The Alternate Asimovs

"The Alternate Asimovs", Science Fiction by Isaac Asimov, 1986.

Overview

Asimov mostly threw away early drafts. Just a few survived. This collection is basically all we have to judge how his early works evolved. It consists of three items:: Grow Old With Me, the original version of "Pebble in the Sky", never published in this form.: The End of Eternity, an unpublished 20,000 word short-story. It was extensively revised before appearing as the novel "The End of Eternity".: Belief, two versions of a short story.

Grow Old With Me

This is a shorter and less elegant version of the book; set in the very early days of the Trantorian Empire whose eventual decline had been described in the Foundation novels. The plot is largely the same, though the chief villain is less developed.

Asimov also explains how he began with the idea that Earth was radioactive from an atomic war. As he learned more he got unhappy with the notion, reckoning that a war would not make the crust radioactive without also wiping out all life. Hence the revised notion in Robots and Empire.

The End of Eternity

A 25,000 word story that was extensively changed for the book-length "The End of Eternity". It tells of an organisation of time travellers dedicated to the betterment of human history. But control brings problems, sometimes tragedies.

Elements of the later novel are there. But 'Andrew Harlan' was a merger of two different characters from the short story. The ending is quite different, and Asimov himself calls it weak. But if you've enjoyed the original, you may find the differences interesting.

Twin Eternities

The biggest difference is that Eternity doesn't end; it is heroically saved. The original story has Anders Horemm the technician who does the damage, and then Genro Manfield the historian who sets things right again. These were combined as 'Andrew Harlan' for the novel.

Anders Horemm has much the same relationship with Nöys Lambent, but she is no more than she seems. The reality-change removes the belief that 'Eternals' can grant eternal life. As a regrettable side-effect, Nöys Lambent vanishes. Horemm has a break-down, comes back as Twissell's technician. Like Harlan, he sabotages the trip into the past. But that is the end of his role.

Manfield has also had a bad experience - the unhappy liaison that is transferred to Twissell in the book version. But he stays loyal to Eternity, completing his mission to the past.

The history that Manfield's Eternity grew out matches our own history, with an atomic bomb in 1945. It is also a different future from that of the Galactic Empire, with humans remaining on Earth until the 'two hundred thousandth century' - 20 million years. The eventual fate of humans is left uncertain; perhaps they do colonise the galaxy.