Published in
1955, The End of Eternity is one of Isaac Asimov’s finest novels. I have read
it several times. It is a fascinating story that is relatively easy to follow,
but it also sticks in your mind and makes you think about the implications of
time travel, altering history and causality paradoxes.
Eternity
The story
revolves around an organization called Eternity. Its members, the Eternals,
exist outside of time and observe the history of the earth like one huge canvas
stretching over approximately seven million years. They control time from the
27th to the 70,000th century. Its members are culled out of Time and replaced
when they die. They begin their careers as Cubs and then become Observers.
Their work as Observers will define whether or not they will be given a
promotion to a higher rank. Those who don’t make the cut spend the rest of
their lives in maintenance, looking after the machinery and time travel kettle
shafts. Those who are successful are divided into four ranks: Communications,
Sociologists, Life-Plotters and Technicians, hoping that they will later become
Computers. Those with the most eminent careers are eventually given the title
of Senior Computer and appointed to the powerful Allwhen Council that rules
Eternity. And everyone is identified by the colour of their shoulder emblems:
red double-headed arrow on a black background for Maintenance; blue bar on
white background for Communications; solid white for an Observer; blue for a
sociologist; green for a Life-plotter; rose red for a Technician; and yellow
for a Computer. Most of the members are men due to the fact that removing a
woman from Time is far more likely to produce a change in history than removing
a man. When first established, Eternity went about solving such problems as deforestation
and trade of anti-cancer serums. Centuries that had heavy pollution, for
instance, were saved by Eternity transporting fresh topsoil from other, cleaner
times. But it was not long before the Eternals discovered Reality Changes. In
the early days when Eternity stretched no farther upwhen than the 50th century,
Senior Computer Henry Wadsman prevented a war by removing the brake from a
politician’s car a few years before the conflict began. From then on, the goal
of the Eternals was to make human life as comfortable as possible, preventing
wars and diseases and even trying to stamp out smoking. As physiotime passes
for centuries and centuries, generations of new Eternals tweak and tinker with
Time over and over again, all in the name of improving the lot of humanity.
However, there
is a downside. It might happen that a Change (with a capital C) results in a
great work of literature never being written or a talented musician never being
born or becoming a plumber instead. In that case, the original works of these
people are stored in the libraries of Eternity. And it also happens that human
beings never achieve successful space travel. Many Changes to history involve
stamping out adventures into the heavens. In one scene of the book, when a
Change takes place, the observers see an enormous, shiny space ship turn into a
rusting wreck. Eternity views space travel as a waste of resources that
prevents mankind from achieving the greatest good for all.
Some members of
Eternity also ponder and write about the paradoxes of time travel. What would
happen should a man travel in time to visit himself as a younger or even an
older man? What if an Eternal were to return to his own time after a Reality
Change and meet the new version of himself that exists as an analogue in the
wake of the Change?
And so this
work continues, with Eternity manipulating Reality and pondering the
philosophical issues involved, all the while making sure that the inhabitants
of the earth do not realize that the Changes are taking place. Humanity is only
dimly aware of the time travellers, believing that their function is trade. But
as the book unfolds, it is revealed that Eternity must guarantee its own
existence by the closing of a bizarre time loop.
The Characters
and the Plot
The leading
character in the book is newly promoted Technician Andrew Harlan, who discovers
that the very existence of Eternity lies in his hands. The other main
protagonists are Senior Computer Laban Twissel, dean of the Allwhen Council,
Noÿs, the mystery woman of the 482nd century, a newly recruited overage Cub
called Brinsley Sheridan Cooper from the 78th century and Computer Hobbe Finge,
Harlan’s superior who apparently has it in for him. Technicians are the least
popular Eternals, looked upon as those who engineer the Changes and alter the
personalities and lives of the unsuspecting humans on earth. Consequently, Technicians
are shunned. Although all of Eternity is geared to making changes, strangely
enough the Technicians are the scapegoats, taking the brunt of the blame for
callously altering or doing away with the lives of billions (“Cold as a Technician’s
heart” and “A trillion personalities changed, a Technician’s yawn” are common sayings
in Eternity).
Harlan begins
as the ideal Eternal, but with an unusual interest in primitive history, i.e.,
history before the establishment of Eternity in the 27th. Originally from the
95th century and stationed in the 575th, he is dedicated to his work and
disapproves of women in the organization, believing them to be a distraction. If
Eternals wish to have a girlfriend, they must apply for liaisons with women in
Time, and all applications must go through the council. Yet, despite being over
thirty, Harlan has never applied for a liaison. But now Computer Finge has
recruited Noÿs Lambent out of time to work as his secretary. Noÿs is a
beautiful girl with long, black hair and seductive perfume. Despite a few
feeble attempts to avoid her, Harlan is assigned to work in her century and
inevitably falls in love with her.
