The God's Themselves - Isaac Asimov

⭐ 6.0/10

(Originally written by Tim)

This book had me for the first half, and I thought this might be the best Asimov I had ever read. It is a standalone novel, not part of his connected universe, and it felt incredibly fresh and exciting for me.

It is a story of three acts. In the first, scientists notice that a certain element is being spontaneously replaced out of nowhere with an unknown element. This unknown element produces energy in a way that defies science, but provides limitless energy as long as this swap occurs, and the earth begins to rely on its energy. Scientists agree that there must be a parallel universe that is forcing the swap, since the earth element that is sent must provide them with energy in the same way.

I completely bought in to this premise, and was excited for the second act, which introduces us to the parallel universe. However, it wasn't at all what I expected, in all the best ways. His description of an entirely knew species is really fascinating, and unique to anything I had ever read or seen. They are not humanoid, they grow in a triad, each with specific roles and personalities, and the way their use of the element swap explained their existence was incredible, truly some of the best Asimov I had read. I was completely engaged and burned through this section, felt like I was experiencing something truly special.

I was amped for the third act, of course the tie between these 2 universes would be explained and their twin dilemmas would come to a satisfying conclusion. Not even close. The third act features tons of new characters, and our dilemmas are magically solved almost as an afterthought. This act is half the book, and focuses on what it is like living on the moon. If it was its own book, I would have been delighted. But I was confused at why he chose to end the book like this, and felt totally ripped off that his amazing premise is left completely hanging.

Another part of the book that didn't sit well with me is that the hero of the book is the guy who questions all the scientists. He has no proof, just a theory that the world will explode from the energy source. Given all the crazy consipracy theories floating around today about Covid, I did not want to root for this character. Cheering for the underdog is usually compelling, especially when you see the inner workings of the scientists in the book and know how power driven they are and that they are indeed covering up danger. There was just no proof on his side, and our only justification for him being right is that we have information he doesn't as the reader. A minor point, but ya, empathizing with crazy people on the internet is not something I wanted out of this book.

So it brings me great pain to rate something I read non-stop for 2 straight days so low, but the second half of the book really tarnished the whole thing for me.