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uninventive. Even the reader's natural curiosity about the fate of Estwald and the triad, in which the reader has invested so much concern, is unrewarded; one does not know whether the part of Estwald that is Dua ever convinces the composite Hard One that survival should not be bought at the price of destroying the other Universe. One cannot conceive of an effective way in which the reader could be returned to the para-Universe, but this does not lessen the disappointment. |
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Part III does not even offer the scientific credibility of Part I. The ingenuity with which Asimov rationalized the existence of plutonium-186 and the attention he lavished on the accident-plus-preparation process by which the Electron Pump was created makes the development of energy from the cosmeg-Universe seem unlikely and unconvincing. The solution is ingenious but also convenient. |
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Without the intrinsic narrative interests that propel Parts I and II, Asimov resorted to artificial suspense in Part III. Instead of the natural mysteries that drive his best work, he offered concealed identities and information (the kind of substitute for the built-in puzzle that weakened The Stars, Like Dust). The only reason to conceal Denison's identity until section 6, for instance, was to paper over the lack of suspense with a contrived curiosity about who the middle-aged tourist is. For a while, the reader is tempted to believe that it is, and even wants it to be, Lamont. In a similar way, the information that Selene is an Intuitionist is hidden from the reader (and from Denison) until section 11, even though Selene and Neville converse privately in alternating chapters. The purpose of the Lunarite physicists is kept secret nearly to the end. Asimov tried to rationalize withholding information from the reader by establishing Neville as suspicious, even paranoid. At one point Selene chides herself for thinking of the secret purpose as "the other," rather than naming it, and she says she has been infected by Neville's chronic suspicions. All of this is weakness rather than strength. |
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The strengths of Part III are the descriptions of lunar life, the characterization, and the final solution to the Electron Pump problem. Much of Part III is a guided tour of Lunar City and environs. It seems little more than padding in the midst of the more pressing concerns about the Electron Pump, but the scenes are presented so winningly and so thoroughly imagined that they rival the similar presentations in Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. Acrobatic performances and games ("a melee in the giant gymnasium") get almost an entire section, as does gliding (with the aid of argon-filled gliders attached to the shoes) on a lunar slope. Asimov describes the food (artificial and mushy, but the Lunarites, who have grown up on it, like it better than natural |
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