The Currents of Space

First published on Forest Azuaron.

Depending on your point of view, The Currents of Space is either the last, second, or first book in the Galactic Empire trilogy: it was published last, but the depicted events happen before Pebble in the Sky and after The Stars, Like Dust, but is recommended as the first to read by Asimov himself. Personally, I find I can't read things out of in-universe chronological order, so The Currents of Space is my second foray into The Galactic Empire, following The Stars, Like Dust.

While I found The Stars, Like Dust to be merely good, The Currents of Space is now my favorite Asimov book.

Let's talk about the "main character has amnesia" plot, and how well Asimov side-stepped what makes that so clichéd anymore. show more First, while Rik is certainly the most important character in the book and drives the plot forward, most of our time is not spent with him. We spend most of our time with people like the Townman and Dr. Junz, and Rik is merely around. Second, Rik is not "basically himself, but without his memories" or even "used to be a bad guy, but now is without his memories and naive". The process by which his memories are lost has had a catastrophic effect on Rik, and when he is first found he has the mental capacity of an infant. Finally, the plot isn't about making Rik remember. Remembering is something that happens during the plot, but no one sits around showing him things saying, "How about this? Does this trigger anything?" Sixty years later, and Asimov's handling of the amnesia plot feels fresher than anything in the past decade.

Then there's the plot itself. While the Robots series might be the explicit detective novels, The Currents of Space is, in my opinion, a better-crafted mystery than any of them. So well-crafted, in fact, that I hesitate to say anything about it for fear of spoiling, despite it being 60 years old and well passed the statute of limitations on spoiling.

Finally, I really enjoyed the characters. One of the primary problems I had with the Robots series was that everyone was, essentially, some academic or another and spoke appropriately, so there was no range of voices. The Currents of Space is the first of Asimov's books I've read that really shows his skill with dialog, and his ability to get inside the heads of a broad range of characters.

5 carbon atoms out of a supernova. show less

Abel said, “What is Florina to you?”
Junz hesitated. He said, “I feel a kinship.”
“But you are a Libairian. Or at least that is my impression.”
“I am, but there lies the kinship. We are both extremes in a Galaxy of the average.”
“Extremes? I don’t understand.”
Junz said, “In skin pigmentation. They are unusually pale. We are unusually dark. It means something. It binds us together. It gives us something in common. It seems to me our ancestors must have had long histories of being different, even of being excluded from the social majority. We are unfortunate whites and darks, brothers in being different.”

So some things have changed, but humanity is still up to its usual tricks, including shooting the messenger. The show more planet Florina is going to be destroyed, but when Rik brings the news he’s reduced to a vegetable by a psychic probe and dumps on the very planet with a time limit. Will he recover his memories in time to save everyone? This might sound a bit silly, but this is actually a very good novel with a serious intent.

It’s about pressions of various kinds: oppression, repression. Florina is a conquered world, run on a feudal system with the natives reduced to serfdom. A situation closely analogous to England after the Norman invasion, though I don’t think Asimov has this particularly in mind. Other references put one in mind of the plantation economy of the southern US states or of political oppression generally.

Either way, the Sarkites are repressing the Florinians in a variety of nasty ways, not least by suppressing education. Ultimately it’s their ignorance that keeps them in check. This is reflected in Rik’s condition. His knowledge has been suppressed. I suppose the point being that ignorance leads to to destruction. This is essentially a political thriller written like a mystery. The reader’s knowledge is also suppressed so your awareness of the plot plays out backwards.

The novel has a number of flaws, but I think most can be winked at because there’s so much here that works. The most glaring is that it’s too short. This is not something I often say, but it could do with an extra hundred pages. I suppose sf was limited to about 200 pages at the time because of printing costs and Asimov does an excellent job of getting the essentials into such a short space. It’s efficient and economical and very well constructed. There are just some things that could do with being fleshed out for artistic reasons. show less

In a mere 191 pages, Asimov manages to weave a complex tapestry of interweaving plotlines, spanning the identity search of a man under complete memory loss, the rebellion of a minor official of a colonised people against his suppressors, a mysterious mastermind throwing the internal dealings of a ruling council of oligarchs to the brink of open conflict, interplanetary political intrigue and a nerve-wracking fugitive hunt. Thoroughly good read.

Asimov’s 1952 novel, The Currents of Space, surprised me. In it, I thought he showed some insights into racial/class/cultural issues that were ahead of his time, and that was something he rarely did in my opinion. He takes on economic and class privilege here, slavery, classicism, racism, addiction, invasive psychiatric procedures, and more. There’s a good story here and it makes for a good mystery. It’s not the author’s toughest mystery to crack, but as it was one of his very first books, that’s forgivable. He learned as he matured as a writer. The plot is fairly original as presented, or was at the time, I presume. I am, however, sick to death of reading about Trantor. The fact that every one of his 500 books all connect show more together in some incestuous way all back to one book is just plain warped. Cough, cough.

