Finding out this was a set of short stories first made a lot of sense and made me feel a bit more forgiving towards this book. In one book it doesn't reach any kind of conclusion and feels quite unsatisfying. I also found it very hard to get away from there being only three women (who appear extremely briefly) in the book - none of them have names.

I did enjoy the premise but found it a bit frustrating that Asimov seems to want to emphasise the importance of non-individual historical forces, but all the vignettes in the book focus on one individual, a heroic man who by making great decisions sorts everything out. There was nothing distinct to me about these lead characters.