Pebble in the Sky
Encyclopedia
Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction
novel by American writer Isaac Asimov
, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series
had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation
was not published in book form until 1951. The original Foundation books are also a string of linked episodes, whereas this is a complete story involving a single group of characters.
In Before the Golden Age
, Asimov wrote that Pebble in the Sky was influenced by the short story "Proxima Centauri
" by Murray Leinster
.
from the mid-20th Century, who is accidentally pitched forward into the future
. By then, Earth has become radioactive and is a low-status part of a vast Galactic Empire
. There is both a mystery and a power-struggle, and a lot of debate and human choices. The originality of the S.F. work is the choice of a very ordinary man as the story's protagonist
, rather than the more typical space opera
hero
.
It was originally written in 1947 as the novella Grow Old With Me, about 40,000 words long, and intended for a S.F. magazine called Startling Stories
. As Asimov himself explained in The Early Asimov
, this was intended as a quotation from Robert Browning
's poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra
", which actually says Grow Old Along With Me. It was not published in this form in 1948 as intended for the magazine, but in 1986 it appeared in the book The Alternate Asimovs
. In 1949, it was accepted as a book-length novel, to be expanded to about 70,000 words. Asimov also retitled it Pebble in the Sky.
This book takes place in the same universe
as the Foundation series. Earth is part of the Empire of Trantor
, later the setting for Hari Seldon
's invention of psychohistory
. Asimov returned to the radioactive-Earth theme in The Stars, Like Dust
; The Currents of Space
; and Foundation and Earth
. He would explore it most fully in Robots and Empire
.
Pebble in the Sky has been grouped along with The Stars, Like Dust and The Currents of Space as the so-called Galactic Empire series. However, these are only loosely connected, occurring between the era of the Spacers and the Foundation Series, but not otherwise overlapping each other in time, location, or theme.
In this work, unlike The End of Eternity
, the time travel is one-way and uncontrolled. It might be an accidental use of the same technology — Asimov hints at a connection in Foundation's Edge
, but never definitely settled the point. We have to assume that it is a pure nuclear-laboratory accident that the man from the past ends up at a particularly critical moment when he can make an enormous difference in the course of history.
One element of the novel of which Asimov was particularly fond was the inclusion of a scene of exposition conducted over the course of a game of chess
between two of the characters. By recounting all the moves, Asimov reacted against the common tendency of novelistic portrayals of chess games to neglect the action on the board. The game that he chose to present was a victory by Grigory Levenfish
(black) over Boris Verlinsky
(white) in Moscow in 1924, one which gained the victor a brilliancy prize.
, Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor
, is the unwitting victim of a nearby nuclear laboratory accident, by means of which he is instantaneously transported tens of thousands of years into the future (50,000 years, by one character's estimate, a figure later retcon
ned by future Asimov works as a "mistake"). He finds himself in a place he does not recognize, and due to apparent changes in the spoken language that far into the future, he is unable to communicate with anyone. He wanders into a farm, and is taken in by the couple that lives there. They mistake him for a mentally deficient person, and they secretly offer him as a subject for an experimental procedure to increase his mental abilities. The procedure, which has killed several subjects, works in his case, and he finds that he can quickly learn to speak the current lingua franca. He also slowly realizes that the procedure has given him strong telepathic abilities, including the ability to project his thoughts to the point of killing or injuring a person.
The Earth, at this time, is seen by the rest of the Galactic Empire
as a rebellious planet — it has, in fact, rebelled three times in the past — and the inhabitants are widely frowned upon and discriminated against. Earth also has several large radioactive areas, although the cause is never really described. (The prequels elaborate upon this very point.) With large uninhabitable areas, it is a very poor planet, and anyone who is unable to work is legally required to be euthanized. The people of the Earth must also be executed when they reach the age of sixty, a procedure known as "The Sixty," with very few exceptions; mainly for people who have made significant contributions to society. That is a problem for Schwartz, who is now sixty-two years old.
