An ordinary retired tailor from postwar Chicago is thrown thousands of years into the future, onto an Earth despised by the rest of the galaxy
A tailor lost in time
Joseph Schwartz is a cheerful retired tailor walking down a Chicago street when an accident in a nearby laboratory hurls him into the far future. He wakes on an Earth that is radioactive, poor and scorned by the vast Galactic Empire. He cannot speak the language, has no papers, and soon finds himself caught up in a secret plot that could change the fate of the whole galaxy.
Who will enjoy it
Asimov fans, readers exploring his Empire novels before or after Foundation, and anyone who enjoys a classic fish-out-of-water adventure.
What you will get
Asimov's first novel, a brisk classic adventure in which an ordinary man from the past becomes the unlikely key to a struggle between a scorned Earth and the Galactic Empire.
Pebble in the Sky Facts: Pages, Genre and Setting
Genre
Science Fiction · Galactic Empire · Time displacement · Fish out of water
Length
255 pages · ≈ 8 h
More about this book
Asimov's choice of hero is the book's great strength. Schwartz is no space captain, just a decent older man trying to understand a world that has no place for him. An experiment on his brain leaves him with unexpected mental powers, and his growing sense of what is at stake gives the story a warm human centre. Alongside him are an imperial archaeologist who believes Earth was humanity's birthplace, a scientist and his brave daughter.
The novel touches on prejudice, nationalism and fear of outsiders, as the people of Earth resent the Empire and the Empire looks down on Earth. Some customs on this future Earth are harsh, especially for the old, and Asimov uses them to show how isolation breeds cruelty. The ending is tense and satisfying.
As an early work, it has some clumsy dialogue and a hurried romance, and the science is very much of its time. For fans of the Foundation universe, it is a fascinating early piece of the larger history. Readers who know Foundation will spot early versions of ideas Asimov later developed more fully. About 255 pages in the Orb paperback.
The Caves of Steel
The End of Eternity
Foundation
The Stars, Like Dust
The Naked Sun
Prelude to Foundation
The Wanderer
Ender's Shadow
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Foundation's Edge
Second Foundation
Barrayar