In the
meantime, he is surprised to find that he has become the object of interest of
Senior Computer Twissel, the chain-smoking head of the Allwhen Council. Harlan
is made Twissel’s personal technician and introduced to the twenty-four year
old Cub, Brinsley Sheridan Cooper. As Cubs are usually recruited at the age of
fifteen, Harlan is somewhat taken aback by this, but nevertheless agrees to
teach primitive history to Cooper, who has to be taught as much as possible
about the times prior to the establishment of Eternity. Cooper is also being
taught a crammed crash course in mathematics and temporal engineering.
Harlan’s
suspicions are aroused and he does a little investigating into the life of the
legendary Vikkor Mallansohn of the 24th century, the first person to build a
temporal field. He discovers that the establishment of Eternity in the 27th
century was only possible in the wake of the discovery of the Lefebvre
Equations in mathematics at about the same time. Therefore, it would have been
impossible for Mallansohn to build a temporal field three centuries earlier.
Harlan guesses why Cooper is being given all these classes and confronts
Twissel with his discoveries. He believes that Cooper is to be sent back to the
24th century to teach mathematics from the 27th to Mallansohn so that Eternity
might be established; in other words, a time loop that must be closed. Twissel
is shocked at Harlan’s deductions, but tells him that it is more complicated
than that. It turns out that there is a closely guarded book called the
Mallansohn Memoir, that is passed along from one Senior Computer to the next in
the greatest secrecy. Nearing the end of his long life, the mysterious
Mallansohn put pen to paper to tell the story of his life. This great man who
was credited with the discovery of the temporal field was a recluse who lived
in the California wilderness. In 2317, he was visited by Brinsley Sheridan
Cooper, who claimed to be from the future and set about teaching him all he
needed to know about time travel. However, Cooper became frustrated. Mallansohn
was no great pupil, and Cooper himself turned out to be no great teacher. To
make matters worse, Mallansohn suffered an accident one day and died. Cooper
found himself at a loss. After a long time, he decided to make a bold move. He
himself would take on the identity of Mallansohn and finish the work Eternity
had assigned to him. He built his first temporal field and wrote out
instructions for the future Eternals. At the end of his life, which was very
long, he realized at last that he himself had always been the Vikkor Mallansohn
that the Eternals so revered. In other words, he was the loop of the circle in
time, and Eternity itself was responsible for the establishment of Eternity. In
his book, he mentioned that he had been given invaluable teaching from
Technician Harlan and other training under the direction of Laban Twissel.
Therefore, at the appropriate time, the Allwhen Council went about finding
Harlan and Twissel and putting them in the positions that had been described by
Mallansohn. Harlan, from an early age, had been encouraged to take an interest
in primitive history so that the circle in time might be closed. Mallansohn had
also mentioned the special kettle that had transported him past the downwhen
terminus of the 27th into the 24th. Twissel now reveals to Harlan that they are
only hours away from sending Cooper into the past. He also reveals that there
is a danger that the circle can be broken. A rash act by anyone in on the story
could put an end to Eternity. He also explains why it is important to establish
Eternity three centuries before it would be established by the natural course
of events. It turns out that without the temporal field and the attention of
scientists being directed to time travel, alternative technological
developments would have led to the destruction of the human race. In other
words, Eternity had to be set up to save and guide humanity.
In the
meantime, Harlan has broken the laws of Eternity by removing Noÿs from the
482nd prior to a Change. Using blackmail, he had a Life Plotter trace Noÿs and
discovered that she would not exist in the new Reality. Desperate to keep his
true love, Harlan rescues her from the doomed reality and hides her far upwhen
in the Hidden Centuries. From the 27th to the 70,000th, the Eternals can view
time and choose when and where to enter it. However, from the 70,001st to the
150,000th, they cannot break through from Eternity into Time. No one knows why.
They are free again to enter Time only after the 150,000th, but find that no
human life exists on earth. The Eternals believe that the most likely
explanation is that human beings have left the earth and gone to live on other
planets. But that still does not explain the barrier that prevents them from
viewing the earth after the 70,000th. It is in these sections of Eternity that
Harlan decides to hide Noÿs while he works on his final days with Cooper. They
travel into the far upwhen in a kettle and surprisingly it is the
time-travel-ignorant Noÿs who stops the kettle at the 111,394th century, saying
that it was far enough. Harlan thinks nothing of this at the time and leaves
her in the empty section of Eternity there, convinced that no one will be able
to find her. However, when he next attempts to return to Noÿs, he finds that
the kettle cannot pass the 100,000th century. Believing this to be a ploy of
Finge’s to keep Noÿs from him, he rages back to find out what is happening.
