Nemesis

This is a mostly escapist novel of intergalactic exploration and alien contact. Asimov generally weaves a good story, and this one is full of characters who are self-consciously [b:making history|18490|Frankenstein|Mary Shelley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166956574s/18490.jpg|4836639]. Once he mentioned that he never edits his work, and this could definitely have used some editing. Occasionally, mostly in the beginning, he gets pedantic and repetitious. But you keep turning the pages, just so you can find out what happens. ( )

This is a mostly escapist novel of intergalactic exploration and alien contact. Asimov generally weaves a good story, and this one is full of characters who are self-consciously [b:making history|18490|Frankenstein|Mary Shelley|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166956574s/18490.jpg|4836639]. Once he mentioned that he never edits his work, and this could definitely have used some editing. Occasionally, mostly in the beginning, he gets pedantic and repetitious. But you keep turning the pages, just so you can find out what happens. ( )

Spoiler - (a review I wrote many years ago)
How do you respond to something as bland and meaningless as "Nemesis"‘? The characterization is wooden and/or unbelievable while the issues unexplored and the dialogue are unconvincing and wooden too.

What issues does the book deal with? It looks at overpopulation though ‘looks at’ is probably too strong. Earth is overpopulated and the people on the settlements look aghast at the idea of living on earth - but why? No social problems are brought out, in fact the only scenes on earth are in the subluminal research centre and Tessa Wendel’s exclusive apartment. So we never see any problems caused by the population of earth reaching the eight billion we’re told about and when the Settlers get more specific about what they don’t like about earth, the focus shifts to the uncontrollable climate and the way the force of gravity remains monotonously the same on earth - hardly eye-opening concepts.

So what other issues are there? There’s the uncooperative relationship between settlements and earth and intra settlements. People who aren’t brought up in one are made to seem like outsiders - we don’t see this directly again, we just have Crile Fisher speak of how he felt on Rotor as well as other characters just speaking of it. Once again Asimov has raised a potentially interesting theme but not developed it. Overpopulation on earth and its environmental ramifications as well as xenophobia could lift the book but instead it retreats into scientific mumbo-jumbo about superluminal flight, a talking planet (Ethryo) and a girl who has such powers of insight that she knows exactly what people are feeling and when they are lying or telling the truth. She has the ability to upset just about everyone, only finding happiness or fulfilment when she finds she is the only one with the clarity of mind to communicate with the planet without going mad.

What about the characterization then? Appalling! Crile Fisher has the most potential to be a full personality but he never makes it. He is an industrial spy, sent out by Earth to find out what technological achievements are going on. He marries Eugenia lnsigna and has a baby by her - Marlene - but fails to find out what gives Rotor hyper-assistance, something which will allow them to reach a star found by lnsigna now that they can go at the speed of light. Why lnsigna calls this star Nemesis isn't made clear. The idea is that Nemesis is actually almost on a collision course with earth and will pass through the solar system in such a way that the oscillations of earth will be disturbed and all life will die out. But Nemesis means a retribution though there's nothing we're told about on earth which would demand this nemesis. Still, back to the characterization. Crile hops off Rotor and back to earth although he didn't want to leave his baby daughter behind. Still, he's partly forgiven for his failure provided he gets Tessa Wendel from Adelia, a scientist who believes in flight above the speed of light - superluminal. He achieves his mission being such a devastatingly handsome stud, one whom Tessa can't resist even though she's a mature aged woman. Still, she'd have come anyway as she wanted to get her ideas into practice and didn’t care which government funded her. So what of this relationship? The best that can be said about it is that it does apparently develop, at least we’re told that it does but we don’t actually see evidence of this. They stay together all the time and at the end will get married now that Crile has caught up with his wife and they’re ready to get divorced. They gradually come to love each other after a fashion though both see each other as second best; for Fisher Tessa is second to Marlene and for Tessa Crile is second to her project. Still, Tessa achieves her success and Crile finds his daughter, only to give her up all too easily and so they become first best!

Meanwhile back on Rotor the new Commissioner, Pitt, decides to get rid of Insigna and her daughter Marlene as Insigna can tell too much of what is going on in his mind – in other words she could find out that Ethryo, this habitable planet, isn’t so good because of its ability to send people mad. In the end, of course, we find out that all the microbiotic ‘prokaryote’ cells aren’t malevolent – they form one single organism which communicates with humans although only Marlene can stand it.

Still, the big crisis in interplanetary terms at the end is will humans be able to skip from their doomed planet and take over Ethryo now that they can get there at the drop of an eyelid. No! says Marlene but the opportunity of exploring the idea of whether humans have a right to colonise when their space runs out, pushing the original inhabitants into a secondary role is not taken up. Instead Ethryo, through Marlene, conducts an examination of earth scientists’ minds and comes up with a solution. Send lots of rockets out from Nemesis and with ‘gravitational repulsion’ they’ll be able to push the star out of the path of the earth. Wonderful! This is typical, then. Instead of just setting up a situation which can look at our social problems, Asimov provides a ‘scientific’ solution so that the issue does not have to be explored. ( )

I miss Asimov. The most brilliant writer of our time. ( )

Quite a deviation from what I usually read, but a pleasant surprise: it made me realize that Asimov can be addictive. I liked the fact that this book was cautiously (not recklessly) optimistic about Earth people venturing out of the Solar System. A good read. ( )