Andrew Harlan, the insular protagonist in what is arguably one of Isaac Asimov’s best works, is a man who lives outside of time. Harlan is an Eternal, a member of a clandestine organization that exists outside of time, an organization that makes “necessary” changes to reality in order to ensure the very best for mankind. In this realm Harlan is one of the elite, a Technician, skilled in the art of making subtle adjustments that nevertheless send ripples through the stream of time. There is a solitary aspect to being a Technician that Andrew Harlan is ideally suited for, until one fateful assignment brings him in contact with Noys Lambent, a woman whose existence in real time calls into question Andrew Harlan’s vocation and the role of Eternity in the lives of humanity. And once Andrew Harlan falls in love, the very nature of time and Eternity may be irrevocably changed.

With more contemporary examples of stories involving the manipulation of time and matter and/or extreme governmental oversight into our lives (movies like Dark City, Gattaca and Minority Report spring to mind) it can be difficult to recommend a book like The End of Eternity. There is an argument to be made that the older work will have a ‘been there, done that’ feel to it and that a more modern work eliminates the dated elements of decades-old storytelling. When it comes to a work as well executed as The End of Eternity, I don’t buy that argument. One can easily posit that it is important to understand the history of science fiction and the foundational novels upon which more current stories are built. I certainly get that out of much of the classic genre fiction that I read and believe it to be a justifiable reason to read older works. But beyond the historical merits there are stories that simply should not be passed up because they are just too good to miss.

The End of Eternity is one such novel.

Andrew Harlan is an interesting character as is the organization to which he belongs. Asimov has created a character that is not instantly likeable, but neither does he put the reader off. He is a character uniquely suited to the position to which he has risen, a position in which social isolation is a desired and necessary factor.

What was it that educator Yarrow had once said: “above all, a Technician must be dispassionate. The Reality Change he initiates may affect the lives of as many as fifty billion people. A million or more of these may be so drastically affected as to be considered new individuals. Under these conditions, and emotional make-up is a distinct handicap”.

While there are many different and equally important roles in Eternity, the job of the Technician carries with it a degree of stigma and fear because of the very power the position wields. Asimov writes the character is such a way that the reader is introduced to the eerily fascinating world of Eternity while warming the reader up slowly to Harlan as Harlan himself becomes gradually more self-aware, gradually more alive.

Occasionally he would lose himself in a world where life was death, death; where a man made his decisions irrevocably; where evil could not be prevented, nor good promoted, and the Battle of Waterloo, having been lost, was really lost for good and all. There was even a scrap of poetry he treasured which stated that a moving finger having once written could never be lured to unwrite.

And then it was difficult, almost a shock, to return his thoughts to Eternity, and to a universe where Reality was something flexible and evanescent, something men such as himself could hold in the palms of their hands and shake into better shape.

Without resorting to being preachy Asimov has written a captivating novel that examines free-will and what control of one’s fate means to the very nature of being human. His Eternity is an efficient, precise organization whose desire for the greater good ignores the needs of the individual and it is that conflict that Asimov fuels to create a gripping page-turner.

Any novel of this age is going to have some dated elements, especially in regards to computers, but I found nothing in the story that derailed the flow of Asimov’s plot and as I read I found myself thinking that this might just be my favorite Asimov story of all that I have read. The tension mounts in the later third of the book toward a climactic end and there are enough twists and turns to keep the suspension building. It is a pleasure to follow Andrew Harlan on his journey and while Noys Lambent exhibits a degree of gender stereotyping she is still an engaging character in her own right. To top that off Asimov’s imagination has created this world that exists outside of the flow of time that will conjure up all manner of fascinating images.

I read this book back in November and as it is one that will be on my Best Of list for 2012, I hated to pass up the opportunity to review it. And with numerous science fiction related reading events on the horizon I also did not want to miss the chance of telling you about a book that must make its way onto your reading list. The End of Eternity is highly effective storytelling that will remind the reader just why Isaac Asimov is considered one of the masters of the genre, and why classic genre fiction can be both entertaining and relevant to the modern reader.