Customer Reviews

Of Time and Space and Other Things

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I just finished this book a couple nights ago. I've also read all four Robot novels and the first Empire book Stars Like Dust. I have to say that out of those books, The Currents of Space drew me in the most and really delivered!

The Trantorian Empire is rapidly approaching its full conquest of the galaxy. However, the wealthy planet Sark is one of the relatively few major obstacles remaining to the Trantorians in their mission. Sark is independent and important to the galaxy for its sale of the extremely valuable substance known as kyrt. Kyrt is similar in some ways to cotton but vastly superior in other respects, and it's only available from Sark.

However, Sark doesn't produce the kyrt itself. For some unknown reason, kyrt grows *only* on the nearby planet of Florina. Sark basically uses the Florinian natives as cheap slave labor to harvest and process the kyrt. No one has been able to get kyrt to grow elsewhere as anything but plain cotton. Thus, Sark has become wealthy and powerful. In addition, though Trantor could easily subdue Sark militarily, it would face the wrath of the rest of the galaxy for disrupting the supply of kyrt. Naturally, Sark depends entirely on its exploitation of Florina for its wealth.

Now enter a man who knows that Florina is doomed and that the immensely important kyrt production may be in jeopardy. This leads to a fantastic tale of political intrigue, murder, and sci-fi that somehow seems to have a lot more substance than the 200 pages it takes up. Read it!

If you can get it, that is. All three Empire novels are out of print. I suggest trying online auctions or used book stores.

After finishing "The Stars, Like Dust", Asimov started working on a third novel which would be called "The Currents of Space", which he was intending to publish in "Astounding". After discussing the idea with Walter Bradbury of Doubleday & Co., Bradbury expressed interest in publishing the third novel as he had the first two. The novel was published in October - December of 1952 in "Astounding", and by Doubleday in December.

"The Currents of Space" is easily the best of the three precursor novels to the Foundation series which have become known as the Galactic Empire Series; however that is not all that difficult. This story takes place in Asimov's universe chronologically between the other two books, at a time when Trantor had become an empire, but not the Galactic Empire that it would become later.

The story is centered on the planet Florina and on a man named Rik, who initially appears to be mentally challenged, but who is in fact a spatio-analyst from Earth who has had much of his mind erased by a Psychic Probe after he tried to warn of the impending destruction of the planet. When Rik's memory starts to return, people from Trantor and Sark (the world which rules Florina), and perhaps others as well become aware of his existence and try to find and control him.

As with the first two Galactic Empire novels, Asimov wrote an afterword where he explains the scientific errors in the story. In this story the error is rather significant to the plot; however, the other elements of this story do not suffer as badly as they did in "Pebble in The Sky" or "The Stars, Like Dust". Regardless, this is only a fairly average novel, and not the best place to start if you are unfamiliar with Isaac Asimov.

This is certainly the best of the three Empire novels, and one of Asimov's best science fiction novels of any type. I love his early fiction in general more than his later stuff, like FOundation and Earth and Robots and Empire and Nemesis. In comparison, Currents is much tighter, and more cleanly written, with a plot that GRIPS you like a good mystery(which, I think, is the type of writer Asimov was at heart). My one regret about this novel is that it is one of the last of his that I have to read, and I don't want to be left without any more. And if there was one thing I was left wanting in the book, it was for a certain kiss(not to give away anything) to develop into something more-- but I suppose that is the working of modern hack-fiction on me, and Asimov's abstinence from such cheap "attention-catchers" demonstrates his superior writing ability. He didn't NEED that to make the book more interesting.

Having read all of Asimov's early works, it's fair to say that this is the best of the crop of the Empire novels, and is better than all the Robot novels as well. It's not quite up to the Foundation stories, hence the rating of 4 stars.

The plot is interesting, and has aged well. There is not very much that makes you snicker in the light of current scientific knowledge. He has a lot of characters for a 200 page book, but it is never confusing; they are individuals and it's easy to keep them separated in your mind. The story draws you in and keeps you interested from beginning to end.

Asimov had the tendency to throw too many cliffhangers/revelations that didn't go anywhere in his early novels (as compared to, say, Nightfall), and it feels like he's cheaply manipulating the reader. This book, while containing some of these events, are far more logical and less contrived than in the other Empire and Robot novels. This makes it a far more enjoyable read.

It is a shame that these books are out of print. I think the fact that 14 people have written reviews of this book points to the fact that there is still a following for Asimov out there, and maybe the publishers should print another edition of these early books, even in a single volume (as each Empire book is only 200 pages or so).

