It’s a terrific time travel novel, where an accident at a nuclear research facility sends an unsuspecting, retired tailor into a distant future where Earth is a backwater planet in a galactic empire.
Fish out of water stories are always captivating to me because they are a perfect vehicle for new readers to grasp a world they are unfamiliar with. Instead of having to read through chapters of exposition the world building is achieved through the eye of a character who is as new to the environment as the reader.
Joseph Schwartz is minding his own business, walking down the streets of Chicago, when he is instantly transported thousands of years into the future. What transpires next is a story of his wandering the much-changed Earth and how his chance meetings with people change his destiny entirely.
He learns that the Earth is a radioactive wasteland, apparently WWIII did occur but it is never mentioned because it is so far in the past that it is nearly forgotten. In this time Earth is not alone, it is part of a galaxy-spanning empire which has changed the culture completely.
I found the story held up rather nicely for one published in 1950. In books this old it is often the female characters that make me cringe. They are usually looked down upon, weak, unintelligent, quick to fall in love with a man, or any combination of those traits.
In this book, the woman is a capable person who does fall in love rather quickly but, to be fair, the male character does too, so it’s a wash.
I found the story bogged down in the last quarter where a scene in a prison cell went on far longer than it needed to. It felt like Asimov was padding his word count, something a lot of authors are forced to do and it drives me crazy. Publishers need to get over trying to make books a certain length and allow a story to be well told.
Anyway, it was a cozy story and I liked it very much.
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| Isaac Asimov |
