SOJALS rating:

Good (3/5)

I first read this in 1967 and most recently on the 4th April 2004

Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a specialist Time Technician living outside of our normal time-flow. He is able to wander freely up and down the avenues of history and future time. His job is to implement the changes that lead to the optimum human existence for the next few million years.

Like all Eternals he was taken at a young age from his family and friends and introduced to this ascetic organization dedicated to achieve the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.

Of course when Harlan meets the delectable Noÿs Lambent, he falls for her head over heels and, as his hormones surge, his long-held Eternal principles are cast-away. Now he plans a future for the two of them knowing that such a relationship is a forbidden crime. What he doesn't know is that this particular relationship endangers all of Eternity.

This was one of the first SF books I read, somewhere in the first half dozen. if I recall correctly. I thought it was fantastic: tough guys; passionate women; an intriguing plot and set in a world of wonder. Fab stuff.

It was books like this that got me stuck on SF. If not for those first few SF novels, I might never have developed such an obsession, I could have been a different person, another me, a better version. I could have been a scientist or an astronaut. Nope, that's the obsession showing again. I could have been many people, but what's most important is that this web-site wouldn't exist. It would be probably be a web-site about rocks or butterflies or porn, rock or butterfly porn probably. No SF. and what a loss to the world. Thus we all owe a debt of thanks to Asimov.