This continues my current month-long Asimov binge. After reading the robot stories and novels in publication order, I decided to continue on with the empire novels in series order. I typically prefer to read in publication order, but in this case I'm making an exception.

The Stars, Like Dust is either the first or second empire novel, depending on whether you believe the consensus of alt.books.isaac-asimov or Asimov's author's note in Prelude to Foundation. Personally, I choose the alt.books.isaac-asimov order. It makes more sense.

This book is set in the early empire period of Asimov's Robots-Empire-Foundation series. There are thousands of settled worlds, most of which are part of one small kingdom of planets or another. Biron Farrill is awakened in the middle of one fateful night to find out that he is locked in his room, his life is threatened, and his father is dead (in that order). In one week he is to graduate from university on Earth and return to his home planet (with a document he is to steal from Earth's archives for his father). Those plans are necessarily interrupted and he races off either away or to his destruction -- he is not sure. The plot boils down to an action-packed space opera with quite a bit of (incorrect as it turns out) planetary science thrown in.

It's short at 200 pages, but it's a fun read with a mystery, several plot twists, and enough political maneuvering to keep things interesting. The ending is rather abrupt, but nonetheless satisfying.

[note: this is a re-read for me]