Book Review: The Stars, Like Dust (Galactic Empire #1) by Isaac Asimov (four stars)
“The stars, like dust, encircle me/ In living mists of light;/ And all of space I seem to see/ In one vast burst of sight.”
One of the first novels by an eventual master of modern science fiction. Written in 1950. Much better than many reviews would have you believe.
All young fools who get their notions of interstellar intrigue from the video spy thrillers are easily handled.
Reflects a time as foreign to contemporary readers as science fiction set centuries into the future. A cool MacGuffin.
“The room glared with dials, a hundred thousand eyes,” “The second hand moved,” “Gravity was high so near the ship’s hull.”
Asimov commits fewer science gaffs than many more modern writers. Read his after word. Written before the invention of integrated circuits (and all the technology requiring them), before the first artificial satellites, and before the social and cultural revolutions of the last seventy years.
“There’s more to life than a home planet, Tedor. It’s been our great shortcoming in the past centuries that we’ve been unable to recognize that fact. All planets are our home planets.”
As a Matter of Fancy 