by Isaac Asimov
I have to be completely honest about how this particular book came to my notice. I was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and I got to an episode about a planet where the inhabitants were not allowed to live past a certain age due to resource control (the old people were a drag on the society)....
While Pebble in the Sky is Book 3 in the Galactic Empire series, it can be read as a stand alone, just as the other two books in the same series. Overall, Isaac Asimov followed the same story arc as in the other two Galactic Empire series: Some crazy scientist with some odd gadgetry, young male hero...
Asimov's 1949 novel about a man accidentally sent thousands of years into the future where Earth is a provincial backwater in a vast galactic civilization. Old-school SF is always a fun read.
He steps through a wormhole in space and ends up in a future world where he has exotic Super Powers -Like what, I hear you ask? Right, listen to this. He can obtain a deadly attack as White from the variation of the Spanish which starts 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. Nc3. Impressive, hu...