Isaac Asimov: The End of Eternity

The End of Eternity is a Science Fiction classic that focuses in Time Travel and tries to answer the question of "What would happen if we could go back in time and prevent all wars?"
Andrew Harlan is an agent of Eternity an organization that exists outside time and that operates to prevent mankind from suffering. Eternity and its members, the Eternals, are all powerful since they can enter the timestream st any point, though they have two limitations: there is a section of the future which they cannot access and they cannot travel to a time before the existence of Eternity.  This point is extremely important for the Eternals since they have discovered that their existence is actually the result of a paradox: they must send someone into the past, some guy called Cooper before Eternity to begin the experiments that eventually will lead into the creation of Eternity.  There is an unexpected element, a woman, who Harlan is in love with. This woman, Noys Lambent, is not from normal time but fro the future time that the Eternity cannot access. these future people have discovered that the intervention of a Eternity has actuallyworked against the correct development of human civilization. Wars and other conflicts might be sad occurrences but they are necessary to boost science for it is in moments of great crisis when science responds reaching innovations. Eternity in preventing that has also stranded the development of interstellar travel so mankind has taken a long time to reach the stars while other civilizations have already done so. Mankind is then destined to languish and disappear after millions of years always confined in Earth. Noys´s mission is to stop Eternity to come into existence but she will not do anything against Harlan who is supposed to help Cooper. After hearing to Noys and thinking of what Eternity has been doing Harlan decides to help Noys and in doing so all of Eternity vanishes forever. 
A great sci-fi novel that is perhaps the opening for Asimov's famous Robots series and also the Foundation series, but can stand alone on its own.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How do you say MIRADOR in English?

Image
"Hmm, why do I have this nagging feeling that someone is watching me watching?" In Spanish, a MIRADOR is any place that allows a privileged view of the surroundings. In English, a MIRADOR is a VIEWPOINT or a LOOKOUT. Another possible translation is VANTAGE POINT, though in a tourist context this term is a bit less common.
Read more

The Maps of Ship-Trap Island

Image
Once I had my high school students read The Most Dangerous Game, a short story by Richard Connell. Rainsford, the main character, is a professional hunter traveling by ship to his next hunting area, accidentally ends up in an island called Ship- Trap island. When he goes into the island he finds there are two men living in a palace in the island. One of them is a Cossack general and the other, his brutish servant.  The Cossack is called general Zaroff who is also  a game hunter but has become bored of hunting regular game and now uses the island's unique position to capture sailors from shipwrecks. He lets them go first and next after some time he hunts them down. Rainford's arrival who is worldwide famous presents Zaroff with a rare opportunity to find excitement in hunting again by hunting another hunter. Little does Zaroff know that Rainsford is The Most Dangerous Game in the World and hunting him will not be easy at all. My students enjoyed themselves at reading
Read more

How do you say EXAMEN SUPLETORIO in English?

Image
Darn! I wonder if there's a Make Up exam for this Make up exam! I remember that long ago I asked my distinguished and knowledgeable colleagues of that time to enlighten me and tell me the right English word for what we know in Ecuador as EXAMEN SUPLETORIO or EXAMEN DE RECUPERACION.  After hearing Recovery exam or Supplemenary test and even Supletory exam, I was not convinced so I decided to go to a higher authority and looked up one of those encyclopedic dictionaries from Oxford or Cambridge university (these were the pre-browser times) and found the right expression is MAKE UP EXAM which is taken when an exam has been missed or when a student needs to change one score with a more favorable one. The British say RECUPERATION EXAM which is perhaps more practical since to some people the term Make Up is confusing. Make-up is the word for the wearing of cosmetics. There are Make-up tests which are oriented to future Make-up artists.
Read more