The Stars, Like Dust
Encyclopedia
The Stars, Like Dust is a 1951 science fiction
book by writer Isaac Asimov
.
The book 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, one of the Nebula Kingdoms. 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 the "Golden Horde
" for the real-world history that Asimov drew upon, 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 once called it his "least favorite novel."
The novel was originally serialized as Tyrann, and its first paperback edition was retitled The Rebellious Stars.
, 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.
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 — "many of the inhabitants of the planets near the Horsehead Nebula now believe it was named after an explorer called Horace Hedd." Other theories exist. And when Biron pretends on Rhodia that he comes from Earth, the Earth is not recognized, and he has to identify it as "a small planet of the Sirian Sector".
In contemporary terms, however, Asimov wrote the Empire series in the early years of the Cold War
, when a nuclear World War 3 seemed a realistic future; one whose widespread and enduring radioactive contamination might be remembered, at least in folklore, for thousands of years. By the time he wrote Robots and Empire, this was no longer so. However, in the intervening years he had mentioned the contamination, and the resulting abandonment of Earth, in many stories. He therefore retained both of these elements but gave a different cause than nuclear war.
of Earth, is told by Sander Jonti that his father, a rich planetary leader known as Lord Rancher of Widemos, has been arrested and killed by the Tyranni and his own life may be in danger. On Jonti's advice, he travels to Rhodia, the strongest of the conquered planets. There he hears rumours of a world where rebellion against the Tyranni is secretly being plotted.
Escaping with Artemisia oth Hinriad, the daughter of the Director of Rhodia and his brother Gilbret in a Tyranni spaceship, they travel to the planet Lingane. It is not a part of the Tyranni conquests, but maintains "peaceful" relations with them.
There, they meet the Autarch of Lingane (who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth), who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula - they believe that for any rebellion world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula.
The Tyranni spaceship stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels lea by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner. With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about his daughter's and brother's well-being. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of Farrill discovering them until Farrill lands on one planet in the heart of the nebula.
The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere. When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship to apparently set up a radio transmitter, Farrill faces the Autarch and accuses him of getting his father killed at the hands of the Tyranni. The Autarch affirms the accusation, to which Farrill adds that the Autarch feared of his father's growing reputation. That is why he arranged Farrill's father's death.
In a fight, Farrill subdues the Autarch with help from the Autarch's closest secretary, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and the Autarch's secretary try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni fleet arrives and takes them prisoner. Aratap interrogates everyone and during one of the interrogations, the Autarch's secretary kills the Autarch with a blaster in order to keep him from giving the coordinates to the rebellion world to Aratap. But the Autarch manages to tell Aratap the coordinates before he dies, much to the secretary's dismay.
While Aratap interrogates Farrill, Gilbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and disables the hypermotors. Farrill, realising the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gilbret is injured and later dies.
The space jump is made with the coordinates given to them by the late Autarch. However, they find a planetless system consisting only of a white-dwarf star. Aratap lets Farrill and the others go, believing that there is no rebellion world. Biron and Artemisia are married, but Aratap makes it clear that he will never to be chosen as Director.
It is eventually revealed that there is indeed a rebellion in the making, located on Rhodia itself. The Director is its leader; he deliberately took on the persona of a nervous and timid old man to throw off suspicion from himself and his planet.
It is further revealed that the Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for, and found, a document that will help a future empire-yet-to-be (likely Trantor) govern the galaxy. This 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 judgment 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.
termed the novel "a first-rate piece of imaginative story-telling." In Astounding Science Fiction, Villiers Gerson declared the novel successful, despite its "unidimensional" characters, due to "Asimov's skill as a story-teller of suspense." The New York Times
found the novel "a rousing adventure story of the remote future."
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
book by writer Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
.
The book 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, one of the Nebula Kingdoms. 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
Horsehead Nebula
The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. The nebula is located just to the south of the star Alnitak, which is farthest east on Orion's Belt, and is part of the much larger Orion Molecular Cloud Complex. The Horsehead Nebula is approximately 1500 light years from Earth...
. 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 the "Golden Horde
Golden Horde
The Golden Horde was a Mongol and later Turkicized khanate that formed the north-western sector of the Mongol Empire...
