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 …
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 that Asimov himself lists this as his 'least favourite novel', because that's certainly the case in my mind (so far at least).
