What a difference 30 years makes! Early Asimov just doesn't grab me the way it did when I was a teenager. Classic stuff, this. But dated. ( )

This is Asimov's first book, and not his best. Its set on an Earth which is radioactive (possibly because of a global nuclear war as supposed in the book, or perhaps because of events described in Robots and Empire). There is a galactic empire at this point, and overall humans have forgotten that they originated on Earth.

(I find that a little hard to believe by the way. Whilst it is true that we have lost historical records from thousands of years ago, we do have some and archeology has constructed at least a partial history for humanity. Additionally, we now have pretty solid record keeping as a society, and it is left unexplained where all those records might have gone. Finally, there is no mention of techniques like carbon dating, which presumably could have been used to prove that Earth is indeed the original planet.)

I did like the general gist of the book, although the conclusion was unsatisfying as well. Overall, not Asimov's best work.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asi... ( )

Joseph Schwartz is an ordinary man, a retired tailor in the twentieth century. He is catapulted forward in time and winds up on a devastated radioactive Earth that is so poor every inhabitant who reaches the age of sixty is euthanized. This poses quite a problem for Schwartz, as he is sixty-two. Unable to speak the language due to language drift, he is taken to be mentally defective by the first people he meets, and they send him (in exchange for a bribe) to a scientist working on enhancing mental abilities. As a result of the experiments Schwartz becomes much more intelligent and acquires telepathic abilities.

Once able to communicate, Schwartz and the reader learn that Earth is a poverty stricken backwater in a Galactic Empire. Earth is also known for its rebelliousness and is discriminated against. Schwartz then becomes involved in a plot by pro-Earth fanatics to kill everyone else in the Empire with a super-virus, a plot he foils. The novel ends on an up note as the Imperial Procurator of Earth agrees to try to restore the planet by bringing in uncontaminated soil.

Aside from the rather odd time travel element, this is a pretty straightforward story. Some things seem implausible - the ability of humans to survive on the radioactive earth (the improbability of which Asimov talks about in a later added afterward), the implausibility of the plan to restore Earth and so on, but the adventure in between holds up well. ( )

This is a fairly rare thing - an Asimov book where the adventure nature of the story is at least as important as thinking your way to a solution, although it has to be said that the final denouement depends at least as much on intellectual success as it does on who has the biggest gun.

For Asimov, the characters are reasonably well rounded as well - he is not generally noted for deep characterisation in my experience. Once we get over the hurdle of the initial mcguffin, the story is actually one of the least inventive of his, though as it is his first full length story, expecting perfection first time out may be asking rather too much.

Overall, a good read rather than a brilliant read. ( )

While I found this book interesting, I wasn't completely captivated. At times it moved very slowly. But overall, I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys science fiction. A very quick read. ( )