The End of Eternity: A Novel (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1955; vuoden 2011 painos)

In some ways, The End of Eternity is a classic time-travel story. The story focuses on the people outside of time, who manage the timeline. They observe all people in all places across time and decide when to intervene. Ostensibly, the intervention is intended to improve mankind. No more war. No more starvation. No more plagues. The Eternals can fix it with the minimum interruption.

This is not a thriller. Its Asimov. It is a thoughtful exploration of the concept and discovery of the consequences of managing events across time and space. I love exciting time-travel TV shows like Continuum, Quantum Leap, Doctor Who, etc... And I love Asimov. Like many of his other books, The End of Eternity has a well-described (if highly implausible) scientific basis and a human-centered thought-provoking abuse of the power knowledge it generates. ( )

“Any system like Eternity which allows men to choose their own future will end by choosing safety and mediocrity, and in such a Reality the stars are out of reach.”



In “The End of Eternity” by Isaac Asimov



I took the opportunity of re-reading this novel on account of the re-issue of “The End of Eternity” in 2020. I think the effects of “The Foundation” on Apple TV are making themselves felt in the SF publishing world…

Run a Feynman diagram backwards and matter becomes antimatter (of course, I think it's more that you can't tell the difference between a charged particle in an electromagnetic field moving forwards in time and its antimatter equivalent moving backwards in time.). Secondly travelling backwards in spacetime while the planet moves at c.300 000 km/s mean you will experience a near instantaneous acceleration of several tons. Splat. You will need a bucket and mop for what is left of our erstwhile time traveller. In short Newton and Einstein have some interesting but very short experiences in store for time travellers…

Feynman also proved that our current physical theories could not distinguish between an electron moving forward in time and an electron moving backward in time (the positron) except by a difference in charge. The real “Now” is moving forward. Except for thermodynamics (with the second law) our best physical theories cannot distinguish between forward time and backward time (of course, even the second law doesn't really differentiate between time directions. Well, not without introducing the observation that we're not already in the highest possible entropy state, and therefore it is overwhelmingly likely to increase). Something is obviously wrong.

I remember Hawking saying something against the possibility of time travel, pointing out that we haven’t been invaded by hordes of tourists from the future yet.

In the novel “The End of Eternity” which I read for the first time in a Portuguese-Brazilian translation 40 years ago, Isaac Asimov posited a time travel mechanism that didn't allow for travel to the past before the machine was invented. The machine opened a corridor which allowed for travel in either direction but only from the point at which it was turned on. Which gets round that objection. In this truly compelling work, Asimov touched on any theme in the SF field, creating one that still holds its place to this day, and I even risk not being able to compete with it in many themes to date. After years of being fed up with the impossibilities and paradoxes of time travel, one runs into such a book and rightly wonders why they cannot write stories of this magnitude and complexity today. A compelling read for anyone who has ever been a little preoccupied with the idea of ​​time travel! It's still a good book.

NB: What matters is that once you get to 80+ waking up every morning feels like an act of time travel. Unfortunately the joys of advanced technology are accompanied by infirmity and the approach of a life-changing event that no time machine can avert. ( )

This may be the book that created the idea of Time Police. ( )

Asimov might be my favorite author. Very few books give me such a thrill when it comes to any kind of fiction. His trademarks are here - romance, a fast plot, small cast of characters, huge scope, big feel, twists turns and a conclusion that ended up giving me goosebumps.

As is the case with most time travel stories, there's a ton of paradoxes but Asimov manages to guide most of the way without losing me. There's certainly some antiquated language but the book was written 65 years ago and it's so incredible to see such contemporary themes present, such as class, nuclear power, war, history, psychology, regret...all the good stuff that I loved so much about the Robots/Foundation is present here. Short and sweet. ( )

Isaac Asimov undoubtedly had a truly very vivid imagination as far as the future of our world and future of the human race was concerned, and he also had this truly valuable gift to completely change and completely transform that vivid imagination into truly brilliant, if not overly spectacular writing without which he would never have enriched the world the way he had enriched it. It truly is amazing and it truly is admirable what this man could do with the power he had within his beautiful mind, and it's even more amazing and even more admirable the way he could write his fictional characters and bring each and every single one of them to life in such a truly mesmerizing way that any avid reader of his novels could truly connect to and connect with each and every single one of them on a very personal level. I believe that's what made him and what still makes him one of the best science-fiction writers of our time, because rare science-fiction writers could see the future of our world and future of the human race the way he could see it. In this truly remarkable addition to his collection and never-ending legacy of all the science-fiction masterpieces he had written, he pretty much showed the world the way he could see the future of time-travel to someday unfold, and he did it in a very brilliant way, the kind of way that shall definitely amaze you as much as it amazed me. So feel free to get yourself one of his masterpieces - doesn't have to be this one - for they are all great, and they shall all leave you pretty much and very much dumbfounded. ( )