated is somehow undeveloped if not primitive, especially if compared with shorter but much more compelling stories like Heinlein's "All You Zombies--", Borges's "The Garden of Forking Paths" or even PKD's "Adjustment Team". Those, imho, are much more interesting stories about time travel and time paradoxes, even though Asimov as well strived to enrich his story with time paradoxes. The whole concept of time manipulation, which is central to the very existence of Eternity, seemed fragile to me. Eternity appears in the beginning of the book as something monastic, just like Castalia in Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game (and Andrew Harlan becoming Twissell's pupil reminded me of Josef Knecht befriending Father Jacobus, which initially seemed quite promising). But later on, the plot moves towards a time paradox not much different from John Connor's sending his father Kyle Reese back in time in Terminator (a kind of paradox that is much more thrilling in Robert Heinlein's "All You Zombies--"). The time travel rules in EoE seem not to resist a more careful logical scrutiny either, and even after lifting the veil of verisimilitude I found myself stopping and thinking: "wait a minute, this does not fit into the rest of the picture because…"Asimov's simple and sometimes even clumsy writing style also shows in EoE. His limited and somewhat amateurish style makes this book sound very much like a low-budget sci-fi movie. For instance, the extensive use of dialog to convey details of the plot, which is only annoying in Foundation, here in EoE gets to the point of even being comical, particularly when Twissell speaks. He, who is described as gnome-like, immediately seemed to me like Mel Brooks as Yogurt in Spaceballs. All that becomes even more salient in this book because Asimov really strives to enrich Andrew Harlan's character with a more complex personality than usual (he is, indeed, an above-average emotionally complex character to Asimov's standards): there are many vivid descriptions of Harlan's dreams, and even a direct quote from the Bible: Proverbs 28:1, but all that seems to miss its purpose in a loose, awkward way.The trouble is that Harlan's inner motivations are key to make the whole plot move on, and they were not convincing to me. The incentives seemed all wrong. Although many dystopian sci-fi stories use romance to crack the rigidity of the system, here in EoE Harlan's obsession for Noÿs is almost caricature-like. Harlan's incentives lack weight, and that is rather disappointing because I can see how much effort Asimov has dedicated to make them credible. Even the plot twist at the end, which attempts to redeem Noÿs's futility, is not enough to move the needle, imho.Notwithstanding all that, I remain a big Asimov fan. So even here in EoE, where things don't seem to add up, the connection with Foundation's Edge is more than enough to make me view the whole novel from a different, maybe more indulgent perspective. Asimov's style is in many instances shaky and precarious, the plot may have loopholes and its logic may be flawed, but as in the case of the weakest parts of Foundation here again I end up forgiving it all in favor of the strength of Asimov's whole, impressive corpus.

I have been an Asimov fan since the middle of the last century. This is a stunning tour de force of imagination and storytelling.

Enjoyed the story. Good characters, interesting premise, advanced technologies and complex relationships. I was very surprised by the way it concluded

4 stars Classic Sci-Fi that can make your head spin in a good way.Isaac Asimov is known as a master of classic science fiction and "The End of Eternity" sustains that reputation.As story telling goes, the timing of his plot twists are impeccable. The society on which the story is based is perfect for the genre - an elaborate dimension of being call "eternity", filled with societal levels of people all working together to insure mankind against its own self destruction. They go back in time to make an adjustment here, and adjustment there, in order to effect the smallest change for maximum results. Nuclear war is avoided in one time point, aggressive space travel in another. Even though working together for a common cause, and even though they've been chosen and pulled from earth's timeline over the course of hundreds of thousands of years to live in eternity, the Eternals are still human. They each have their own personal agendas for what they think is best for humanity and, of course, themselves.The protagonist of the story is Harlan, a Technician, whose job it is to analyze the data given regarding a proposed change, make a final decision to the best plan of action, and then implement it. Technicians are hated in the society because all of the people who contribute to the data and society - the Computers, Observers, Sociologists, Mathematicians, and even Maintenance - all know they had a hand in erasing thousands, even billions of lives, with each change affected. Yes, it's to save even more lives in the long run, but still, it's easier to hate the Technician than acknowledge their own guilty role in the process.All is normal in Harlan's life and job until he meets a woman. It's against regulations, but what love wants, love does its best to get even if it means lies and treason to insure its safety. This is not your traditional sci-fi love story and that's another reason why Isaac Asimov stands out from the rest of those in his genre.So why four stars instead of five? Because you don't fully see it coming, the ending was wrapped up a little too abruptly to my liking. It was like eating ice cream on a hot summer's day. You savor each taste along the way, but those last few bites aren't as satisfying as they could have been had they not melted into creamy slush. The flavor is still there. The substance, however, isn't quite as pleasing to your taste buds.NOTE: if you're brand new to the genre of Science Fiction, this one might be a little too heady as a starting point. Asimov's levels of multi-layered reality and time can make your head spin and fog over if you're not accustomed to holding different realms of possibility simultaneously in your head. Go ahead and read the first few pages. You'll know right away if you have the inclination to follow.

An Early Asimov Effort - he wrote better later. You’ll never guess the twist in the tail!

