The Stars, Like Dust - Isaac Asimov

From a book written by an author working in Asimov's universe, to one written by Asimov himself. The Stars, Like Dust is set somewhere in between the Robot series and the Foundation series. I'd never heard of it myself, which is why I picked it up. New Asimov to read? Yes, thank you.

In this, we have Biron Farril, son of the ruler of the planet Wedemos. Or he was, because his father's just recently been executed for insurrection against the Tyrann Empire, and Biron himself just dodged a bomb planted in his room. A man named Sander Jonti advises him to go on the run, to find the rebellion Biron's father was part of, but Biron swiftly finds himself in the clutches of one of the world's most loyal to Tyrann, Rhodia. It's ruler is an ineffectual fool, nearly broken from twenty years of cowering before the Tyranni. The Director does, however, have a plucky daughter Atremisia, and a goofball inventor brother, Gillbret. Both of them would very much like to leave and join this rebellion. So they all escape, and go on a long, twisting journey to find the rebellion world Gillbret swears he once chanced upon. Things are not what they seem, but it mostly works out in the end.

The reveal of the rebellion world's true location was fairly clever, even if I couldn't entirely follow the logic in how it was deduced. Oh, the clues were explained clearly enough, I simply have a difficult time seeing how someone would take those clues and come to that specific conclusion. Seems like an awful lot of supposition based on unreliable testimony of people who are either inveterate liars, or going slightly mad under the pressure of maintaining an act. Asimov handled this sort of mystery better in the Foundation series, but he had that universe a little more solidly established, so there was a stronger base for the solution.

He wrote this book, and the first three Foundation books mostly in the early '50s, but it wasn't until later that he more directly started linking them together. I don't know if that was always his plan, or if he just figured why not. The next one I'm planning to read does use Trantor, which was the center of the Galactic Empire, so maybe it was always his plan. Regardless, for The Stars, Like Dust, we only have what we know from this book itself, and it wasn't as though he could spend the entire thing world building. He had to character build, but he also spent quite a lot of time on melodrama.

Biron and Artemisia are simultaneously attracted to each other, but both are also quite put off at the other's attitude at times. They're both hot-tempered, both used to having their way (royalty, what can ya do?), both prideful. Which leads to a lot of harsh words, followed by a lot of furtive glances and moping about why the other won't smile at them anymore, and so on. I wasn't expecting that, and it felt a out of place in an Asimov story. His characters will behave petulantly, but it's rarely two characters doing so towards each other simultaneously. Usually there's just one character pouting, and the others ignore it or try to cajole them out of it. I didn't really care for this, as it was too obvious they would eventually set the recriminations aside and end up together. Which could have happened sooner if they (primarily Biron, but Arta a little) had stopped being buttheads sooner.

I also thought Jonti was going to be a robot, based on his somewhat cold and ruthless manner, but I turned out to be wrong about that. Overall, if you can handle the dramatics between the youngsters, it's a quick and easy read, but not one I'd classify as Asimov's best work.