Our solar system is one of the rare planetary systems that has a single star. Most planetary systems are said to be binary star systems. The star nearest to our sun is the Alpha Century, located at about 4.3 billion light years from is a binary star system (α Cen AB). However a third star called the Proxima Centuri is also known to be associated with this system albeit a little further than the distance between A and B. Taken together they are actually considered a triple star system (α Cen ABC).
The Background
Asimov’s Nemesis is one of his later books and is not part of his foundation, Robot or the Empire series. Nemesis is set in the 23rd century. The earth as we know it is completely crowded and polluted. Settlements have taken off on artificial space ships that orbit around the earth. Settlements handle their own research on space travel and one such settlement has learnt to travel space on a system called ‘Hyperspace travel’ which is space travel at the speed of light. While the settlements have generations of civilians living on it, earth attempts to keep a tab on them with spies and agents.
Asimov’s Nemesis is one of his later books and is not part of his foundation, Robot or the Empire series. Nemesis is set in the 23rd century. The earth as we know it is completely crowded and polluted. Settlements have taken off on artificial space ships that orbit around the earth. Settlements handle their own research on space travel and one such settlement has learnt to travel space on a system called ‘Hyperspace travel’ which is space travel at the speed of light. While the settlements have generations of civilians living on it, earth attempts to keep a tab on them with spies and agents.
The story revolves around the discovery of a companion star for earth, that too a dim red star, which is discovered by a young astronomer (Eugenia Insignia) on a settlement called ‘Rotor’. Having made this discovery, the settlement which is sitting on its ability of ‘Hyperspace travel’ decides to take off into space away from its orbit around Earth, hoping that it would find another planetary system around the new red star. The commissioner of Rotor (Janus Pitt) is a man with an agenda. He wants to get away from Earth to make a world of his own where his belief of the ‘best of human’ species can thrive and build a settlement of a single race – almost a version of Hitler and his ideology. Even while ‘hyperspace travel’ had not been tested before and he knew not what could happen during the flight, he was still trying to convince his people that it was a good idea to try it. When Eugenia makes the discovery of the companion star, it gives him a reason to drive the settlement into space using the new untested technology – promising its settlers a new world.
Rotor survives the travel, with group of civilians who had voted to undertake the ‘hypertravel’, and reaches the red star only to find a single planet, Megas, which cannot sustain life. However, they find that the moon of Megas, Erythro can actually sustain life, although there was no identifiable life, except protozoa type bacteria which was spread all over the surface of the moon.
The plot:
While this is the background of the plot, the story is about the daughter of Eugenia and a Earthman (Fisher Crile – a spy from Earth), named Marlene who has a special gift – a gift of seeing through people and understanding them, which is quite unsettling. She is not a mind reader and cannot actually read someone’s mind, but has an uncanny ability to read the slightest nuances of body language and make out people’s innermost feelings and thoughts. She is not ‘plain’ to look at, at best, but has an incredibly intelligent and mature mind. The nemesis is a star which actually poses danger to earth as it hurling its way into the solar system, and can cause damages to the very existence of life by the disturbances that it would cause to the gravitational status of the solar system. The story is then about Marlene’s special attraction to Erythro and how her special abilities help to save Nemesis and the Earth. While that’s the crux of the plot, several human relationships and dynamics decide the fate of the world.
While this is the background of the plot, the story is about the daughter of Eugenia and a Earthman (Fisher Crile – a spy from Earth), named Marlene who has a special gift – a gift of seeing through people and understanding them, which is quite unsettling. She is not a mind reader and cannot actually read someone’s mind, but has an uncanny ability to read the slightest nuances of body language and make out people’s innermost feelings and thoughts. She is not ‘plain’ to look at, at best, but has an incredibly intelligent and mature mind. The nemesis is a star which actually poses danger to earth as it hurling its way into the solar system, and can cause damages to the very existence of life by the disturbances that it would cause to the gravitational status of the solar system. The story is then about Marlene’s special attraction to Erythro and how her special abilities help to save Nemesis and the Earth. While that’s the crux of the plot, several human relationships and dynamics decide the fate of the world.
My take:
As usual a gripping tale by Asimov: complicated in its plot, amazing in its ability to simplify the most complex of science fiction – thanks to his straightforward narration.
As usual a gripping tale by Asimov: complicated in its plot, amazing in its ability to simplify the most complex of science fiction – thanks to his straightforward narration.
Aside from the fact that Nemesis a beautiful science fiction, written in trademark Asimov style, what to me was amazing, was how humans remain quintessentially ‘human’ in their thoughts and behavior in any setting. Whether one is on Rotor, on Earth, or on Erythro, Freudian psychology hits the nail on the head. Marlene and her ability to assess inane human thought – repressions, regressions, projections, rationalizations and so on and so forth – and deal with it, is a an immutable talent that makes her valuable across time and space.
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