Pebble in the Sky - Isaac Asimov Book Review

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Review Summaries

"By the Year of the Galactic Era 827, thousands of planets belong to the Imperial Empire. Earth is a mere way station, heavily contaminated by radioactivity and able to sustain only 20 million lives. When humans reach the age of 60, they are euthanized to make way for the next generation. Most members of the Empire look down on Earthlings, regarding them as a backward race, but archaeologist Bel Arvardan, a native of Baronn in the Sirius system, is convinced that most humanoid life in the universe may have originated on Earth, and he mounts an expedition to search for antiquities. He'll have difficulty getting permission from Imperial authorities, however, because humans have rebelled three times in the past two centuries, and the government wants no further incitements to trouble. Arvardan's trail will cross that of Joseph Schwartz, a 62-year-old retired tailor who inexplicably zips from 20th-century Chicago because of a radiation accident into this distant future and is operated on by physicist Affret Shekt to increase his mental powers by many factors. This was Asimov's first science fiction novel, published in 1950."
David Loftus, Resident Isaac Asimov Scholar

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Overall Review

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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Book
Descript. of chases or violence - 10%
planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 40%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 30%

FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION? - science fiction story
Time Travel: - largely forwards/future
Tech./$$$/Info hunt Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying - info about lifeform(s)/society/phenomena
Time Travel story? Yes

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - scientist
Age: - 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 40's-50's
Profession/status: - bureaucrat
Eccentric: Yes - emotionally unstable
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - an above average amount
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged
Sense of humor - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Smarter than most other characters
Physique - average physique

Setting
Terrain - Mountains
Earth setting: - distant future
Takes place on Earth? Yes

Style
Person? - mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death? - moderately detailed references to deaths
scientific jargon? (SF only) - some scientific explanation
How much dialogue? - significantly more descript than dialog

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Exultant - Destiny’s Children 2 by Stephen Baxter

Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).

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