Just Finished Reading The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov

I recently checked out the late science fiction writer Isaac Asimov's 1972 novel The Gods Themselves from my library online on audiobook...later I discovered that it can be read straight off the Web from a number of sites.  The title derives from a quote in a play by Friedrich Schiller, translated into English as "Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain".  And stupidity, expressed here as denial of reality in favor of convenience and personal career advancement, does play a major role in the story's development.  It is the year 2100 and Hallam, a physicist, has built his career and worldwide reputation on the backs of the works of others...including entities from a parallel universe who have instituted something called the Electron Pump that provides free energy to our own universe while adjusting both universes' physical laws to an eventual equilibrium state far down the road.  But is it all really free and what is the "other" side up to?  Colleagues blacklisted by Hallam for opposing him are on to the Pump's dangers but are thwarted at every turn from stopping him...finally they turn to try to communicate surreptitiously with those in the "para-Universe" to urge them to break off their project, only to eventually come to a very unsettling conclusion about the other side's agenda. The second part of the novel presents life from the view of those others on a small planet, the "soft" ones able to permeate matter and divided into three forms...rational, emotional, and paternal...and the "hard" ones who, more like ourselves completely integrated personalities, seem to be running the show.  I thought Asimov displayed a lot of brilliant creativity here in presenting the various characters of the para-Universe and their alien society.  The book's final section takes place on the moon, where one of Hallam's professional enemies opposing the Electron Pump emigrates there, discovering...along with the various physical adjustments necessary for life there...a romance as well as intrigue concerning the inhabitants' desire to break away from Earth rule.  The story is clearly resolved at the end and the topic was interesting enough, but what I valued the most...and typically from most of Asimov's writings...is that he wrote in a plain narrative style and let his characters clearly reveal themselves through their dialog and...especially in the case of the "other" beings...their inner thoughts.  The Gods Themselves is not a part of Asimov's general universe of science fiction that includes the Foundation, Empire, and Robot series...but it raises some important issues that carry some relevance today, especially of the tension that exists between popular will for personal convenience and comfort versus science-originated warnings to change our direction and behavior.  There is a lot of physics discussed here, but don't worry...even Asimov, a scientist in his own right, later mentioned that with this novel he was writing over his head: just flow with the story and you'll be all right...