In January 1949 appears "The race of the Red Queen" in Astounding, a story that, if the data does not fail me, is Asimov's first foray into the issue of time travel.
True, he had written about other things before, but never published (as "Cosmic Corkscrew," the first story that Campbell tried to sell) and eventually lost. In "The race of the Red Queen" Asimov plays to raise a temporal paradox (someone sends texts of modern physics to classical Greece, hoping to alter history) and then resolve it.
It's a solid story, with a brilliant idea (that "running to stay in the same place" that is implicit in the title and that is an obvious reference to Lewis Carroll's characters) and well resolved. We are not facing tours de force as "All of you zombies" or "By their own means" by Robert A. Heinlein (probably two of the best stories ever written about time travel), but not a bad story at all, and also shows how much Asimov has improved over the years.
It is narrated in first person, something quite rare throughout his career, and in a tone somewhat ironic, sometimes near the narrator characterizes the black American novel, which is doing very well to the story. It is a landmark (as may have been "Dusk" at the time) but it is a good example of the strength that is reaching as narrator.
In May we find in the same magazine "Mother Earth", a short novel in which the most interesting (beyond the anecdote told) is the scenario that poses: an Earth technologically backward, overpopulated and economic disadvantage and technological what were once its former colonies. It is the first time (beyond isolated strokes) that Asimov was plunged into social speculation, development and analysis of different human societies. Although this narrative space has time for little more than introduce the situation, the idea will not fall on deaf ears. And indeed, this setting will resume later in his novel The Caves of Steel.
And finally, between November and December, he published "... And now you do not", which will long remain the past history of the Foundation. For Asimov is certainly the end of the cycle of stories and expressed several times over the years that he has no intention of going back on that stage. It stand for about thirty years to return to the Foundation and, when it does, it will be very curious consequences. But we'll talk about that in due course.
Meanwhile, what gives us this last story?
On the one hand, and I am afraid, one of the most heinous of Asimov, that Arkady Darell, which is the pivot around which revolves the story and deserves to be included in total merit as a prominent member of that whole bunch of children repellents and unbearable that people occasionally true adventure film.
Fortunately, history is saved for other reasons. In a similar way to how it did in "The Mule", the incident of alleged fleeing Arkady and awesome Second Foundation is actually a smokescreen that we are not aware of everything that is happening between racks. And what is happening is a game of mirrors, deceptions and recontraengaños which is among the best moments of Asimov's narrative as the author of mystery.
From the chapter entitled "I know ..." where each character tries to give his solution to the mystery (that continues in "satisfactory" and ends with "true solution"), the story does not give rest to the reader. If you commented that "Now You See It ..." was that of his literary matriushka, here is the tendency to Asimov limits.
Every proposed solution to the mystery that is the backbone the story ("Where is the Second Foundation and who compose it?") Is fully consistent with the data you have the drive and the ability to Asimov is the way in which the emotional temperature rises Measure and poses while these solutions, making each one we look a bit more "right" and authentic than the previous one and, incidentally, metiéndonos in a kind of carousel where almost waiting impatiently for the following explanation, the next round. When it comes to the penultimate solving the mystery, making the reader almost as good once, as is certainly the one that best explains all that has happened ...
Until we reach the last chapter ("The real solution, as we said) where we are given a final twist and the truth is finally revealed (and explained to perfection) with a few final words.
Asimov seems here a magician, concealing the mystery right in front of our noses, then reveals on (by way of convincing us that it is that the real solution ... until we read the following) and the final drawing back the veil and showing us the truth at the last moment . When finished, one almost feels tempted to clap or yell "Bravo!" And, of course, by then, the reader has given up on the tricks of the magician.
Tricks, however, does not imply any trap. Asimov was not anything out of the manga that was not there previously. The reader itself can provide the real solution to the mystery if smart enough, because the author has played all the time according to the rules, and if the majority does not is only by the skill with which manages to focus our attention on another side throughout the process.
Those who accuse of being a writer Asimov trashy, scarce resources and lack of subtlety should review the end of the story to notice something as obvious as the fact that a bad writer would be unable to do all those passes hands in front our eyes the way it does.
It is true that Asimov's narrative resources are limited, no doubt his versatility as a writer is scarce and there is no doubt that the literary techniques he uses are few and almost always the same. But the fact remains that such techniques, when you want, you know use a masterly way.
REFERENCES:
- "The Carrrera of the Red Queen" (The Red Queen's Race). In Astounding Science-Fiction, January 1949. Most recent Spanish edition: Tales compete II (Ediciones B, 1993).
- "Mother Earth" (Mother Earth). In Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1949. Most recent Spanish edition: The Golden Age III (Plaza & Janes, 1988).
- "... And now you do not" (... And Now You Do not). In Astounding Science-Fiction, November and December 1949. Most recent Spanish edition (like "The search of the Foundation): Second Foundation (The Factory of Ideas, 2008).
