 Another influence on City at the End of Time are the short stories , " The Universal Library " ( 1901 ) by Kurd Lasswitz and " The Library of Babel " ( 1941 ) by Jorge Luis Borges , which science fiction and mystery author Peter Heck believes is intentional . Books feature prominently in the novel in both present @-@ day Seattle and the Kalpa in the future , and Heck sees it as " a metaphor that anyone whose life is built around books — whether as a writer , reader , or bookseller — can readily empathize with . " 
