"Pebble in the Sky"

Pebble in the Sky (Isaac Asimov)

Another book I just couldn't get myself into, sadly. This is one of Asimov's first novels, and it kind of shows - the exposition is clumsy, there's no real main character, and some of the writing is just downright ham-fisted (characters actually go "By Space!"). Normally I'd say there's an interesting idea here, but there kind of isn't: 50's magical atomic power transports an old man far into the future, where, um, there's a guy who made a machine that makes people smart, and, god, this is just not good. Maybe it gets better - I read 100 pages and wasn't interested, so I put it down. Obviously, Asimov's novels got a lot better, but I have to give this one the sad grade of

Grade: D+