Anyway, very good story. Some nice tension, good mystery. Who’s the man with amnesia? Where did he come from? What are these warnings about? Suppression? What? Yeah. Good stuff. Nice paranoia. Sounds more like Philip K. Dick, actually. Four stars. Recommended. show less

This story has a remarkably sophisticated plot that traces the outlines of a mystery that kept me guessing all the way through. I was shocked to find out midway through my reading that this was written in 1952, prior to the whodunit stories in his Robot series, ‘The Caves of Steel’ and ‘The Naked Sun’, which seem somehow less complex by comparison. It also had a lot more suspense and action, even violence, than I’ve come to expect from Asimov. Only in the final chapters do we see any multi-page-long monologues, something else seen frequently in Asimov’s work. Taken together, it feels like a more mature and developed story that I would have instead placed in the 1970's or 80’s. I’m incidentally glad that I had read show more 1986’s “Foundation and Earth” prior to this story, as it would have spoiled one of that books biggest surprises had I not.

Aside from it’s strong mystery elements, it had rather tame space opera elements, with commonplace technologies (though perhaps not for his original audience), and no aliens whatsoever. There is a very loud theme that is impossible to ignore; the dangers of a stratified social class system without any upward mobility. This seems timely to consider in our growing crisis of 21st century Wealth Gap expansion, although retrospectively looks misplaced for the time of writing. show less

This is the second volume of Asimov’s early Galactic Empire trilogy, and, unlike the first volume (The Stars, Like Dust), it is also an early chapter in his long-running series that continues through the Foundation books as well.

That makes this book a good starting place, I think, for the Asimov universe that includes this series, the Foundation series, and the Robot series. It’s also a worthy standalone.

The plot centers on the planet Florina, the only source of a kind of miracle crop called kyrt. Florina is ruled over by the “Squires” of Sark, a neighboring world whose people enjoy the privileges of feudal rule over Florina and the prosperous kyrt trade with other parts of the galaxy.

Kyrt is a kind of miracle fabric, for show more aesthetic and practical purposes. Attempts have been made to grow it on other planets, but all were unsuccessful. This made Florina an even greater treasure for the Sarkites to protect.

Sark maintains an iron hand, essentially enslaving the population of Florina, keeping to a consistent theme in Asimov’s writing — tyranny and oppression. It’s an interesting theme to follow. Asimov is no fan of disorder, but he isn’t a fan of authoritarianism either.

Much of the action in the story is on the level of political maneuvering, between the Florinians and the Sarkites, among the Sarkites, and between the Sarkites and the galaxy’s greatest power, Trantor.

As far as I know this is the first appearance of Trantor in Asimov’s writing. Trantor of course becomes central to the story told in the Foundation. In The Currents of Space, it has not yet become the all-dominating empire that it will later become. And Sark maintains a somewhat uneasy independence, based largely on their rule of Florina and the kyrt trade.

The action begins when an Earthman (Earth now being a radioactive nearly uninhabitable wasteland) is being questioned about a dire warning he brings to Florina. He is subjected to a probe that effectively erases his brain. Then deposited helpless on Florina, he is taken in and adopted by Valona March, an otherwise unremarkable Florinian, who takes care of and falls in love with the Earthman, now called “Rik” (actually a derogatory Florinian term, similar to “moron”).

Rik begins to remember his identity and the warning he meant to deliver. And so doing, he becomes a threat to the entire order and prosperity of Sark and Florina — I won’t get into details so as not to spoil the story. Enough said.

Rik and Valona fall into the hands of their apparent rescuer, Terens, a Florinian “townman” (something like a mayor and go-between, serving the Sarkite’s interests on Florina). Terens, you’ll find out quickly, is more than he appears.

Terens himself becomes a main driver in the plot, trying to address Rik's warning, Rik and Volona’s safety, and the over-looming issue of justice between Sark and Florina.

That’s about as far as I can take it without spoilers. It’s a good Asimovish story, and it really does set the tone for the political maneuverings that dominate the Foundation series.

There’s also another good Asimov ingredient — the very idea of the “currents of space.” Rik, in his former identity, is a “spatio-analyst” — someone who studies and understands interstellar space for the purposes of navigation. Space is not simply empty — it has currents of radiation and flows of matter. It’s in that capacity that Rik has discovered the warning he means to deliver to Florina.

In addition to the politics of Florina, Sark, and Trantor, there are racial elements, too, as the various populations are marked by differences in skin color. Remember, this is the early 1950s when this book was published, and Asimov is relating his universe to the America of his time. show less

Another Agatha Christie-style thriller masquerading as science fiction. This one was a little less preposterous than than the last in the series, as we get to see multiple different persons construct an explanation of the events from their different perspective. I listened to the book on audio, and was entertained by the French accent of the wily old diplomat. The most interesting science-fiction detail: gum-chewers are still as disgusting as ever but cigarettes can now dispose of themselves.

Besides science-fact and science-fiction, Asimov also wrote plenty of histories, including histories of the Roman republic and the Roman empire. The Trantorian empire has a very similar history, on a stellar or galactic scale.