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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
Well now, that wernt half bad. Nothing like a little classic, 50s-style time travel sf to kill an afternoon. Asimov can spin a yarn, and I always enjoy his style.
So, time-as-place. I have to admit, I'm easily fuddled by the paradoxes of time travel stories. I follow along without too much problem, but I never can figure out the ending before running into it. I did enjoy this particular take on it. Just utopian enough to make the final actions slightly suspect, but still welcomed. I found the details, well, charming for lack of a better word. Smoking, and its place in history. The different fashions that each eternal learned to deal with. The ever-present class issues, even at play in the timeless world of the time travelers.
I always enjoy dipping into the classics. There's often a reliance on the Idea, rather than the Story, carrying the main burden. And that's a good thing! A few too many of the more current dystopian novels I read seem to think that all the ideas are set in stone, and the only thing that remains is to pile on (most gory) details in order to hide borrowed concepts. Sometimes that works out better than you would expect. And I'm not saying that all the sf classics are these amazing pieces of work that blow the new stuff away by any means. Just that it's a different style and I enjoy both in their turn.
Honestly, I'm sketchy on Asimov (I always preferred Heinlein and Bradbury), having mostly delved into his Robots and short stories I came across in collections. I haven't read the Foundation series, but this novel got me interested, so I'll be picking those up when I run across them.
http://epicdystopia.blogspot.com/2011/05/end-of-eternity-by-isaac-asimov.html
So, time-as-place. I have to admit, I'm easily fuddled by the paradoxes of time travel stories. I follow along without too much problem, but I never can figure out the ending before running into it. I did enjoy this particular take on it. Just utopian enough to make the final actions slightly suspect, but still welcomed. I found the details, well, charming for lack of a better word. Smoking, and its place in history. The different fashions that each eternal learned to deal with. The ever-present class issues, even at play in the timeless world of the time travelers.
I always enjoy dipping into the classics. There's often a reliance on the Idea, rather than the Story, carrying the main burden. And that's a good thing! A few too many of the more current dystopian novels I read seem to think that all the ideas are set in stone, and the only thing that remains is to pile on (most gory) details in order to hide borrowed concepts. Sometimes that works out better than you would expect. And I'm not saying that all the sf classics are these amazing pieces of work that blow the new stuff away by any means. Just that it's a different style and I enjoy both in their turn.
Honestly, I'm sketchy on Asimov (I always preferred Heinlein and Bradbury), having mostly delved into his Robots and short stories I came across in collections. I haven't read the Foundation series, but this novel got me interested, so I'll be picking those up when I run across them.
http://epicdystopia.blogspot.com/2011/05/end-of-eternity-by-isaac-asimov.html
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Overall I would say this book is a 4, but the ending makes it a 5. This is Asimov at the top of his writing. It involves a man working for Eternity, which is elite group outside of time that changes history in subtle ways to prevent wars, catastrophes, and other bad things from befalling humankind. Harlan, the main character, falls in love with a "timer" and hides her way in the future to avoid her being changed in her own time. Things get really intricate when he learns he is apart of complex plan to save eternity by sending the man who invented it back in time to keep the circle of events intact, but also that he is part of another complex plan to prevent eternity from being created. It's really great and still holds up from it's 1955 publishing date.
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Great premise, a little dated characters, but worth the read.
Great premise and well-crafted novel. The only real gripe I have is the slight lack of character development. The characters were almost too stoic, and the main character, Andrew Harlan, seemed to have random flashes of anger and annoyance without much exposition about why he felt those emotions.
Regardless, great time-travel story. Recommended.
Regardless, great time-travel story. Recommended.
Whooo boy; I'm always glad that I never mowed completely through the shelves of authors like Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. This way, I have something to come back to sometimes, slowly filling in the gaps by finding the ones I haven't read.
For a 50+ year old book; The End of Eternity is pretty darn good. Oh sure; there's some things that date the book enough to pull you out of the story from time to time. The punch-card computers are one of these, but if you accept the time travel premise, you can easily accept that in the subjective timeline of the book, wherein Eternity is established, that that is as far as computing technology happens to get, and then the "safe and secure" type changes cause the centuries to stick to it while inventing other technology. More problematic is the attitudes towards women, which is dismissive in the very nature of the setting wherein Eternity is male-centric. However, once again, this can be viewed as part of the point of the book; though that may be throwing interpretation out there a bit. The caste system of Eternity where maintenance men are effectively oppressed is called directly to heel at one point, demonstrating that Asimov DOES consider the idea a dystopia, and is not promoting the idea. The women's role thing is not specifically called out in that manner.....but one could easily extrapolate it, and there are subtle hints that that is one thing being pointed to as a moral paradigm shift by the "hidden centuries". And in 1955, a subtle nudge was what was needed if you were going to be listened to. Wow, I'm really going off on all this a bit....but that's mostly because I hope no one puts the book down immediately just because they see punch-cards and female oppression. It's worth finishing and then making a judgement call.
