Mind-bending stuff. Clarke does a good job of bringing out the terror and sadness of deep time. There’s rather a lot going on thematically. A lot of it you could boil down to death and rebirth, but that really doesn’t do it justice; there’re so many variations on that. Clever writing.

Whether you prefer this or the earlier version Against the Fall of Night is probably personal choice. I’m with Against. It’s short enough to read in one sitting and if you do it on a quiet Sunday afternoon it’ll put you into a dreamlike state. That’s lost in this version. ( )

This is like an action movie except the action consists entirely of people sitting around being agreeable and polite with each other. I guess there was the thing that tried to eat them. That's the closest thing to a villain there was in the whole book

Diaspar existing unchanged for billions of years makes sense because it was constructed to, but Lys remaining the same for that long is unbelievable.

The whole "Let's become mortal and have babies!" ending is ridiculous.

Also wouldn't the sun have expanded into a red giant and melted the Earth by now? ( )

3.5 stars, 7/10. I have not read a lot of the oldest classic sci-fi from the middle of the century, and very little of Asimov himself. I picked this up on a whim from a free little library. It was formulaic, but in a charming and original way that has aged well; I saw how Asimov could be so influential. It's also a relic of its time, being concerned mostly with ideas rather than character, so don't expect many meaningful relationships or well-drawn women. Mostly I found a lot of fun in its grand scope, full of imaginative ideas surrounding traditional themes of human curiosity and fear. I was also impressed by Clarke's ability to keep me hooked even though much of the book feels like plodding exposition with relatively little action. The second half was a bit disappointing -- I expected it to take off with more meaningful action as Alvin headed into the stars, but instead it was just little pulp vignettes that Clarke rushed through to get back to his grand vision of Earth. Most of all I was struck by the constant tone of hope and excitement, even as the truth of the story became a bit dark and depressing. I feel this sense of hope and wonder is less common in today's speculative and science fiction, so it was very refreshing. ( )

This book is profound, and I am not sure Arthur C Clarke intended to write a deep novel. It is possible he just intended to write a good yarn, and he achieved this aim.

Yet, if he had stopped there, maybe the book would not be great. Maybe, the book would just be good or very good. However, there are some interesting questions that keep cropping up when we read the book. One, for instance, is the question of where humanity is heading. With social media and the metaverse impinging on our consciousness, will we live in virtual worlds, and forget humanity?

Will we run from the fear of the unknown, or disease, to the point where we cut ourselves off from the universe and live in bubbles?

With science advancing the way it is, will we achieve some kind of bland immortality?

Will we lose touch with ourselves?

Read the book, pause and think. It may raise similar questions in your mind as well. ( )

September 21, 2015
I'm having a rough time finding a good read (listen), with this, my second failed book in the same day. Unlike my problems with trying to get through the prose of [b:Heart of Darkness|4900|Heart of Darkness|Joseph Conrad|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392799983s/4900.jpg|2877220], this one failed for me entirely with the audiobook production. There's no obvious indication in the Audible write-up that this is a big-cast (seriously, like 12 actors named) dramatization, complete with background score and sound effects. I hate dramatizations, especially with multiple narrators, and so I gave up on this after just one listening session. Unfortunately, it's the only version offered on Audible, so I'll pick this one up again when I'm past my Whispersynce infatuation.