Stars, Like Dust

by Isaac Asimov

EPUB, 243 pages

English language

Published Sept. 1, 2020 by Del Ray.

ISBN:: 978-0-593-16005-3
ASIN:: B08GJZSFP6

The first book in the Galactic Empire series, the spectacular precursor to the classic Foundation series, by one of history’s most influential writers of science fiction, Isaac Asimov

His name was Biron Farrill and he was a student at the University of Earth. A native of one of the helpless Nebular Kingdoms, he saw his home world conquered and controlled by the planet Tyrann—a ruthless, barbaric Empire that was building a dynasty of cruelty and domination among the stars.

Farrill’s own father had been executed for trying to resist the Tyrann dictatorship and now someone was trying to kill Biron. But why?

His only hope for survival lay in fleeing Earth and joining the rebellion that was rumored to be forming somewhere in the Kingdoms. But once he cast his lot with the freedom fighters, he would find himself guarding against treachery on every side and facing the most difficult …

37 editions

Libbum reviewed The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov (Galactic Empire #2)

Review of 'The Stars, Like Dust' on 'GoodReads'

1 star

So, I'm going through Asimov's suggested reading order for his works, since I really want to get a good background before (finally) getting to Foundation.

With this being one of the first books Asimov wrote, it has not aged well. In general it's pretty dull, shallow, sexist, childish for no good reason and frankly boring.

Asimov's writing style is forced in this story: the plot only really moves on when some character monologues about some deductive theory they have concerning everyone else's actions. In the Robot trilogy this makes a bit more sense, since R. Daneel and R. Giskard must work within the confines of their positronic brains.

The sense of time is off, or at least the characters are not developed enough for us to understand their motives completely. The so-called love story has no basis, and Farrill's outbursts are either ridiculous and/or cringe-worthy by today's standards.

I'm happy …