The pacing is not always hugely exciting, but is enjoyable in the way it accelerates starting about halfway through until the end -- and the book is a slim one compared to most modern novels; though I listened to it via audiobook, which was definitely enjoyable. The use of time travel was quite enjoyable: though it seemed like a bit of a dry and dusty method in the beginning, it quickly became more fun, with what I would term the "twisting knots" that one can easily get into if one applies ordinary causal logic (but how else, of course?) to theoretical ideas of time travel. That's not a bad thing in itself, but does rather dictate the path of the book at one point, so if you think logically, you see things coming. Fortunately, the existence of...hmmm, how to avoid spoilers?.....the existence of a single time travel theory that is mostly logically consistent is counteracted by the multipality of uses it is put to.
And it's a novel that keeps on twisting towards the end, doing the classic Asimov "no, now it's going to go like this, and we'll just follow out the obvious path established, mystery solved, just finish the execution" ....."OH WAIT NO, WE FOOLED YOU; HERE'S THE REAL RESOLUTION NOW SEE IT THROUGH" ...and repeat. Sometimes dizzying, but I think not overmuch so in this book. Logically consistent foreshadowing and hints, although some moments of over-convenience provided by deus ex random theory by side-character.
For a 50+ year old book; The End of Eternity is pretty darn good. Oh sure; there's some things that date the book enough to pull you out of the story from time to time. The punch-card computers are one of these, but if you accept the time travel premise, you can easily accept that in the subjective timeline of the book, wherein Eternity is established, that that is as far as computing technology happens to get, and then the "safe and secure" type changes cause the centuries to stick to it while inventing other technology. More problematic is the attitudes towards women, which is dismissive in the very nature of the setting wherein Eternity is male-centric. However, once again, this can be viewed as part of the point of the book; though that may be throwing interpretation out there a bit. The caste system of Eternity where maintenance men are effectively oppressed is called directly to heel at one point, demonstrating that Asimov DOES consider the idea a dystopia, and is not promoting the idea. The women's role thing is not specifically called out in that manner.....but one could easily extrapolate it, and there are subtle hints that that is one thing being pointed to as a moral paradigm shift by the "hidden centuries". And in 1955, a subtle nudge was what was needed if you were going to be listened to. Wow, I'm really going off on all this a bit....but that's mostly because I hope no one puts the book down immediately just because they see punch-cards and female oppression. It's worth finishing and then making a judgement call.
The pacing is not always hugely exciting, but is enjoyable in the way it accelerates starting about halfway through until the end -- and the book is a slim one compared to most modern novels; though I listened to it via audiobook, which was definitely enjoyable. The use of time travel was quite enjoyable: though it seemed like a bit of a dry and dusty method in the beginning, it quickly became more fun, with what I would term the "twisting knots" that one can easily get into if one applies ordinary causal logic (but how else, of course?) to theoretical ideas of time travel. That's not a bad thing in itself, but does rather dictate the path of the book at one point, so if you think logically, you see things coming. Fortunately, the existence of...hmmm, how to avoid spoilers?.....the existence of a single time travel theory that is mostly logically consistent is counteracted by the multipality of uses it is put to.
And it's a novel that keeps on twisting towards the end, doing the classic Asimov "no, now it's going to go like this, and we'll just follow out the obvious path established, mystery solved, just finish the execution" ....."OH WAIT NO, WE FOOLED YOU; HERE'S THE REAL RESOLUTION NOW SEE IT THROUGH" ...and repeat. Sometimes dizzying, but I think not overmuch so in this book. Logically consistent foreshadowing and hints, although some moments of over-convenience provided by deus ex random theory by side-character.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Isaac Asimov may have had big ideas but he sure never learned how to write anything interesting ever. I'm done giving his work a chance. I simply can't stomach reading another sentence of his dull books full of the flatest characters I've ever read.
This book was fabulous simply for the merits of its plot for the ideas and concepts are was so drawn in to this world and wanting to know more and the end was just fantastic.
His characters weren't my favorite and it dipped in the middle but the end made up for it all!!
His characters weren't my favorite and it dipped in the middle but the end made up for it all!!