Time travel is really hard to write about. Asimov's suspenseful time travel standalone novel is no exception to the rule. Like many time travel tales, it occasionally veers into the absurd with paradoxes and neologisms to create a plausible world about a society of time traveling agents who oversee humanity's history, present, and future to maximize human happiness. Where Asimov succeeds in this novel is with the character of Harlan gradually coming to the realization of the dangerous consequences of a humanity whose gravest mistakes and errors are not experienced to create new challenges and reach greater heights in the long run. The plot twist of the tale was unexpected to us here at the blog, but excellently shows the connection between this universe and the alternate Reality that saw the rise of the Galactic Empire and human dominance of the Galaxy. In a world where Eternity, Harlan's organization, does not exist, humanity takes to interstellar travel successfully and avoids a future where sentient non-human life colonizes the Galaxy, leaving humanity several centuries of decay and gradual extinction. The ending sorta "makes" the novel work, at least for those readers eager to see connections in the various novels of Asimov. While the other question of the problems with determinism, utilitarianism, and the idea of a corrupt organization of "psychopaths" dictating the course of humanity's time are also explored in the novel, the "romance" of Harlan and Noys, particularly in the conclusion of the novel, are the most interesting aspects.
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