 Cover of the first edition | |
| Author | Isaac Asimov |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Mel Hunter[1] |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
Publication date | 1955 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover and Paperback) |
| Pages | 191 |
The End of Eternity is a 1955 science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov with mystery and thriller elements on the subjects of time travel and social engineering. Its ultimate premise is that of a causal loop, a type of temporal paradox in which events and their causes form a loop. The novel was shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Novel.
In The End of Eternity, members of a time-changing organization called Eternity, known as "Eternals", seek to ensure that the conditions that led to Eternity's founding occur as history says that they occurred. At the end of the novel, the protagonist Andrew Harlan is placed in a situation in which he must decide whether to allow the "circle" to close and Eternity to be founded, or to allow the opposite to happen and prevent Eternity from having ever existed.
Many years later, Asimov tied this novel into his broader Foundation Series by hinting in Foundation's Edge that it is set in a universe where Eternity had existed, but was destroyed by Eternals, leading to an all-human galaxy. In the last chapter of The End of Eternity, Noÿs mentions hopes of a Galactic Empire.