Pebble in the Sky – Isaac Asimov

Sometimes life is hard for the protagonists of science fiction novels: you can be thrown out of your space-time, and end up in another place and/or in other times. When all else fails, you land into other dimensions.

You don’t know what lies ahead once there, the rare pleasant surprises, easier to be greeted by green men with four arms, or being immersed in an obscure fog.

This time, the bad experience happens to Joseph Schwarz, a retired tailor: a single step transports him into a world far removed in time from the Chicago of 1949.

Apparently, Schwarz can be considered lucky, it is true that he is in an unknown environment, where people speak a language incomprehensible to him, but at least they are men and do not seem hostile.

Regarded as a mentally handicapped, Schwarz is greeted by a couple of farmers and later brought into the city to a certain Professor Shekt, a distinguished scientist who works on an experimental treatment that can enhance mental ability.

The old tailor’s encounters Shekt’s beautiful daughter, Pola, but he he discovers to be under the control of the Company of Elders, a group of fanatics who are enormously influential and who are weaving a dangerous intrigue.

Schwarz began to learn the local language, and slowly realizes that he has ended in a remote future, and not at all reassuring: the Earth is part of a huge galactic empire, but is considered an insignificant planet full of hot heads, also Earth is highly radioactive.

The scarcity of resources forces the inhabitants to a hard and ruthless life; with horror Schwarz comes to know that once you get to sixty years you become subject to euthanasia, and he is already beyond that limit.

The elderly tailor decides to escape, but has no friend to rely on, only his mental capacity, that now grows to the point that he can get in telepathic contact with others and even kill at a distance. He meets again with Pola and Bel Ardavan, an imperial archaeologist who studies the history of the Earth.

This strange trio face a threat of unimaginable scale, and that can shake or even topple the mighty empire of Trantor.

Pebble in the Sky is the last of a trilogy of novels (known as the Galactic Empire) which form the prelude to the Foundation Trilogy, the other stories are “The Stars, Like Dust” (1951) and “Currents of Space” (1952).

In the first two novels, the two hundred million colonized worlds are fragmented and divided, although in Currents of Space the imperial ambitions of Trantor are now evident, while the story of Pebble in the Sky are set after nine centuries since the founding of the galactic empire and the establishment of the Pax Trantoriana.

Following Isaac Asimov, his Universe expands and connects with its different cycles; the three novels mentioned will become the link between the stories into those of the Foundation.

Pebble in the Sky deals with several classic themes of science fiction such as time travel and telepathy, but on all dominates the nuclear nightmare: Asimov has a radioactive Earth, and to survive it maintains a strict control over the population.

Although the same Asimov gives a different explanation to the terrestrial radioactivity, this novel fits fully in the wealth of stories born out of the fear of a global nuclear war, but this topic is added only to support the marginalization of the planet Earth in the galaxy.

If the events of Trantor were to be modeled on those of the Roman Empire (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the work of Edward Gibbon who inspired Asimov) then this planet is the counterpart of the ancient Judea, a land considered jumble of hotheads and fanatics, and regarded with contempt by the Romans.

The prosecutor Ennius takes the part of Pontius Pilate, the priests are members of the Society of the Ancients, inspired not from the Bible but from the Book of the Ancients, where it is written that the land is of the chosen people, the inhabitants of the planet that gave rise to the humanity in the novel.

Strong in their faith, and in spite of the disproportion between the forces in the field, the Earthlings prepare the revolt, willing to wipe out billions of people just to take the lead of the galaxy.

On this background grand place, the events of Schwartz, Pola and Ardavan, characters who reject the logic of power and win the cultural pressures, overcoming taboos of the 60 age limit, and love between terrestrials and imperials.

Despite the tragedy that dominates the novel, Asimov seems to tell us that the man embodies enough love and passion to overcome hatred and distrust, a strong message valid even today, in a period once again dominated by uncertainty and fears.

Massimo Marino is a scientist envisioning science fiction. He spent years at CERN and The Lawrence Berkeley Lab followed by lead positions with Apple, Inc. and the World Economic Forum. He is also co-founder of “Squares on Blue”, a Big Data Analytics service company.
Massimo currently lives in France and crosses the border with Switzerland multiple times daily, although he is no smuggler.

As a scientist writing science fiction, he went from smashing particles at accelerators at SLAC and CERN to smashing words on a computer screen.

He’s the author of multi-awarded Daimones Trilogy.

His novels have received the Seal of Excellency from both AwesomeIndies.net and IndiePENdents.org

• 2012 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction

• 2013 Hall of Fame – Best in Science Fiction, Quality Reads UK Book Club
• 2013 PRG Reviewer’s Choice Award Winner in Science Fiction Series
• 2014 Finalist – Science Fiction – Indie Excellence Awards L.A.
• 2014 Award Winner – Science Fiction Honorable Mention – Readers’ Favorite Annual Awards

His novels are available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble (Nook), iTunes Apple Store, and many other retailers around the world.

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