Finge tells him to consult Twissel and Harlan does so. It is at this point all
is made clear about the real mission of Cooper and that it is now time to see
him off. Twissel assures Harlan that Noÿs is perfectly safe and takes him to
the special kettle that will transport Cooper to the year 2317. The memoir had
mentioned Harlan at the controls, so he is locked into the control room and
told to wait. He sees the controls set at 2317, but now believes that Twissel
and Finge will double-cross him. He sabotages the controls and when Cooper
finally sets off, Harlan sends him further downwhen, into the 20th century,
preferring to put an end to Eternity rather than let Twissel get the better of
him. With Cooper in the 20th, there is no chance of Eternity being established,
and death will come to all of them.
Twissel now
frees Harlan and tells him he can have Noÿs, believing that all has gone well
and that the circle is closed. He is shocked when Harlan tells him what he has
done, that Cooper is now in the 20th century but it is not clear exactly where.
Twissel upbraids Harlan, saying he had given his word that Noÿs was safe. But
Harlan confronts him about the barrier across the 100,000th. The Senior
Computer says that no such thing is possible and that Harlan has made a huge
mistake. He tells of his own story, of how he too once broke the laws of
Eternity and had a child in Time with a woman he fell in love with from the
575th. He tells of how he had a fine son who was turned into a paraplegic by a
Reality Change engineered by Twissel himself, and that the son is still out
there in Time as a paraplegic. Harlan feels sorry for him and realizes that
Twissel was actually his friend all along. Twissel then realizes that there is
a way to save Eternity. They find that Cooper placed an ad in an edition of
Time Magazine with his mailing address. All Harlan has to do is go back in time
to find him and return him to the 24th. Then the circle will close and all will
be well.
Harlan,
however, demands to be reunited with Noÿs. They travel up the kettle shafts and
the barrier at the 100,000th is no longer there. Twissel gives no further
thought to it, but Harlan can’t understand it. During the trip, the two men
have a conversation about evolution. Twissel reveals that he is from a century in
the 30,000s, and despite he and Harlan being separated by three million years,
there is no great change between their bodies. They then speculate about the
people of the Hidden Centuries and the interference of Eternity in time. This
sets Harlan on a train of thought.
They find Noÿs
in the 111,394th and she is well. They return to the 575th and Harlan demands
that he should be allowed to take Noÿs with him on his trip to the year 1932.
The idea is to collect Cooper at the exact moment of his arrival and return him
to his mission without any perceptible time lapse. Twissel agrees, as no one
else is capable of negotiating life in the Primitive except Harlan.
Harlan and Noÿs
set off in the special kettle and arrive in 1932. They find Cooper’s cave and
some money that he has left for them. Next day, Harlan will set off to find the
young Eternal. But now he and Noÿs indulge in a strange conversation. His
conversation with Twissel in the kettle has got him thinking and he works out
something important: Noÿs is a woman of the Hidden Centuries and her people put
up the barrier over the 100,000th.
Noÿs now
reveals what has actually happened to humanity between the 70,000th and the
150,000th. Humanity has died out, unable to compete in the Galaxy. In the
125,000th, human scientists worked out how to travel quickly to other stars
using the hyperspatial jump. But when they arrive on other planets, they find
that other intelligences in the galaxy have beaten them to it. Although
humanity is an older intelligence, they took too long to develop the jump
through space and allowed younger races to overtake them. The humans suffer a
sense of loss and eventually die out by the 150,000th.
The people of
Noÿs’s time have developed time travel of their own, but based on different
scientific principles from those of Eternity. They have learned how to view
history and alternative history and discover that they live in a low
probability time. They suspect that some Change in the far downwhen initiated
by Eternity is responsible for this. Had it not been for this Change, mankind
would have reached the stars before the other younger races in the galaxy,
thereby achieving humanity’s Basic State, i.e. the most likely Reality
possible, rather than the low probability Reality.
Thorough investigation
showed that the Change that was caused was not a Change made by Eternity but
rather the very establishment of Eternity in the first place. Noÿs explains to
Harlan that Eternity must never be established. All they have to do is send the
kettle away and never seek out Cooper.
Harlan is
furious and threatens to kill Noÿs. But finally he succumbs to her argument.
