Name: The Currents of Space
ISBN: 9780449024959

The Currents of Space

High above the planet Florinia, the Squires of Sark live in unimaginable wealth and comfort. Down in the eternal spring of the planet, however, the native Florinians labor ceaselessly to produce the precious kyrt that brings prosperity to their Sarkite masters. Rebellion is unthinkable and impossible. Not only do the Florinians no longer have a concept of freedom, any disruption of the vital kyrt trade would cause other planets to rise in protest, ultimately destabilizing trade and resulting in a galactic war. So the Trantorian Empire, whose grand plan is to unite all humanity in peace, prosperity, and freedom, has stood aside and allowed the oppression to continue. Living among the workers of Florinia, Rik is a man without a memory or a past. He has been abducted and brainwashed. Barely able to speak or care for himself when he was found, Rik is widely regarded as a simpleton by the worker community where he lives. But as his memories begin to return, Rik finds himself driven by a cryptic message he is determined to deliver: Everyone on Florinia is doomed... the Currents of Space are bringing destruction. But if the planet is evacuated, the power of Sark will end--so some would finish the job and would kill the messenger. The fate of the Galaxy hangs in the balance.

What Hacker News says

maxbondMay 2023

I've been reading a lot of Asimov lately (though I've not read Foundation yet) and greatly enjoying it. Something I love about his novels is that about halfway through, the characters will start interpreting the situation and making decisions about it, and there's a great deal of sophistication to it. People are often wrong, or even come to the correct conclusion through incorrect means.

Currents of Space is an especially good example here, the characters will spin these complex conspiracy theories and talk themselves into a paranoid position, but in the end the explanations are very simple, but their bigotries prevented them from seeing it.

Which brings me to my next point, I was surprised by how political they were, in a quiet, unassuming way. There's a strong through line of center-left populism and critiques of bigotry and classism and sexism (though Asimov clearly had some blind spots here as well, he's a product of his time after all). He was very artful about constructing scenarios where his critique was apparent, without being explicit and without it feeling forced or in your face.

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madengrFeb 2018

No one ever mentions the 0th law, which was probably the most important, at least in the books.

Almost finished reading the entire Robot/Empire/Foundation series. That “I, Robot” movie was garbage; absolutely nothing to do with the Robot series.

Just finished The Currents of Space. Pretty depressing, that (probably) 10k years in the future, humans are still exploiting each other. Asimov probably has it spot on.

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sadlyNessJan 2013

so we can start farming kyrt...and psycho-probbing spatio-analysts...[1]

if only Asimov was around to see these events start to unfold.

[1] Currents of Space - Isaac Asimov

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