The Earth is part of the Galactic Empire, with a resident Procurator
, who lives in a domed town in the high Himalayas (see the book-cover artwork of the town in glass) and a Galactic military garrison
, but in practice it is ruled by a group of Earth-centered "religious fanatics"
who believe in the ultimate superiority of Earthlings. They have created a new, deadly supervirus that they plan to use to kill or subjugate the rest of the Empire, and to avenge
themselves for the way their planet has been treated by the galaxy at large. Among other things, this virus has the ability to kill by radiation poisoning.
Joseph Schwartz, along with Affret Shekt, the scientist who developed the new device that boosted Schwartz's mental powers, his daughter Pola Shekt, and a visiting archaeologist Bel Arvardan
, are captured by the rebels, but they escape with the help of Schwartz's new mental abilities, and they are narrowly able to stop the plan to release the virus. Schwartz uses his mental abilities to provoke a pilot from the Imperial garrison into bombing the site where the arsenal of the super-virus exists.
The book ends on a hopeful note — perhaps the Empire can be persuaded to restore the Earth, and to bring in huge amounts of uncontaminated soil.
and McComas
were disappointed by the novel, saying that despite Asimov's good ideas, "his heavy treatment and routine plot are disappointing. L. Sprague de Camp
, however, recommended the novel highly, praising it as "excellent; one of the few really mature and professional jobs available in book form [in 1950]. . . . Asimov's characterization is good, his suspense is almost unbearable, and his handling of the theme of group prejudice is masterful."
In a 1972 review. Lester del Rey
found the novel "a first-rate story."
and The Caves of Steel
. The latter novel indicates that the robot
R. Daneel Olivaw
was constructed some three thousand years after the founding of New York City
. Foundation and Earth, in its concluding scene, establishes that Daneel survives into the Interregnum period, after the First Galactic Empire collapses. He gives his age as (roughly) twenty thousand years. The Galactic Era dating system, to which most of Asimov's Foundation Series adheres, places Foundation and Earth approximately twelve thousand years after the events of Pebble in the Sky. Adding up all the differences, Joseph Schwartz's time displacement ultimately transported him only some eleven millennia into the future.
This sort of inconsistency occurs elsewhere in Asimov's early fiction. It is probably to be expected, given that Asimov wrote the Foundation stories over several decades, and did not fully connect the disparate historical eras until the last years of his life. Furthermore, his characters almost always act with incomplete information, frequently enriching their understanding of Galactic history as the plot unfolds. In this context, such inconsistencies are not only expected, but are also — to an extent — necessary for realism.
In Foundation
, the Galactic Empire has existed for 12,000 years. Nuclear power is believed to have existed for 50,000 years, even though this is long after the era of Pebble in the Sky. Yet in Foundation and Empire
, General Bel Riose
says, "[Contrast] the two millennia of peace under the Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire with the two millennia of interstellar anarchy that preceded it." ("The Dead Hand"). Two millennia is a gross underestimate, though it is also possible Riose is referring to the period of immediate history where, as the Empire contracted and its civilisation was on the wane, a decreased amount of minor and occasions of civil war also are a sign of the impending Fall. Asimov himself made comment (through R. Daneel to Hari Seldon, in Prelude to Foundation
) that this is a sign of civilisational moribundity.
, we learn that the Empire began a restoration of Earth, but that this was abandoned. We also encounter descendants of the old population at "Alpha", a planet of one of the suns of Alpha Centauri. They were settled there by the Empire, which intended to make a whole terraformed world, but in fact produced just one large island. Daneel explains that he had a role in attempting the restoration of Earth's soil and also settling humans at "Alpha," but achieved less than he had wanted. Whether he was involved in the actual events of Pebble is not discussed, but strongly implied. It is left open that other refugees from Earth might have settled elsewhere in the universe.
. In this much abbreviated version (only 25 min), the whole story of time travel was cut out with Bel and Pola being the main characters. The ending was quite different, since the virus was, in fact, released, leaving Earth alone as a "Pebble in the Sky."
