Review of Pebble In the Sky

Two minutes before he disappeared forever from the face of the Earth he knew, Joseph Schwartz was strolling down the pleasant streets of a Chicago suburb, thinking about his family.

He was a simple man, a kind man, a practical man not given to wild flights of imagination.

So when he saw the old Raggedy Ann doll lying in his path, he merely smiled and lifted his foot to step over it…

That was the only thing he remembered.

He did not know that it marked the last act of hsi life on this earth…and the beginning of a terrifying journey into a strange new world where the twentieth century was already ancient history.

Asimov’s first novel and one of my favorites. It is certainly the best of the three Empire novels.

Pebble in the Sky is an expansion of an unsuccessful novella, "Grow Old Along With Me", which is included in The Alternate Asimovs. It must be admitted that the novel is an improvement on the novella, as Asimov himself notes.

In some respects, I am hard-pressed to explain why I enjoy this book so much. The writing is not Asimov’s most polished and the characters are often little more than cardboard cutouts. Then again, the latter may be part of the appeal. Bel Arvardan, the "male lead", is very much a heroic man of action. He’s always taking noble stances, trying to beat up on the bad-guys, and is a swell bloke, too, who falls in love almost instantly with the pretty, resourceful and yet somehow pale maiden-to-be-rescued. Asimov is here taking advantage of these and other archetypes and using them to good advantage.

Asimov also used the approach which served him so well in developing the Foundation series: plagiarize history. Here he borrows flagrantly from first century Judea (down to the Procurator’s admission, "I find no fault in the man"), which he adds to a post-apocalyptic radioactive Earth to provide one of his most fully realized (and chilling) societies.

(The radioactive Earth itself—introduced here—and explanation for it—nuclear war—were to plague Asimov in his later years. Robots and Empire included a revised explanation for how it all came about.)

I also like the hero, Joseph Schwartz. Asimov later became embarrassed by some of his descriptions of middle-aged life, but Schwartz remains one of his more interesting protagonists, an ultimate fish-out-of-water, a Twentieth Century man thrust by a mysterious and unexplainable accident into the distant future (and which of us have not fantasized of that happening to us?).

Books By title By date By rating By category By series Stories By title By date By rating By category By series	Pebble In the Sky
	Book 1	1950	Science Fiction Novel

	Kinetics of the Reaction Inactivation of Tyrosinase During Its Catalysis of the Aerobic Oxidation of Catechol <<<
	>>> I, Robot

	Publisher’s blurb Earthman beware! Two minutes before he disappeared forever from the face of the Earth he knew, Joseph Schwartz was strolling down the pleasant streets of a Chicago suburb, thinking about his family. He was a simple man, a kind man, a practical man not given to wild flights of imagination. So when he saw the old Raggedy Ann doll lying in his path, he merely smiled and lifted his foot to step over it… That was the only thing he remembered. He did not know that it marked the last act of hsi life on this earth…and the beginning of a terrifying journey into a strange new world where the twentieth century was already ancient history. Review Asimov’s first novel and one of my favorites. It is certainly the best of the three Empire novels. Pebble in the Sky is an expansion of an unsuccessful novella, "Grow Old Along With Me", which is included in The Alternate Asimovs. It must be admitted that the novel is an improvement on the novella, as Asimov himself notes. In some respects, I am hard-pressed to explain why I enjoy this book so much. The writing is not Asimov’s most polished and the characters are often little more than cardboard cutouts. Then again, the latter may be part of the appeal. Bel Arvardan, the "male lead", is very much a heroic man of action. He’s always taking noble stances, trying to beat up on the bad-guys, and is a swell bloke, too, who falls in love almost instantly with the pretty, resourceful and yet somehow pale maiden-to-be-rescued. Asimov is here taking advantage of these and other archetypes and using them to good advantage. Asimov also used the approach which served him so well in developing the Foundation series: plagiarize history. Here he borrows flagrantly from first century Judea (down to the Procurator’s admission, "I find no fault in the man"), which he adds to a post-apocalyptic radioactive Earth to provide one of his most fully realized (and chilling) societies. (The radioactive Earth itself—introduced here—and explanation for it—nuclear war—were to plague Asimov in his later years. Robots and Empire included a revised explanation for how it all came about.) I also like the hero, Joseph Schwartz. Asimov later became embarrassed by some of his descriptions of middle-aged life, but Schwartz remains one of his more interesting protagonists, an ultimate fish-out-of-water, a Twentieth Century man thrust by a mysterious and unexplainable accident into the distant future (and which of us have not fantasized of that happening to us?).

	Review copyright © 1995–2002 by John H. Jenkins. All rights reserved. Last updated: JHJ