" for the real-world history that Asimov drew upon, 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 once called it his "least favorite novel."
The novel was originally serialized as Tyrann, and its first paperback edition was retitled The Rebellious Stars.
Context
The story is set long before Pebble in the SkyPebble in the Sky
Pebble in the Sky is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1950. This work is his first novel — parts of the Foundation series had appeared from 1942 onwards, in magazines, but Foundation was not published in book form until 1951...
, 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.
This contradicts what Asimov later wrote in Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire
Robots and Empire is science fiction novel written by the American author Isaac Asimov and published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, consisting of many short stories and novels....
. One could suppose that history has become muddled over the intervening centuries since the final Robot novel — "many of the inhabitants of the planets near the Horsehead Nebula now believe it was named after an explorer called Horace Hedd." Other theories exist. And when Biron pretends on Rhodia that he comes from Earth, the Earth is not recognized, and he has to identify it as "a small planet of the Sirian Sector".
In contemporary terms, however, Asimov wrote the Empire series in the early years of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
, when a nuclear World War 3 seemed a realistic future; one whose widespread and enduring radioactive contamination might be remembered, at least in folklore, for thousands of years. By the time he wrote Robots and Empire, this was no longer so. However, in the intervening years he had mentioned the contamination, and the resulting abandonment of Earth, in many stories. He therefore retained both of these elements but gave a different cause than nuclear war.
Plot
Biron Farrill, about to complete studies at the UniversityUniversity
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
of Earth, is told by Sander Jonti that his father, a rich planetary leader known as Lord Rancher of Widemos, has been arrested and killed by the Tyranni and his own life may be in danger. On Jonti's advice, he travels to Rhodia, the strongest of the conquered planets. There he hears rumours of a world where rebellion against the Tyranni is secretly being plotted.
Escaping with Artemisia oth Hinriad, the daughter of the Director of Rhodia and his brother Gilbret in a Tyranni spaceship, they travel to the planet Lingane. It is not a part of the Tyranni conquests, but maintains "peaceful" relations with them.
There, they meet the Autarch of Lingane (who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth), who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula - they believe that for any rebellion world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula.
The Tyranni spaceship stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels lea by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner. With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about his daughter's and brother's well-being. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of Farrill discovering them until Farrill lands on one planet in the heart of the nebula.
The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere. When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship to apparently set up a radio transmitter, Farrill faces the Autarch and accuses him of getting his father killed at the hands of the Tyranni. The Autarch affirms the accusation, to which Farrill adds that the Autarch feared of his father's growing reputation. That is why he arranged Farrill's father's death.
In a fight, Farrill subdues the Autarch with help from the Autarch's closest secretary, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and the Autarch's secretary try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni fleet arrives and takes them prisoner. Aratap interrogates everyone and during one of the interrogations, the Autarch's secretary kills the Autarch with a blaster in order to keep him from giving the coordinates to the rebellion world to Aratap. But the Autarch manages to tell Aratap the coordinates before he dies, much to the secretary's dismay.
While Aratap interrogates Farrill, Gilbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and disables the hypermotors. Farrill, realising the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gilbret is injured and later dies.
The space jump is made with the coordinates given to them by the late Autarch. However, they find a planetless system consisting only of a white-dwarf star. Aratap lets Farrill and the others go, believing that there is no rebellion world. Biron and Artemisia are married, but Aratap makes it clear that he will never to be chosen as Director.
It is eventually revealed that there is indeed a rebellion in the making, located on Rhodia itself. The Director is its leader; he deliberately took on the persona of a nervous and timid old man to throw off suspicion from himself and his planet.
It is further revealed that the Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for, and found, a document that will help a future empire-yet-to-be (likely Trantor) govern the galaxy. This 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 judgment 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.
Reception
On its initial book publication, reviewer Groff ConklinGroff Conklin
Edward Groff Conklin was a leading science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories , wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet...
termed the novel "a first-rate piece of imaginative story-telling." In Astounding Science Fiction, Villiers Gerson declared the novel successful, despite its "unidimensional" characters, due to "Asimov's skill as a story-teller of suspense." The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
found the novel "a rousing adventure story of the remote future."