Most sci-fi fans are already familiar with Asimov; he is a mastermind in the field. With renowned best sellers like I,Robot and The Foundation Saga to his credit, this Russian-American writer has made fantasy worlds wholly from his PhD endorsed science-y knowledge. Yours truly though was fresh to the entire scene of Asimov influenced sci-fi fandom, hence the initiation into the alliance with 'The End of Eternity'.
The first two pages of the book: complete jargon which makes no sense. If you get past that, things start falling into place and soon you start picking up pace because the book really draws you in at one point. The antagonist, Andrew Harlan, is an emotionless time traveller who has been trained to be dispassionate to everything, a quality essentially required for his job. That is until he meets this woman, Noÿs Lambert, who changes everything about him and around him and makes him willing enough to put all that previously mattered to him in retrospect. Oh, the vigour of love.
Well, the plot sounds pretty cliché but as any Asimov fan will tell you, nothing is usually what it seems and the book is full of enough twists to change your opinion. Asimov's abilities lie in telling compelling a story through the overarching circumstances. While the story seems a little shallow from time to time, the ideas he talks about, weaving sentiment in between his nifty scientific logic about time travel, dimensions and parallel realities is an absolute treat to the reader.
On a more superficial basis, the writer does paint an intricate caricature of the antagonist who is an absolute hotshot to fall in love with. Not the regular jerky handsome kind, but the mild intelligent one.
I'll be honest though, the book might not appeal to all sorts of readers but as far as this reviewer is concerned, this sci-fi romantic thirller is worth a shot. Just for the record, it makes for a great reading if you are travelling; the long hours of attention helps in understanding the story better.
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