Pebble in the Sky

Informationen zum Autor Isaac Asimov began his Foundation series at the age of 21, not realizing that it would one day be considered a cornerstone of science fiction. During his legendary career, Asimov penned over 470 books on subjects ranging from science to Shakespeare to history, though he was most loved for his award-winning science fiction sagas, which include the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series. Named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Asimov entertained and educated readers of all ages for close to five decades. He died, at the age 72, in April 1992. Klappentext The third and final book in the Galactic Empire series, the spectacular precursor to the classic Foundation series, by one of history's most influential writers of science fiction, Isaac Asimov After years of bitter struggle, Trantor had at last completed its work-its Galactic Empire ruled all 200 million planets of the Galaxy . . . all but one. On a backward planet called Earth were those who nurtured bitter dreams of a mythical, half-remembered past when the planet was humanity's only home. The other worlds despised it or merely patronized it-until a man from the past miraculously stepped through a time fault that spanned a millennium, living proof of Earth's most preposterous claims. Joseph Schwartz was a happily retired Chicago tailor circa 1949. Trapped in an incredible future he could barely comprehend, the unlikely time traveler would soon become a pawn in a desperate conspiracy to bring down the Empire in a twist of agony and death-a mad plan to restore Earth's tarnished glory by ending human life on every other world. Zusammenfassung The third and final book in the Galactic Empire series, the spectacular precursor to the classic Foundation series, by one of history's most influential writers of science fiction, Isaac Asimov After years of bitter struggle, Trantor had at last completed its workits Galactic Empire ruled all 200 million planets of the Galaxy . . . all but one. On a backward planet called Earth were those who nurtured bitter dreams of a mythical, half-remembered past when the planet was humanity's only home. The other worlds despised it or merely patronized ituntil a man from the past miraculously stepped through a time fault that spanned a millennium, living proof of Earth's most preposterous claims. Joseph Schwartz was a happily retired Chicago tailor circa 1949. Trapped in an incredible future he could barely comprehend, the unlikely time traveler would soon become a pawn in a desperate conspiracy to bring down the Empire in a twist of agony and deatha mad plan to restore Earth's tarnished glory by ending human life on every other world....

Auteur
Isaac Asimov began his Foundation series at the age of 21, not realizing that it would one day be considered a cornerstone of science fiction. During his legendary career, Asimov penned over 470 books on subjects ranging from science to Shakespeare to history, though he was most loved for his award-winning science fiction sagas, which include the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series. Named a Grand Master of Science Fiction by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Asimov entertained and educated readers of all ages for close to five decades. He died, at the age 72, in April 1992.

Texte du rabat

The third and final book in the Galactic Empire series, the spectacular precursor to the classic Foundation series, by one of history's most influential writers of science fiction, Isaac Asimov

After years of bitter struggle, Trantor had at last completed its work-its Galactic Empire ruled all 200 million planets of the Galaxy . . . all but one. On a backward planet called Earth were those who nurtured bitter dreams of a mythical, half-remembered past when the planet was humanity's only home. The other worlds despised it or merely patronized it-until a man from the past miraculously stepped through a time fault that spanned a millennium, living proof of Earth's most preposterous claims.

Joseph Schwartz was a happily retired Chicago tailor circa 1949. Trapped in an incredible future he could barely comprehend, the unlikely time traveler would soon become a pawn in a desperate conspiracy to bring down the Empire in a twist of agony and death-a mad plan to restore Earth's tarnished glory by ending human life on every other world.

Échantillon de lecture
1. Between One Footstep and the Next

Two minutes before he disappeared forever from the face of the Earth he knew, Joseph Schwartz strolled along the pleasant streets of suburban Chicago quoting Browning to himself.

In a sense this was strange, since Schwartz would scarcely have impressed any casual passerby as the Browning-quoting type. He looked exactly what he was: a retired tailor, thoroughly lacking in what the sophisticates of today call a “formal education.” Yet he had expended much of an inquisitive nature upon random reading. By the sheer force of indiscriminate voracity, he had gleaned a smattering of practically everything, and by means of a trick memory had managed to keep it all straight.

For instance, he had read Robert Browning’s Rabbi Ben Ezra twice when he was younger, so, of course, knew it by heart. Most of it was obscure to him, but those first three lines had become one with the beating of his heart these last few years. He intoned them to himself, deep within the silent fortress of his mind, that very sunny and very bright early summer day of 1949:

“Grow old along with me!

The best is yet to be,

The last of life, for which the first was made . . .”

Schwartz felt that to its fullness. After the struggles of youth in Europe and those of his early manhood in the United States, the serenity of a comfortable old age was pleasant. With a house of his own and money of his own, he could, and did, retire. With a wife in good health, two daughters safely married, a grandson to soothe these last best years, what had he to worry about?

There was the atom bomb, of course, and this somewhat lascivious talk about World War III, but Schwartz was a believer in the goodness of human nature. He didn’t think there would be another war. He didn’t think Earth would ever see again the sunlike hell of an atom exploded in anger. So he smiled tolerantly at the children he passed and silently wished them a speedy and not too difficult ride through youth to the peace of the best that was yet to be.

He lifted his foot to step over a Raggedy Ann doll smiling through its neglect as it lay there in the middle of the walk, a foundling not yet missed. He had not quite put his foot down again . . .

In another part of Chicago stood the Institute for Nuclear Research, in which men may have had theories upon the essential worth of human nature but were half ashamed of them, since no quantitative instrument had yet been designed to measure it. When they thought about it, it was often enough to wish that some stroke from heaven would prevent human nature (and damned human ingenuity) from turning every innocent and interesting discovery into a deadly weapon.

Yet, in a pinch, the same man who could not find it in his conscience to curb his curiosity into the nuclear studies that might someday kill half of Earth would risk his life to save that of an unimportant fellow man.

It was the blue glow behind the chemist’s back that first attracted the attention of Dr. Smith.

He peered at it as he passed the half-open door. The chemist, a cheerful youngster, was whistling as he tipped up a volumetric flask, in which the solution had already been made up to volume. A white powder tumbled lazily through the liquid, dissolving in its own good time. For a moment that was all, and then Dr. Smith’s instinct, which had …