History Literature / TheEndOfEternity

''The End of Eternity'' is a science fiction book by Creator/IsaacAsimov.

The book, though relatively obscure (for a science fiction book written by Creator/IsaacAsimov), has achieved an interesting place in the minds of Foundation fans who [[BrokenBase either]] consider the TwistEnding to be the reason the Robots/Empire/Foundation series even ''began'' or others who (plausibly) claim that ''The End of Eternity'' is not part of the ''Foundation'' series's canon. The former seem to be the majority and considering how Asimov's fanbase still survives, it's strange that it took so long for the book to be printed again.

Eternals are comprised of several groups -- Sociologists, Technicians, Life-Plotters and Computers [[note]]"Computer" in this novel has its original meaning, "person employed to do computations". Electronic devices built to do computations are called Summators or computaplexes.[[/note]] are mentioned, in addition, there are also Maintenance people. Sociologists accumulate data and analyze it for possible Reality Changes. Computers narrow down when and where the Reality Change takes place, and the Technicians pinpoint and make the Reality Changes themselves. Because of this, Technicians are highly revered, yet feared. They are also supposed to suppress all emotion because of the nature of their job, and thus rarely find love.

The story is set in a world where TimeTravel is highly sophisticated. A group of people known as [[TheMenInBlack Eternals]] reside in a space outside of our normal reality, but linked to it via vehicles called Kettles. They recruit people from the normal timeline, and control the period from the 28th Century to the 70,000th Century. Within this period, they are constantly making Reality Changes, which are used [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong to erase wars and technological advances deemed contrary to the human race]]. One of the main themes is that space-travel, a staple in Asimov's other science fiction works, has been repeatedly stomped out in order to preserve the status quo and keep humanity on Earth (not out of sheer malice, but because advances in space travel always seem to coincide with increased drug use, crime, etc., so these advances are undone "for the greater good").

* SpaceTravelVeto: A conspiracy controls the development of human history, preventing social and technological developments that it considers to be against humanity's best interest. It's specifically mentioned that the Eternals have repeatedly ensured that manned space travel never gets developed to any serious extent, regarding it as too risky.

* PublicSecretMessage: A stranded time traveller publishes an advertisement in a 1932 newspaper containing a picture of a [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons mushroom]] and the phrase:

* PublicSecretMessage: A stranded time traveller publishes an advertisement in a newspaper containing a picture of a [[UsefulNotes/NuclearWeapons mushroom]] and the phrase:

* AnthropicPrinciple: Discussed in-universe. Twissel is quite handy in making an argument like "There must be a way to [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong fix this disastrous accident that happened with Cooper in the 20th Century]], because if there were no way, then we would have popped out of existence and we wouldn't be sitting here thinking about the problem." Harlan can see that Twissel is right, but he's a little uncomfortable talking to someone who can make an argument like that as if it's somewhat obvious.

* FanOfThePast: Harlan is fascinated by pre-Eternity history, and his collection of 20th-century ''paper'' books and magazines (on ''paper!'') becomes a plot point.

* TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe: [[spoiler: the humans living in the 100,000th century and above appear to be this to Harlan and Twissel, temporarily cutting off time travel past the 100,000th in an act Twissel calls "theoretically immpossible"]]

* TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe: [[spoiler: the humans living in the 100,000th century and above appear to be this to harlan and twissel, temporarily cutting off time travel past the 100,000th in an act twissel calls "theoretically immpossible"]]

* SetWrongWhatWasOnceMadeRight: [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Eternal's attempts at fixing history results in humanity's stagnation and extinction, [[ResetButton all the changes the Eternals made to history are undone]].

The story is set in a world where TimeTravel is highly sophisticated. A group of people known as [[TheMenInBlack Eternals]] reside in a space outside of our normal reality, but linked to it via vehicles called Kettles. They recruit people from the normal timeline, and control the period from the 28th Century to the 70,000th Century. Within this period, they are constantly making Reality Changes, which are used [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong to erase wars and technological advances deemed contrary to the human race]]. One of the main themes is that space-travel, a staple in Asimov's other science fiction works, has been repeatedly stomped out in order to preserve the status quo and keep humanity on Earth (not out of sheer malice -- but because advances in space travel always seem to coincide with increased drug use, crime etc, so these advances are undone "for the greater good".)

The start of Eternity is explained to be a [[StableTimeLoop time paradox]]. The man who "discovered" time travel in Primitive times (before Eternity) wrote a journal. In the journal, he detailed his life, [[labelnote:spoiler -- click to reveal]]in which he is trained by the main character and his Computer superior and sent back in time to restart the loop. The Computer superior knows all of this, but the main character and their trainee do not.[[/labelnote]]