The best time-travel story since H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, by the Grand Master of science fiction, the story of Andrew Harlan, Technician and Eternal. Andrew Harlan's job is to range through past and present centuries monitoring and even altering Time's myriad cause-and-effect relationships. As a Technician with the Allwhen Council, he initiates Reality Changes that may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people - and a million or more of them may be so drastically affected as to be ...
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The best time-travel story since H.G. Wells's The Time Machine, by the Grand Master of science fiction, the story of Andrew Harlan, Technician and Eternal. Andrew Harlan's job is to range through past and present centuries monitoring and even altering Time's myriad cause-and-effect relationships. As a Technician with the Allwhen Council, he initiates Reality Changes that may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people - and a million or more of them may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individulas. Above all, therefore, a Technician must be dispassionate. An emotional make-up is a distinct handicap. Then Harlan meets No???s and falls victim to a phenomenon older than Time itself - love. Years of self-discipline are cast aside as Harlan uses the awesome techniques of the Eternals to twist Time so that he and No???s might survive... together.
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Add this copy of The End of Eternity to cart. $4.70, fair condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1982 by Fawcett Books.
Add this copy of The End of Eternity to cart. $35.73, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 1982 by Fawcett.
I read all of Asimov's books 50-55 years ago in my teenage years, but am starting to read them all again. This was the first and a good solid springboard for a jump into his material. The arrogance and failure of Man, time travel, a love story, and eternity - what's not to like?
Asif
Jul 22, 2009
Innovative (5 stars), Plot (4 stars)
Almost all time-travel stories struggle with dealing with the "butterfly effect" of consequences, and generally don't do a very good job of dealing with it.
Asimov's "The End of Eternity" introduces an innovative concept of Eternals, separated from the normal people, the Timers, and does a good job with tying together the various paradoxes associated with time travel.
The storyline is fast-paced, and character development is generally good, though a bit more focus on the female protagonist, Noys Lambert would have been better.
Overall, an excellent book, probably his best outside of the Foundation/Robot series.