I'd forgotten that Asimov actually learned how to write. Having most recently read his original Foundation books and I, Robot I was expecting successive scenes with one person talking to another about ideas. Instead we get a high-concept mystery thriller with a complex narrative structure. It's almost a noir SF novel, with a hero disintegrating under pressure as convincingly as any Simenon or Highsmith central character.The Eternals, a near-monastic organization that lives outside regular time, are like the Time Lords except that instead of standing aloof they constantly tinker with alterations to the course of history. I liked that because usually these organizations set great store by preserving the "original" timeline spawned by random events. This policy of active interference proves to be a major plot point.Time travel novels always require the writer to set up some rules. It's the nature of the genre that those rules may not hold up if you scrutinize them too closely, but at one point Asimov seems to forget his own rules anyhow. He has an alteration in Reality change some old magazines stored in Eternity (the zone outside time where the Eternals live). Yet the whole point of the novel up till now is that if a person is brought into Eternity then they are unaffected by changes to their original timeline. If that weren't so, the Eternals themselves would be a constant risk of disappearing. The protagonist even uses this rule to protect a non-Eternal from the effects of a change in their century. So the magazines should have been brought into Eternity after the change -- yet Asimov says that the pages physically alter every time a change is made outside Eternity, violating his own rule.That aside, I liked it a lot. You might find the the all-male nature of Eternity contrived and a bit dated (in The Machine Stops fifty years earlier, Forster assumed the far future would have just as many leading women as leading men) but that's no different from the all-male college of magicians in Earthsea, say. (Although admittedly something like that makes more sense in fantasy than in SF, which we expect to abide by other rules than just the author's.) Anyway, bear with that as Asimov is fully aware of it and we discover that he's not propounding this as the natural and inevitable state of all human organizations.

Isaac Asimov is certainly one of the most reliable sci-fi authors. He infallibly provides clever plots, full of intelligent twists, scientific knowledge and unexpected reasoning. And The End of Eternity does not stain this unblemished record. For a quite short story (190 pages) it puts together an interesting proposition for time travel and discusses its obvious implications and potential paradoxes.The plot is centered around the existence of an organization, Eternity, outside regular temporal flow. This organization can access every century of human history since its creation on the 24th century (before that are the primitive centuries where temporal flow is immutable), until the 70.000th century (the hidden centuries, blocked by some kind of barrier). It also assumes an active role in shaping human history by conducting surgical modifications in its normal course (or the one with maximum probability of happening), thus creating multiple realities. Eternity is run by Eternals, mostly male humans that are subtracted from their realities in childhood to live almost as disciples of time.The End of Eternity introduces many of the most obvious time-travel paradoxes, such as one meeting with oneself, or a Bootstrap Paradox. But perhaps the most important discussion resides on the actual good of performing changes in time, even if with best intentions. Asimov, as usual, provides clear explanations of the assumptions behind his sci-fi constructs. One that I found particularly interesting is the limited impact of timeline modifications. Asimov considers that any change will wear out in a couple of centuries, and not exponentially increase its effects across human history.Of course the narrative also includes a human side, even a love story that will decisively change the course of history. And, as always, Asimov provides an unexpected finale where everything comes together quite nicely.

I first read Asimov's time-based novella in my late teens. I'd re-read the Foundation trilogy (none of the later add-ons thank goodness) several times and was looking for something new from such a great sci-fi master. The story didn't disappoint.Over the years, the ideas behind The End of Eternity have stayed firmly imprinted in my mind - it was a slow burner, but I came to understand what a visionary work of genius it was. Recently I re-read the book and found myself awed by the brilliant simplicity of the idea behind it, and the fabulous architecture of the story.The book is perhaps an attack on utilitarianism (the greatest happiness for the greatest number), claiming that, to be our very best, humans must have room to breathe, spread out and create. The discussion of the need for or dreadful waste of resources that space exploration represents is as important and relevant now as it was in 1955 when first published.The main protagonist, Andrew Harlan, is a very special member of the human society known as Eternity. He's a technician, responsible for tweaking history here and there to constantly improve humanity's lot. Depending on your point of view, it's his own human frailties that either jeopardize his hard work or threaten to put a stop to this meddling with time.The imagination is five star as is the plot construction. The quality of the actual writing doesn't reach those dizzy heights and is clunky at times, but it's well worth persevering with to leave you with a memory that will last for ever, or at least until the next reality change...

The re-release of this title is something I have been hoping for for quite some time since I first read, "End of Eternity" as a teenager when it was a book selection of a sci-fi book club. In the many years since I had managed to acquire three second-hand copies of this long out-of-print gem, only to lose them (through lending to other avid readers). Perhaps this time 'round I'll buy two copies and selfishly keep one all to myself.This is such a unique take on time-travel with some devious twists and turns along the way, that I have always been amazed it has remained out of print for so long. Fans of Asimov, I believe, will truly enjoy the way this story comes together. The plot outline is given in several other reviews from the out of date soft cover editions so there's no need to recount it here; and besides, I'd hate to give away too much of the story anyway. Let me just say that I don't recall any other author presenting a concept of time-travel as complex, yet seemingly simple and "workable", as is presented here by Asimov - it's just so different. And that was the main attraction of this story when I first read it and why I enjoy revisiting it every so often. I'm presuming this new hard cover edition will remain true to the original and have placed my order for it.As several of the other reviews have noted, this is perhaps a lesser known work by the author; but it is certainly a story deserving to be published once again. Having read just about every science-fiction story of the author's, this one has always been one of my favourites, and again as pointed out by several other reviewers, arguably one of Asimov's better pieces of fiction. Asimov fans, as well as fans of time-travel stories in general, will most certainly enjoy this take on a traditionally sci-fi theme. Very highly recommended!