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by American writer Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series
The Foundation Series
The Foundation Series is a science fiction series by Isaac Asimov. There are seven volumes in the Foundation Series proper, which in its in-universe chronological order are: Prelude to Foundation, Forward the Foundation, Foundation, Foundation and Empire, Second Foundation, Foundation's Edge, and...
had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation
Foundation (novel)
Foundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy . Foundation is a collection of five short stories, which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951...
was not published in book form until 1951. The original Foundation books are also a string of linked episodes, whereas this is a complete story involving a single group of characters.
In Before the Golden Age
Before the Golden Age
Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s is an anthology of 25 science fiction stories from 1930s pulp magazines edited by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in April 1974....
, Asimov wrote that Pebble in the Sky was influenced by the short story "Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri (short story)
"Proxima Centauri" is a science fiction short story by Murray Leinster that first appeared in the March 1935 issue of Astounding Stories. Unusually for the time, the story adhered to the laws of physics as they were known, showing a starship that was limited by the speed of light, and which took...
" by Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster
Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history...
.
Plot introduction
It begins with a retired tailorTailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
from the mid-20th Century, who is accidentally pitched forward into the future
Future
The future is the indefinite time period after the present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the nature of the reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently exists and will exist is temporary and will come...
. By then, Earth has become radioactive and is a low-status part of a vast Galactic Empire
Galactic Empire (Asimov)
In Isaac Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation series of novels, the Galactic Empire is an empire consisting of millions of planets settled by humans across the whole Milky Way Galaxy. Its symbol is the Spaceship and Sun logo.-Author's creation of the empire:...
. There is both a mystery and a power-struggle, and a lot of debate and human choices. The originality of the S.F. work is the choice of a very ordinary man as the story's protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, rather than the more typical space opera
Space opera
Space opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
hero
Hero
A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, their cult being one of the most distinctive features of ancient Greek religion...
.
It was originally written in 1947 as the novella Grow Old With Me, about 40,000 words long, and intended for a S.F. magazine called Startling Stories
Startling Stories
Startling Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine, published from 1939 to 1955 by Standard Magazines. It was initially edited by Mort Weisinger, who was also the editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, Standard's other science fiction title. Startling ran a lead novel in every issue;...
. As Asimov himself explained in The Early Asimov
The Early Asimov
The Early Asimov or, Eleven Years of Trying is a 1972 collection of short stories by Isaac Asimov. Each story is accompanied by commentary by the author, who gives details about his life and his literary achievements in the period in which he wrote the story.-Contents:* "The Callistan Menace" *...
, this was intended as a quotation from Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
's poem "Rabbi Ben Ezra
Rabbi ben Ezra
Rabbi ben Ezra is a poem by Robert Browning about Abraham ibn Ezra , one of the great poets, mathematicians and scholars of the 12th century...
", which actually says Grow Old Along With Me. It was not published in this form in 1948 as intended for the magazine, but in 1986 it appeared in the book The Alternate Asimovs
The Alternate Asimovs
The Alternate Asimovs is a collection of early science fiction drafts by American writer Isaac Asimov. Asimov mostly threw away early drafts...
. In 1949, it was accepted as a book-length novel, to be expanded to about 70,000 words. Asimov also retitled it Pebble in the Sky.
This book takes place in the same universe
Future history
A future history is a postulated history of the future and is used by authors in the subgenre of speculative fiction to construct a common background for fiction...
as the Foundation series. Earth is part of the Empire of Trantor
Trantor
Trantor is a fictional planet in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series and Empire Series of science fiction novels.Trantor was first described in a short story by Asimov appearing in Early Asimov Volume 1. Later Trantor gained prominence when the 1940s Foundation Series first appeared in print . Asimov...
, later the setting for Hari Seldon
Hari Seldon
Hari Seldon, a fictional character, is the intellectual hero of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series. In his capacity as mathematics professor at Streeling University on Trantor, he developed psychohistory, allowing him to predict the future in probabilistic terms...
