The End of Eternity

The next work in my time travel adventures is Isaac Asimov's 1955 Sci-Fi novel, The End of Eternity . The story revolves around an organization which uses time travel for the purpose of social engineering various time periods for the betterment of humanity.

Naturally, things don't work out as planned.

I find myself judging this novel from two different criteria. First, as a Sci-Fi novel written in the 1950s, and secondly, on how well it holds up in the overall Sci-Fi world.

The book was highly acclaimed by the critics of the day. In that respect, the novel is well worth the read. It's great, by the standards of the 50s and 60s.

However, when compared to later Sci-Fi works, The End of Eternity doesn't deserve to be included in the 23 Best Time Travel Science Fiction Books. Perhaps I'm being unfair.

I thought that the time frames involved within the story to be so vast as to be approaching the realm of absurdity. The speculating on the 150,000th century was enough to make my eyes roll to the back of my head.

On the plus side, the ending came as a bit of a surprise to me and it made up for some of the negatives. It may not be my favorite time travel book of all times, it still beats out  The Thief of Time or Time Enough For Love .