Asimov’s “Pebble in the sky” is the first of the Empire novels published chronologically – though not the first in the traditional reading order. Contrary to my expectations, there were no robots, but the book was sufficiently innovative and thought provoking for me to enjoy it immensely.
Without revealing the plot, I can say that the book is set (possibly) hundreds of thousands of years from our present day – a big difference from other star trek like stories where the difference is usually just a few hundreds of years.
And though our Earth is at the center of the plot, no importance is attached to earth by the rest of the galactic civilization. In fact, it seems that the origins of humans have been lost and no one knows that earth was the origin of modern day humans.
I like such non-anthropocentricity in science fiction writing since it puts things in perspective. Even though I absolutely loved the original “Star Trek” series, I did find its constant focus on the importance of the human race and earth as such galling. I read science fiction to take me out of my comfort zone and widen my thought patterns, not to reiterate standard modes of thought. “Pebble in the sky” does just this.
This is the second Asimov book I’m reading in the “Foundation” series and though it was only a small one in comparison to a full blown novel, it deserves its own post and will contribute to the “Books I have read this year” list!
And though I haven’t read enough Asimov yet to get a full feel of his writing, I really like what I’ve read this far and hope to read a lot more of his work in the future.