One of Isaac Asimov's SF masterpieces, this stand-alone novel is a monument of the flowering of SF in the twentieth century. It is widely regarded as Asimov's single best SF novel. Andrew Harlan is an Eternal, a member of the elite of the future. One of the few who live in Eternity, a location outside of place and time, Harlan's job is to create carefully controlled and enacted Reality Changes. These Changes are small, exactingly calculated shifts in the course of history, made for the benefit of humankind. Though each Change has been made for the greater good, there are also always costs. During one of his assignments, Harlan meets and falls in love with Noand#255;s Lambent, a woman who lives in real time and space. Then Harlan learns that Noand#255;s will cease to exist after the next Change, and he risks everything to sneak her into Eternity. Unfortunately, they are caught. Harlan's punishment? His next assignment: Kill the woman he loves before the paradox they have created results in the destruction of Eternity.

艾薩剋•阿西莫夫 Isaac Asimov （1920 ~1992）

俄裔美籍作傢，全知全能，被全世界讀者譽為“神一樣的人”。美國政府授予他“國傢的資源和大自然的奇跡”這個獨一無二的稱號，以錶彰他在“拓展人類想象力”上做齣的傑齣貢獻。

阿西莫夫創作力豐沛，一生之中著作近500 本，涉及杜威圖書分類法的每一個範疇，涵蓋人類生活的每一個層麵，上天下海、古往今來、從恐龍到亞原子到全宇宙無所不包，從通俗小說到羅馬帝國史，從科普讀物到遠東韆年曆史，從聖經指南，到科學指南，到兩性生活指南，每一部著作都樸實、嚴謹而又充滿幽默風趣的格調。

作為人類世界裏最偉大的科幻小說傢之一，阿西莫夫曾獲得代錶著科幻界最高榮譽的雨果奬和星雲終身成就“大師奬”。他於1955年完成瞭一部極富遠見的、關於時間旅行的長篇小說《永恒的終結》，厘清瞭關於時間旅行的終極奧秘和恢宏構想。問世60年來，這部作品被全球科幻迷們一緻奉為阿西莫夫的最高傑作。