's invention of psychohistory
Psychohistory (fictional)
Psychohistory is a fictional science in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe which combines history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people, such as the Galactic Empire...
. Asimov returned to the radioactive-Earth theme in The Stars, Like Dust
The Stars, Like Dust
The Stars, Like Dust is a 1951 science fiction book by writer Isaac Asimov.The book is part of Asimov's Galactic Empire series. It takes place before the actual founding of the Galactic Empire, and even before Trantor has become important. It starts with a young man attending the University of...
; The Currents of Space
The Currents of Space
The Currents of Space is a science fiction novel by the American writer Isaac Asimov. It is the second of three books labeled the Galactic Empire series, though it was the last of the three he wrote...
; and Foundation and Earth
Foundation and Earth
Foundation and Earth is a Locus Award nominated science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series...
. He would explore it most fully in Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire is science fiction novel written by the American author Isaac Asimov and published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, consisting of many short stories and novels....
.
Pebble in the Sky has been grouped along with The Stars, Like Dust and The Currents of Space as the so-called Galactic Empire series. However, these are only loosely connected, occurring between the era of the Spacers and the Foundation Series, but not otherwise overlapping each other in time, location, or theme.
In this work, unlike The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov is a science fiction novel, with mystery and thriller elements, on the subjects of time travel and social engineering....
, the time travel is one-way and uncontrolled. It might be an accidental use of the same technology — Asimov hints at a connection in Foundation's Edge
Foundation's Edge
Foundation's Edge is a science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fourth book in the Foundation Series. It was written more than thirty years after the stories of the original Foundation trilogy, due to years of pressure by fans and editors on Asimov to write another, and, according to Asimov...
, but never definitely settled the point. We have to assume that it is a pure nuclear-laboratory accident that the man from the past ends up at a particularly critical moment when he can make an enormous difference in the course of history.
One element of the novel of which Asimov was particularly fond was the inclusion of a scene of exposition conducted over the course of a game of chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...
between two of the characters. By recounting all the moves, Asimov reacted against the common tendency of novelistic portrayals of chess games to neglect the action on the board. The game that he chose to present was a victory by Grigory Levenfish
Grigory Levenfish
Grigory Yakovlevich Levenfish was a leading Jewish Russian chess grandmaster of the 1920s and 1930s. He was twice Soviet champion - in 1934 and 1937. In 1937 he tied a match against future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik...
(black) over Boris Verlinsky
Boris Verlinsky
Boris Markovich Verlinsky was a Ukrainian-Russian International Master of chess. He was one of the top Soviet players of the 1920s, and was in the top 20 in the world in 1926, clearly of Grandmaster strength at that time...
(white) in Moscow in 1924, one which gained the victor a brilliancy prize.
Plot summary
While walking down the street in ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Joseph Schwartz, a retired tailor
Tailor
A tailor is a person who makes, repairs, or alters clothing professionally, especially suits and men's clothing.Although the term dates to the thirteenth century, tailor took on its modern sense in the late eighteenth century, and now refers to makers of men's and women's suits, coats, trousers,...
, is the unwitting victim of a nearby nuclear laboratory accident, by means of which he is instantaneously transported tens of thousands of years into the future (50,000 years, by one character's estimate, a figure later retcon
Retcon
Retroactive continuity is the alteration of previously established facts in a fictional work. Retcons are done for many reasons, including the accommodation of sequels or further derivative works in a series, wherein newer authors or creators want to revise the in-story history to allow a course...
ned by future Asimov works as a "mistake"). He finds himself in a place he does not recognize, and due to apparent changes in the spoken language that far into the future, he is unable to communicate with anyone. He wanders into a farm, and is taken in by the couple that lives there. They mistake him for a mentally deficient person, and they secretly offer him as a subject for an experimental procedure to increase his mental abilities. The procedure, which has killed several subjects, works in his case, and he finds that he can quickly learn to speak the current lingua franca. He also slowly realizes that the procedure has given him strong telepathic abilities, including the ability to project his thoughts to the point of killing or injuring a person.
