Infinite justice..

[mattd]

The fame of Asimov's Foundation and Robot series has tended to steal the 
limelight from some of his other masterpieces, chief among them, The End of 
Eternity, a book that is hard to find. In this book, Asimov consciously set 
out to explore the limits of the classic paradox of time travel that has 
bedeviled so many works of science fiction. As a result, this is a "bare 
bones" novel; no robots or empires or any other such distractions. Its 
strength lies in imagination. Asimov looks at our world as it has evolved, 
and then introduces the organization called Eternity, whose mission is to 
protect humanity from its own mistakes, by making deft changes in key 
events over time (past and future). Along the way, he has fun making digs 
at the unchanging fundamentals of human nature (competition, drive, love) 
amid centuries of changing social mores. At the heart of the book is the 
love story of Andrew Harlan and Noyes Lambent, but this tale is just a 
framework for Asimov to build on. In the final analysis, Asimov is making 
the point that just as a child learns to walk by repeated falls, humanity's 
ultimate characteristic is the Schumpeterian desire and ability to innovate 
through risks. If we are protected from ever making mistakes, we may avoid 
tragedies, but the human race itself will vegetate and die. As with many of 
his earlier works, the dialog can be jarring and characters often 
one-dimensional. For all that however, The End of Eternity ranks among 
Asimov's finest in the field of science fiction and makes it all the more 
strange why this book is so difficult to find. Do take the time to lay your 
hands on it; you will not be disappointed.