The Stars, Like Dust
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The Stars, Like Dust is a 1951 science fiction book by writer Isaac Asimov.
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[edit] Overview
The story is part of Asimov's Galactic Empire series. It takes place before the actual founding of the Galactic Empire, and even before Trantor has become important. It starts with a young man attending the University of Earth. Biron Farrill is the son of the greatest nobleman on the planet Nephelos. The story starts with the news that his father has been caught conspiring against the Tyranni.
The Tyranni (who come from planet Tyrann) are a minor empire that rule fifty planets near the Horsehead Nebula. Tyrann suppressed science and space-navigation training in the Kingdoms, to help maintain control over its subject worlds. The ruler of Tyrann in the story is called the "Khan." Asimov obviously took the Mongol dominion over the Russian principalities as a model, much as he used the declining Roman Empire for his Foundation series. (See 'Golden Horde' for the real-world history that Asimov drew on and adapted.)
The story's in-universe historical context is generally regarded as quite interesting, during the long period between the initial expansion and the rise of the Empire of Trantor. But the main action in the SF novel revolves around one small intrigue that really resolves nothing. It is occasionally considered to be one of Asimov's somewhat lesser novels, and Asimov himself called it his worst.
[edit] Context (spoiler-free)
The story is set long before Pebble in the Sky, though it was written one year later. Trantor is not directly mentioned — it would be located far away, having been settled not long beforehand, and before its first great wave of territorial expansion. Earth's radioactivity is explained here as the result of an unspecified nuclear war. Departing Earth:
- The huge World-Island of Eurasia-Africa majestically took the stage, north side "down." Its diseased, unliving soil hid its horror under a night-induced play of jewels. The radioactivity of the soil was a vast sea of iridescent blue, sparkling in strange festoons that spelled out the manner in which the nuclear bombs had once landed, a full generation before the force-field defense against nuclear explosions had been developed, so that no other world could commit suicide in just that fashion again.
This contradicts what Asimov later wrote in Robots and Empire. One could suppose that history has become muddled over the intervening centuries since the final Robot novel — the inhabitants of the planets near the Horsehead Nebula now believe it was named after an explorer called Horace Hedd. And when Biron pretends on Rhodia that he comes from Earth, Earth is not recognised, and he has to identify it as "a small planet of the Sirian Sector."
[edit] Plot
The main theme is a number of planets that have been conquered by a race of oppressive conquerors. There, the story starts on Earth, but Earth is not truly centrally involved, and the affairs of this group of worlds is seen as a small matter within a larger galaxy.
The hero is sent to Rhodia, the strongest of the conquered planets. There he gets involved in romance and intrigue. There are rumours of a world where rebellion is secretly being plotted — but is there anything to it?
A sub-plot involves a search for an ancient document that will help a future empire-yet-to-be (likely Trantor) govern the galaxy — the document is ultimately revealed to be the United States Constitution.
Asimov noted in his autobiography that the genesis of the Constitution subplot lay with H. L. Gold, editor of Galaxy magazine. Asimov felt that Gold's judgement was at fault by attributing too much power to the Constitution as a document. Asimov later considered the premise highly improbable, and became annoyed at Gold for having persuaded him to insert the subplot into the novel. Whatever Asimov's opinion of the novel, he never actually withdrew it from publication.
[edit] See also
| The novels of Isaac Asimov |
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Robot Series: The Caves of Steel | The Naked Sun | The Robots of Dawn | Robots and Empire |
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