The Earth, at this time, is seen by the rest of the Galactic Empire
Galactic Empire (Asimov)
In Isaac Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation series of novels, the Galactic Empire is an empire consisting of millions of planets settled by humans across the whole Milky Way Galaxy. Its symbol is the Spaceship and Sun logo.-Author's creation of the empire:...
as a rebellious planet — it has, in fact, rebelled three times in the past — and the inhabitants are widely frowned upon and discriminated against. Earth also has several large radioactive areas, although the cause is never really described. (The prequels elaborate upon this very point.) With large uninhabitable areas, it is a very poor planet, and anyone who is unable to work is legally required to be euthanized. The people of the Earth must also be executed when they reach the age of sixty, a procedure known as "The Sixty," with very few exceptions; mainly for people who have made significant contributions to society. That is a problem for Schwartz, who is now sixty-two years old.
The Earth is part of the Galactic Empire, with a resident Procurator
Promagistrate
A promagistrate is a person who acts in and with the authority and capacity of a magistrate, but without holding a magisterial office. A legal innovation of the Roman Republic, the promagistracy was invented in order to provide Rome with governors of overseas territories instead of having to elect...
, who lives in a domed town in the high Himalayas (see the book-cover artwork of the town in glass) and a Galactic military garrison
Garrison
Garrison is the collective term for a body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but now often simply using it as a home base....
, but in practice it is ruled by a group of Earth-centered "religious fanatics"
Religious fanaticism
Religious fanaticism is fanaticism related to a person's, or a group's, devotion to a religion. However, religious fanaticism is a subjective evaluation defined by the culture context that is performing the evaluation. What constitutes fanaticism in another's behavior or belief is determined by the...
who believe in the ultimate superiority of Earthlings. They have created a new, deadly supervirus that they plan to use to kill or subjugate the rest of the Empire, and to avenge
Revenge
Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...
themselves for the way their planet has been treated by the galaxy at large. Among other things, this virus has the ability to kill by radiation poisoning.
Joseph Schwartz, along with Affret Shekt, the scientist who developed the new device that boosted Schwartz's mental powers, his daughter Pola Shekt, and a visiting archaeologist Bel Arvardan
Bel Arvardan
Bel Arvardan is a fictional character in Pebble in the Sky, a part of Isaac Asimov's Foundation Series of stories and novels.He was born in the year 815 of the Galactic Era on the planet Baronn, located in the Sirius sector....
, are captured by the rebels, but they escape with the help of Schwartz's new mental abilities, and they are narrowly able to stop the plan to release the virus. Schwartz uses his mental abilities to provoke a pilot from the Imperial garrison into bombing the site where the arsenal of the super-virus exists.
The book ends on a hopeful note — perhaps the Empire can be persuaded to restore the Earth, and to bring in huge amounts of uncontaminated soil.
Reception
BoucherAnthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
and McComas
J. Francis McComas
Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....
were disappointed by the novel, saying that despite Asimov's good ideas, "his heavy treatment and routine plot are disappointing. L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
, however, recommended the novel highly, praising it as "excellent; one of the few really mature and professional jobs available in book form [in 1950]. . . . Asimov's characterization is good, his suspense is almost unbearable, and his handling of the theme of group prejudice is masterful."
In a 1972 review. Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. Del Rey was the author of many of the Winston Science Fiction juvenile SF series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction branch of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.-Birth...
found the novel "a first-rate story."
Place in the wider Foundation saga
Chronology
The 50,000-year estimate is at odds with the chronology given in Asimov's later novels, in particular Foundation and EarthFoundation and Earth
Foundation and Earth is a Locus Award nominated science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series...
and The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel
The Caves of Steel is a novel by Isaac Asimov. It is essentially a detective story, and illustrates an idea Asimov advocated, that science fiction is a flavor that can be applied to any literary genre, rather than a limited genre itself. Specifically, in the book Asimov's Mysteries, he states that...