She tells him that she had viewed their Reality together and fallen in love
with him even before she met him. All they have to do is send one letter to
Italy so that scientists will develop nuclear technology instead of temporal
technology. This will mean the first nuclear bomb in 1945 instead of the 30th
century. But the result of this will be that men will reach for the stars,
seeing the danger of having only one planet that could be blasted away in a
nuclear war. Harlan agrees. They send the kettle away and Cooper disappears
from the 20th century. Noÿs and Harlan are protected by a physiotime shield and
survive. This is the end of Eternity and the beginning of Infinity.
Comments on the
Story
Asimov was
inspired to write this story by an actual advertisement in Time magazine. At
the Boston University library, he had become known as the “Time professor”
because he loved going through old editions of the magazine. On November 17,
1953, he came across an advert in a 1932 magazine that appeared to have a
mushroom cloud drawn on it. As this was thirteen years before the first nuclear
explosion, the whole thing seemed out of place. Closer examination showed that
it was not a mushroom cloud; it was a geyser, but this was seedling he
needed for The End of Eternity. The message that Cooper leaves in the old Time
magazine for Harlan is an ad with a mushroom cloud and the caption: All the Talk
Of the Market, spelling out the word ATOM.
The book is
different from most of the Good Doctor’s other books in that he makes little
attempt to link it to his Foundation and Robot universe. Although a brief
mention is made of the Eternals in Foundation's Edge (1982), the book stands on
its own.
Although I thoroughly
enjoyed the book, it has to be admitted that there are a few weaknesses. The
most obvious is the sometimes clumsy characterization. The romance of Harlan
and Noÿs is not always very well handled. We have to remember that going into
sex was not the done thing in the 1950s, but even so Asimov never seemed to be
at ease with intimacy. It was only towards the end of his career that he dealt
with it more adroitly, with the relationship between Gladia and Elijah Baley being handled quite well in his Robot novels, and the sexual exploits of Golan Trevize in
Foundation and Earth.
The most serious
criticism of the story to the modern mind is that there are almost no women in
Eternity. Asimov does attempt to justify this by saying that extracting women
from world history would mean a greater chance of upsetting causality; but with
the Eternals already altering Reality so much, that argument is hard to sustain.
The fact is that Asimov came from a male-dominated society and could only write
his book from that viewpoint. It is one of the few aspects of the story that
sound dated. Another is that in Eternity there is no central library or storage
system, and people check out book films from individual libraries or line their
shelves with them.
I also found Noÿs’
trump card, her closing argument so to speak, too simplistic. Harlan, of
course, is not too keen on wiping out Eternity and the revered
Cooper-Mallansohn whom he is supposed to save. Noÿs then says that Harlan
should not allow “psychopaths” to dictate the future of mankind. Harlan does
not approve of the word, but then, at Noÿs’ urging, he reconsiders it:
“He thought of
the caste system in Eternity, of the abnormal life that turned guilt feelings
into anger and hatred against Technicians. He thought of Computers struggling
against themselves, of Finge intriguing against Twissel, and Twissel spying on
Finge…”
This could have
been done a little better. If we’re going to wipe out every organization that
has in-fighting and passing the buck, petty jealousies and envy, then it’s not
only Eternity that would have to go. In-fighting is found just about
everywhere.
Nevertheless,
the flaws of the story are easily compensated for by its general greatness. The
blurb describes it as “science fiction for the connoisseur”, a description that
I fully agree with. First of all, there is Eternity itself. The kettle shafts
and shifting realities and Changes are a brilliant piece of work. But most
importantly, the story is thought-provoking and opens up the mind to many
ideas. We can speculate about the paradoxes of time travel and how better
things would be if mistakes could be corrected.
Although the
book is in certain respects a product of the fifties, the story as a whole
stands up well to the test of time. I first read the book in 1994, nearly forty
years after it was published and even today it still goes down a treat. Some
details can be criticized, but in general the story is a masterpiece, a mammoth
undertaking that only a great writer could hold together and keep under control.
One of the most interesting points is how the Eternals talk of centuries on such a broad scope, seeing each century as an evolving entity that they strive to understand, monitor and manipulate.
Individuals within the centuries are not as important as the quest to achieve the greater good, a recurring theme in the Asimovian universe.
Asimov wrote
very few time travel stories, but The End of Eternity is certainly a great
read. His favourite fiction themes were robots, of which he was the undisputed master, and psychohistory. However, in my opinion, Eternity is right up there among his greatest works. Looking back on the story thirty years after publication, Asimov lamented how it was underrated, overshadowed by the Robot and Foundation series. Some commentators
have pointed out that the plot is too complicated and that all the changes and
tweaking of Reality are too overwhelming for many readers. That may be the case
for some people, but if you enjoy
thought-provoking science fiction, this is a book you can savour.
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