Pebble in the Sky

I have read Pebble in the Sky many times beginning in the late 1960s, but this was the first time I’ve listened to the audiobook.

According to the article in Wikipedia, Pebble in the Sky was Isaac Asimov’s first published novel, coming out in 1950, before I was born. Pebble in the Sky is part of Asimov’s Galactic Empire series, which also includes the novels The Stars Like Dust and The Currents of Space. These novels share much of the background of Asimov’s Foundation series.

In the first chapter, Joseph Schwartz is transported from the Earth of about 1950 to the Earth of the Galactic Empire, thousands of years later, in an event that is impossible to explain with current scientific theory. This chapter sticks in my mind because Asimov goes to a lot of trouble to establish an explanation grounded in physics for how a human being is transported into the future. The cause is an unlikely physical accident involving radioactivity and a focused beam of energy. There is a brief investigation, and then the incident is hushed up.

Joseph Schwartz finds himself in a strange world where he must somehow survive. This is a common trope of many books; C. S. Lewis’s Narnia series, Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land come to mind. (There are many others.)

The Earth of the future is growing increasingly radioactive, so much so that the population is reduced to twenty million people. In this dystopia, people must submit themselves to voluntary euthanasia when they reach the age of sixty to keep the population in check. (In Foundation and Earth, which takes place many thousands of years later, the Earth has becone so radioactive that no one lives there any more.)

Schwartz is captured and turned over to a scientist and his daughter who make Schwartz the unknowning subject of a biological experiment to improve his intelligence. In this dystopia, there does not seem to be such a thing as an Institutional Review Board that would protect the rights of the patient.

The plot is not very interesting and does not bear up well under close examination, but one major theme resonates today. The people of Earth are a despised minority in the galaxy, they are deprived of many of their rights, and they are the victims of discriminatory policies. There is some ugly language.

A product of its time, the book is full of sexism and chauvinism. Pola Shekt, the scientist’s daughter and assistant, is described as a “young girl” (she is nineteen or twenty years old). Pola has small hands and a small chin, and she is helpless in a crisis. Bel Arvardan, Pola’s love interest and an archaeologist not from Earth, is tall, strong, and handsome (something Isaac Asimov was not). The forbidden romance between Pola Schekt and Bel Arvardon is the fantasy of a nerdy biochemist steeped in the cultural norms of 1940s Hollywood movies.

Asimov’s demonstrations of future technology are not very advanced. These were some examples I noted:

• people still smoke cigarettes
• one character has a liquor cabinet that mixes drinks and washes the glasses
• Joseph Schwarz visits a foodomat, a vending machine in a building
• food containers heat themselves after the user breaks the seal
• driving a cab is still a job
• there is jet plane service from Mount Everest to Chicago (Chica)
• Saint Louis is still a major city (Sanloo)
• identity is determined through examining proteins and scanning bones; DNA technology does not exist

There are many implausible things in the book.

The Galactic (Imperial) Procurator lives on or near Mt. Everest.

There is at least one inhabited planet orbiting Arcturus. Arcturus is a red giant that is 7.1 billion years old and that has expanded greatly in size after using up its hydrogen fuel. It is unlikely that any planets would remain inhabitable.

The Galactic Empire has a Sirius Sector. Sirius is a pretty minor star – it’s just bright because it’s near to our solar system.

Radiation fever is a viral infection that humans on Earth are largely immune to but which is fatal to outsiders. (So far, so good. This is entirely plausible.) Asimov calls viruses “reproducing proteins” without mentioning that viruses contain genetic material in the form of RNA or DNA. (This was not widely believed when the book was written. But Asimov mentions a nucleoprotein later.) Implausibly, 50% of the atoms in the virus are somehow radioactive. The plot centers around extremists on Earth who have accumulated tons of viral particles with which they plan to cause a galactic-wide pandemic.

After the experiment, Schwarz gains the ability to sense other minds and their intentions. He discovers by accident that he can also kill with his mind.

My rating: Two stars, fair (but still a nostalgic favorite).