. The latter novel indicates that the robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
R. Daneel Olivaw
R. Daneel Olivaw
R. Daneel Olivaw is a fictional robot created by Isaac Asimov. The "R" initial in his name stands for "robot," a naming convention in Asimov's future society...
was constructed some three thousand years after the founding of New York City
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
. Foundation and Earth, in its concluding scene, establishes that Daneel survives into the Interregnum period, after the First Galactic Empire collapses. He gives his age as (roughly) twenty thousand years. The Galactic Era dating system, to which most of Asimov's Foundation Series adheres, places Foundation and Earth approximately twelve thousand years after the events of Pebble in the Sky. Adding up all the differences, Joseph Schwartz's time displacement ultimately transported him only some eleven millennia into the future.
This sort of inconsistency occurs elsewhere in Asimov's early fiction. It is probably to be expected, given that Asimov wrote the Foundation stories over several decades, and did not fully connect the disparate historical eras until the last years of his life. Furthermore, his characters almost always act with incomplete information, frequently enriching their understanding of Galactic history as the plot unfolds. In this context, such inconsistencies are not only expected, but are also — to an extent — necessary for realism.
In Foundation
Foundation (novel)
Foundation is the first book in Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy . Foundation is a collection of five short stories, which were first published together as a book by Gnome Press in 1951...
, the Galactic Empire has existed for 12,000 years. Nuclear power is believed to have existed for 50,000 years, even though this is long after the era of Pebble in the Sky. Yet in Foundation and Empire
Foundation and Empire
Foundation and Empire is a novel written by Isaac Asimov that was published by Gnome Press in 1952. It is the second book published in the Foundation Series, and the fourth in the in-universe chronology...
, General Bel Riose
Bel Riose
Bel Riose is a fictional character in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series. He was the last strong General of the Galactic Empire, Commander of the legendary Twentieth Fleet, who eventually came to be known as "the Last of the Imperials", and earned this title well. His tactical genius was compared...
says, "[Contrast] the two millennia of peace under the Spaceship-and-Sun of the Empire with the two millennia of interstellar anarchy that preceded it." ("The Dead Hand"). Two millennia is a gross underestimate, though it is also possible Riose is referring to the period of immediate history where, as the Empire contracted and its civilisation was on the wane, a decreased amount of minor and occasions of civil war also are a sign of the impending Fall. Asimov himself made comment (through R. Daneel to Hari Seldon, in Prelude to Foundation
Prelude to Foundation
Prelude to Foundation is a Locus Award nominated 1988 novel written by Isaac Asimov. It is one of two prequels to the Foundation Series. For the first time, Asimov chronicles the fictional life of Hari Seldon, the man who invented psychohistory and the intellectual hero of the series.-Plot...
) that this is a sign of civilisational moribundity.
The fate of Earth and its people
In Foundation and EarthFoundation and Earth
Foundation and Earth is a Locus Award nominated science fiction novel by Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series...
, we learn that the Empire began a restoration of Earth, but that this was abandoned. We also encounter descendants of the old population at "Alpha", a planet of one of the suns of Alpha Centauri. They were settled there by the Empire, which intended to make a whole terraformed world, but in fact produced just one large island. Daneel explains that he had a role in attempting the restoration of Earth's soil and also settling humans at "Alpha," but achieved less than he had wanted. Whether he was involved in the actual events of Pebble is not discussed, but strongly implied. It is left open that other refugees from Earth might have settled elsewhere in the universe.
A very modified radio dramatization
On June 17, 1951, the NBC radio network broadcast a much abbreviated radio dramatization of "Pebble in the Sky" in the science fiction anthology series Dimension XDimension X
Dimension X was an NBC radio program broadcast on an unsponsored, sustaining basis from April 8, 1950 to September 29, 1951. The first 13 episodes were broadcast live, and the remainder were pre-recorded...
. In this much abbreviated version (only 25 min), the whole story of time travel was cut out with Bel and Pola being the main characters. The ending was quite different, since the virus was, in fact, released, leaving Earth alone as a "Pebble in the Sky."