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A review by goodkoopa
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
3.0
Person 1 says something.
Then a paragraph vaguely explaining the something in an overly complex and wordy way.
Person 2 responds with 1 sentence, referring to another confusing concept.
Another paragraph almost explaining the concept, but just leaving you confused.
Person 1 continues the conversation, referring to more things that you don't know about yet, but your still trying to figure out the first few confusing things they said.
It takes pages and pages to get through a minute of conversation that way. You have to juggle multiple vague loose ends in your mind, wondering if you're missing something, and not really sure what's going on. It's frustrating.
That's the first chapter. I was angry. It was a lot of work to get through that chapter. But I worked through it because it's Asimov. I figured he'd stop being annoying in the second chapter.
And yeah the writing does get a better. But why must he sometimes measure things in centuries, and others in millennia? It's the 47th millennia. And now it's the 325th century? Oh wait, now we're going back to the 92nd century, or maybe millennia. I can't remember all theses time periods he keeps throwing at us. The whole time I felt like I was supposed to have this all mapped out in my head but I couldn't.
The protagonist, Harlan, is a simp who sounds really annoying to be around. It's hard to like him. But the poor guy is so uptight and really needs to get laid. I doubt that was the intended theme, but it's kindda there. His love interest is a super hot, and very sexually available babe. Pretty over the top. Typical of older scifi I guess. Would be nice to have some more interesting characters.
Not to complain too much. I did like the book. The whole time travel thing gets really interesting. For a while I thought Asimov messed things up with paradoxes, but he kind of explains them and it works. Lots of mystery and plot twists. Eternity is a this institution full of really smart dudes who are actually kind of slaves. They travel in time across millennia to meddle in history and keep humanity prosperous and from destroying itself. It's pretty cool.
Then a paragraph vaguely explaining the something in an overly complex and wordy way.
Person 2 responds with 1 sentence, referring to another confusing concept.
Another paragraph almost explaining the concept, but just leaving you confused.
Person 1 continues the conversation, referring to more things that you don't know about yet, but your still trying to figure out the first few confusing things they said.
It takes pages and pages to get through a minute of conversation that way. You have to juggle multiple vague loose ends in your mind, wondering if you're missing something, and not really sure what's going on. It's frustrating.
That's the first chapter. I was angry. It was a lot of work to get through that chapter. But I worked through it because it's Asimov. I figured he'd stop being annoying in the second chapter.
And yeah the writing does get a better. But why must he sometimes measure things in centuries, and others in millennia? It's the 47th millennia. And now it's the 325th century? Oh wait, now we're going back to the 92nd century, or maybe millennia. I can't remember all theses time periods he keeps throwing at us. The whole time I felt like I was supposed to have this all mapped out in my head but I couldn't.
The protagonist, Harlan, is a simp who sounds really annoying to be around. It's hard to like him. But the poor guy is so uptight and really needs to get laid. I doubt that was the intended theme, but it's kindda there. His love interest is a super hot, and very sexually available babe. Pretty over the top. Typical of older scifi I guess. Would be nice to have some more interesting characters.
Not to complain too much. I did like the book. The whole time travel thing gets really interesting. For a while I thought Asimov messed things up with paradoxes, but he kind of explains them and it works. Lots of mystery and plot twists. Eternity is a this institution full of really smart dudes who are actually kind of slaves. They travel in time across millennia to meddle in history and keep humanity prosperous and from destroying itself. It's pretty cool.