| The Gods Themselves |
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| 1972 novels | |
| science fiction novels by isaac asimov | |
| hugo award winner for best novel | |
| nebula award winning works | |
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The book is divided into three main parts, originally published in magazine form as three consecutive stories. The main plotline is a conspiracy by the aliens who inhabit a Parallel Universe with different Physical Law s than ours, with the final aim of turning our Sun into a Supernova , and collecting the resulting energy for their use. FIRST PART: AGAINST STUPIDITY... The first part takes place on Earth. The idealistic young physicist Lamont discovers that the use of an "Electron Pump" which produces clean, cheap and abundant energy through an exchange of matter with another universe is resulting in a slow change of physical laws. These changes put the stability of the Sun in danger. His attempts to warn those with the power to avert the catastrophic consequences of the exchange are roundly rebuffed. SECOND PART: ...THE GODS THEMSELVES... The second part takes place in the parallel universe. The alien Dua, who has communicated with Lamont in cryptic fashion, discovers that her fellow aliens are causing the changes to occur deliberately. This part is remarkable because Asimov rarely describes aliens, preferring tales of humans and Robot s, but this time he goes into considerable detail. His aliens have three sexes with fixed roles for each sex. They are quite immaterial and can co-penetrate each other, mainly for Sex . They feed off sunlight and have discovered artificial light just before the story's opening. A group of three forms a triad that, after producing three children, will permanently fuse into a "hard" being; which is the post-adult phase and more intelligent form. The parallel universe is different because the Strong Nuclear Force is much higher. Therefore, their Star s are much smaller (a star like ours would explode immediately), and they try to exploit this difference with our universe in the manner outlined above. Dua's attempts to reverse this process are as unsuccessful as Lamont's, but for a different and rather surprising reason. THIRD PART: ...CONTEND IN VAIN? In the third part, on the state (a cosmic egg or cosmeg), where physical laws are different in the opposite direction from those of Dua's universe. The exchange with the second parallel universe both produces more energy at little or no cost (which is a pleasant side effect for the Lunar residents, who had been unable to establish electron pumps), and balances out the changes from the use of the Electron Pump, resulting in a return to equilibrium. He is helped by a Lunarian tourist guide named Selene, who is secretly an Intuitionist, or a genetically engineered human with super human intuition. In the end, Selene and Denison also foil a plot to use the new power source to move the moon out of earth orbit. ASIMOV'S RELATIONSHIP TO THE STORY
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