Pros: realistic non-humanoid aliens, glimpse into how ordinary events affect science
Cons: ending a bit too tidy
The Bottom Line: A short trilogy under one cover, The Gods Themselves is Asimov's finest novel, containing the most consistent and believable portrayal of non-humanoid aliens I've ever seen.
quasar's Full Review: Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
When asked which Asimov book I like the best - and for some reason I have been asked that question many times - my usual answer is The Gods Themselves. This response typically elicits either blank stares or cries of incredulity. The Gods Themselves is not an answer people expect; many finding it confusing or boring. I maintain that the gods themselves could hardly write a better science fiction book.
The Gods Themselves is a novel in three parts, each somewhat self contained while at the time inter-related and even somewhat interactive. Part one takes place on a near future Earth and reveals how one not-particularly talented scientist came to be the Father of the Electron Pump, a newfangled invention that uses matter passed between our universe and a parallel universe to generate immense amounts of power at little cost. Although this section credibly explains how the new power source works, it is at heart a tale of the politics of science and how one man revered as a god has the power to squelch any who might naysay his wonderful invention. It is also a tale of how greatly science and scientific discovery is impacted by ego and personality other human frailties often considered petty and unimportant. It pay homage to the truth that the smallest things can make the difference - great science can sometimes happen through carelessness or apathy or incompetence. This is truly science fiction - fiction about science, scientists, and the scientific process.
The second part of the book is a vast departure from the first, and in fact from any other single cohesive section of writing I've ever read. It is the most original, believable account of alien life I have ever seen. These aliens are not human, not humanoid and yet they breathe life on every page. From the start we are drawn into a culture that is at once completely foreign and completely comprehensible. This is a world split into the rational, the emotional, and the nurturing. Normal beings are one - rational, emotional, or nurturing. This is a world of threes, and these three different genders must all combine for procreation. This part of the story focuses on one such trio - Odeen, Tritt, and Dua. It tells of how they interact with each other and with the somewhat strange (to us) world around them. It tells of interactions with the hard ones - uberbeings that take the rationals under their wings, acting as teachers and mentors. This world too is presented scientifically through conversations between Odeen and Dua mainly, with a consistent presentation of the physics of the unfamiliar world.
The third part is the weakest in my opinion, taking place on the colonized moon just after the events of the first part. While part one focuses on science and the politics therein, part three is more focused on straight politics and social interactions. Yes there is science, and scientific research, and scientific advancement. But the focus here is more how living on the moon would change the way people live, and more secondarily, political tensions concerning whether the moon should be a colony of Earth or have its own independent government. These are both interesting areas to explore, but I don't think Asimov does it quite as well as he could, and I am not sure that this book was necessarily the place to include this exploration.
The ending of the first part is sudden, somewhat unexpected. The shift into the alternate culture is somewhat shocking. Yet the characters in part two draw us in so completely that the shock is soon forgotten. Even though part two has a definite ending, going back to boring old humans in part three is almost a letdown and may partially contribute to my feeling that it is the weakest part. Dua, the emotional alien who doesn't fit in with other emotionals and yearns to understand her surrounding, is one of the most appealing characters in any story I've ever read. She is both rational and empathetic, an outcast among society and at times her own nurturing mate and yet loved and somewhat catered to by her rational mate. When she starts understanding more and more, she feels compelled to act, and when she feels betrayed she is slow to forgive. If I could meet Dua I'm sure we'd be great friends.
The common theme throughout the three parts is the electron pump - even before it becomes obvious, most people would assume that the strange world described in part two is the parallel universe discussed in part one. Is a non-polluting unlimited energy source too good to be true? The overwhelming popular sense is no. The overwhelming sense of the protagonistic characters in all three parts of the book is yes. And herein lies the one thing I really do not like about this book - all of a sudden there is a neat tidy ending. How realistic is that? Seriously, unlimited energy sounds wonderful. Anyone claiming it is not will have an uphill battle that makes pushing a four ton weight up a 70 degree hill for five miles seem downright easy. Asimov's escape from this problem was too quick, too easy. It also was human-centric, in the sense that it concentrates on a solution for our universe alone, the other universes be damned. It makes a small effort to explain away any possible consequences to others, but I found this very disappointing in a book that really concentrated on presenting that there are alternate intelligent beings out there somewhere and that we all need to consider the consequences of our actions on each other. That said, I'm not sure that any attempt to solve this problem would have been acceptable under the circumstances, and would we really accept a book that didn't answer the questions it raised? Even though I am not satisfied, I don't know how it could have been done better.
Some people seem to find the attention to scientific life and how science really happens boring. I do not. Some people find the alien world confusing since it is so different from our own. I do not. Some people think this is the worst book Asimov ever wrote. I do not. Some people may not get this book. I hope you do.
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