One day, on an agricultural colony planet run by a empire as harsh as the Roman Empire in biblical times, a local functionary finds a man whose mind has been destroyed in one of his town's fields. A peasant woman is tasked to re-raise this man from pretty much a second infancy. But now things are starting to come back, and the supervisor, although a native himself, sees the threat this poses to his masters' power. The principal crop on this world is a form of cotton that grows only this way on his planet--it's used in expensive clothing. But before his mind was "wiped", the victim was a scientist who had discovered a menace which threatened that planet. Although the story has Ludlumesque head games by people in power, its strong point is in the human factor in the form of the victim, his female protector, as well as his former boss who's concerned about what became of him. That's why I say Wouk. But this is a sci fi book, right? Well, don't let that scare you off. It's a hell of a story in a middlin' size book--you don't get the two in a single package all that often.

Of course this is science fiction and quite notable science fiction at that. But in the hands of Isaac Asimov, it's also a mystery although not in the style of the first three robot novels. Somebody used a psychic probe on an Earthman, wiping out his memory, and dumped him in a small village on the planet, Florina. The woman who takes charge of him and the village's townsman eventually team up as the man begins regaining memory, and all become embroiled in political machinations. We're introduced to the planet Trantor, the center of the Galactic Empire.

While this is the last of the Empire trilogy written by Asimov, it's the earliest in the fictional time sequence, occuring in an era much later than that era covered in the Robot novels.

This is an engaging, tightly written novel with twists which will keep the reader involved.

It is really an enormous tragedy that so many of Isaac Asimov's greatest Science Fiction works remain out of print. The three `Empire' novels by Asimov are a great example. All three books are wonderfully written and fill the gap between The Robot novels and the Foundation series beautifully. These novels are also a glimpse at the state of science in the fifties. If you are an Asimov fan and see any of the Empire novels available for loan or purchase please do so. You will not be sorry. To clear up some confusion on the part of some, the reason these novels are called `Empire' novels is because they take place just before the Empire began, during its infancy and at its peak. Very much fun indeed.

Yes it's a tough read. Yes it requires patience and determination. But the fruits of the labor are an opening of the mind, a refreshed perspective of our world and the universe. Choose your chapter that meets your interest and be entertained and educated. This is not one to read straight through from front to back. This is one of my favorite books and truly not only a fascinating set of facts but an arrangement of concepts that expand the mind.

It is really an enormous tragedy that so many of Isaac Asimov's great Science Fiction works remain out of print. The three `Empire' novels by Asimov are a great example. All three books are wonderfully written and fill the gap between The Robot novels and the Foundation series beautifully. These novels also give us a glimpse at the state of science in the fifties. If you are an Asimov fan and see any of the Empire novels available for loan or purchase please do so. You will not be sorry. To clear up some confusion on the part of some, the reason these novels are called `Empire' novels is because they take place just before the Empire referenced in the Foundation series began, during its infancy and during its peak. Very much fun indeed.

I recently acquired a copy of this classic and I was gladly surprised. The book takes place (like most of Asimov's universe) on a extremely distant future. It's been so long that people don't even remember that Earth was the original homeworld of humankind. Thousands upon thousands of star sistems have been settled for millenia, with myriad kingdoms and confederacies. From the planet Trantor a colosal empire has been growing for the past five hundred years from it's location near the galactic center and now controls over half the worlds in the galaxy, with plans to get their hands on the rest, becoming rulers of all humanity.

But one thorn on their galactic side is the planet Sark, for they control the only source of the miraculous (and fabulously expensive) fabric called kyrst, on the planet Florina, wich the sarkites rule with an iron hand and keeping the population very ignorant. Trantor can easily take both planets militarily, but such a move would terrible political repercutions, because it could convince the rest of the galaxy not under their control (whose nobilities and upper classes are crazy about kyrst) to unite against them. But on the other hand they don't like to have to put up with the sarkites arrogance.

It is in this complicated settup that we encounter our hero, a man who hasd his brain almost fried and doesn't remember anithing about himself, but posses a secret that could blow the entire galaxy wide open, with the future of Florina and tha galaxy in the balance. Trying to put the puzzle together will be almost imposible and in the end you will never guess who the guilty one is. Asimov created a story that will never age and will be fun to readers today as it was on those days. I strongly recomend it to anyone who is able to find it. A pity that it's out of print.