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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Like watching a car crash. The plot holds together but I’m not giving stars for driving straight at the wall.
A political thriller. Thousands of years hence, humanity has settled hundreds of worlds ruled by a hodgepodge of monarchies. A new Empire is on a conquering spree. Luckily they’re called the Tyranni so everyone knows where they stand. Biron Farill (played by Luke Skywalker) has grown up on an out-of-the-way planet, and when his father is murdered and he narrowly escapes death himself. He heads out across the galaxy and into danger, teaming up with Gillbret (Obi Wan Kenobi) and Artemisia (Princess Leia). Together they head off towards the Rebel Alliance’s base, but the Empire and Aratap (Darth Vader) are in hot pursuit.
These are just a few of the many, many similarities to Star Wars. It’s almost like Lucas has taken things like the Force and the Death Star from the Lensman series (abandoning the racist plot) and welded them to this novel. Not that anything in this novel is original, but there are just so many similarities I can’t help wondering.
However, the characters here are so one dimensional they’re more types than characters. Artemisia is particularly badly handled and seems to be two characters with the same name. Unfortunately the types Asimov has chosen are all boring. They’re drab. The planets are drab. The spaceships are drab. The whole galaxy is drab. He could have imagined anything and this is what he came up with.
I can forgive flat characterisation if there are other things to make up for it, and the first half of the novel is fast paced. But then the car hits the wall and the camera switches to slow motion. Grindingly painful to read.
The Empire could be analogous to a number of real world empires, but it fits particularly well with the Roman Empire. If the novel were to have meaning I think it would have been found here. Unfortunately this idea is not explored.
Now, I want to talk about the very end of the novel. I’m not sure if this is a warning or a spoiler. I favour warning, because at this point the car has come to a stop, the cameraman is executing a dolly shot, and we’re going to get a view of the battered corpse of the driver.
Throughout the novel there has been a search for a mysterious document (cf Death Star, plans of) that will help the Rebel Alliance. It turns out that the document – I kid you not – is the US Constitution. Apparently these magic words will help everyone overcome tyranny. It’s like supposing that the discovery of Hammurabi’s law code would set off a worldwide revolution. Totally ridiculous. These things are very culture and time specific. They had to amend the bloody thing twenty seven times and even now, for all its many fine points, its still not fit for purpose. How on earth can this be relevant to hundreds of planets across hundreds of light years of space? Not only that, but the Constitution was a response to colonies becoming independent from the state that seeded them. The Tyranni have not settled these worlds but conquered them. This completely disregards the analogy to the Roman Empire. You might make a comparison between the Tyranni and the British Empire’s behaviour in India, but America? Far from it.
I am choosing to believe that this Asimov novel was written by another man of the same name.
A political thriller. Thousands of years hence, humanity has settled hundreds of worlds ruled by a hodgepodge of monarchies. A new Empire is on a conquering spree. Luckily they’re called the Tyranni so everyone knows where they stand. Biron Farill (played by Luke Skywalker) has grown up on an out-of-the-way planet, and when his father is murdered and he narrowly escapes death himself. He heads out across the galaxy and into danger, teaming up with Gillbret (Obi Wan Kenobi) and Artemisia (Princess Leia). Together they head off towards the Rebel Alliance’s base, but the Empire and Aratap (Darth Vader) are in hot pursuit.
These are just a few of the many, many similarities to Star Wars. It’s almost like Lucas has taken things like the Force and the Death Star from the Lensman series (abandoning the racist plot) and welded them to this novel. Not that anything in this novel is original, but there are just so many similarities I can’t help wondering.
However, the characters here are so one dimensional they’re more types than characters. Artemisia is particularly badly handled and seems to be two characters with the same name. Unfortunately the types Asimov has chosen are all boring. They’re drab. The planets are drab. The spaceships are drab. The whole galaxy is drab. He could have imagined anything and this is what he came up with.
I can forgive flat characterisation if there are other things to make up for it, and the first half of the novel is fast paced. But then the car hits the wall and the camera switches to slow motion. Grindingly painful to read.
The Empire could be analogous to a number of real world empires, but it fits particularly well with the Roman Empire. If the novel were to have meaning I think it would have been found here. Unfortunately this idea is not explored.
Now, I want to talk about the very end of the novel. I’m not sure if this is a warning or a spoiler. I favour warning, because at this point the car has come to a stop, the cameraman is executing a dolly shot, and we’re going to get a view of the battered corpse of the driver.
Throughout the novel there has been a search for a mysterious document (cf Death Star, plans of) that will help the Rebel Alliance. It turns out that the document – I kid you not – is the US Constitution. Apparently these magic words will help everyone overcome tyranny. It’s like supposing that the discovery of Hammurabi’s law code would set off a worldwide revolution. Totally ridiculous. These things are very culture and time specific. They had to amend the bloody thing twenty seven times and even now, for all its many fine points, its still not fit for purpose. How on earth can this be relevant to hundreds of planets across hundreds of light years of space? Not only that, but the Constitution was a response to colonies becoming independent from the state that seeded them. The Tyranni have not settled these worlds but conquered them. This completely disregards the analogy to the Roman Empire. You might make a comparison between the Tyranni and the British Empire’s behaviour in India, but America? Far from it.
I am choosing to believe that this Asimov novel was written by another man of the same name.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury
Being my second read through of this book I must say I found it as thrilling and grasping as the first time. A very fun and relaxing read, an interesting plot with some twists (even though some of them are a bit ridiculous and unrealistic).
The main character, Biron Farril - the Heir Rancher of Widemos, goes from a naive adolescent in the beginning to a mature individual towards the end. Even though the character's evolution seems rather unnatural it is necessary for the story itself. His love story with the Rhodian Director's daughter, Artemisia, is also something that evolved over night for no obvious reasons.
I am very much looking forward to reading the other two books in the series and seeing how the United States Constitution can really bring freedom to the known worlds.
The main character, Biron Farril - the Heir Rancher of Widemos, goes from a naive adolescent in the beginning to a mature individual towards the end. Even though the character's evolution seems rather unnatural it is necessary for the story itself. His love story with the Rhodian Director's daughter, Artemisia, is also something that evolved over night for no obvious reasons.
I am very much looking forward to reading the other two books in the series and seeing how the United States Constitution can really bring freedom to the known worlds.
Not my favorite story- perhaps I'm becoming jaded against how women are/were written. Maybe I've read too many books in a row that have the women shown as weak love interests, providing plot by needing rescue or providing money or what have you but this story plodded along, with little interest from the author to have characters grow or provide a compelling story.
Not classic
Well, it seems like things and universe-building was based on the original foundation series classic. When I started to read this and I was a little thrown off due to the lack of universe-building. It was a little disappointing start for me...then got dragged into a weirdly Rhodia conspiracy that seems to be a fairly weak plot. Later on, the main character got into love like it was a snap of the finger. That sucked the life out of me...I hate the cheesy-love subplot. Then the ending was just drawn blank out of me.
Well, it seems like things and universe-building was based on the original foundation series classic. When I started to read this and I was a little thrown off due to the lack of universe-building. It was a little disappointing start for me...then got dragged into a weirdly Rhodia conspiracy that seems to be a fairly weak plot. Later on, the main character got into love like it was a snap of the finger. That sucked the life out of me...I hate the cheesy-love subplot. Then the ending was just drawn blank out of me.
Not quite as good as any of the books in the Robots series, you can tell Asimov would greatly improve his craft as he got older. It definitely feels dated in a way, but the book was written about 68 years ago so you can hardly fault Asimov. However, saying all that, this is terrific space pulp fun. A breezy length, great action and feels VERY Star Wars...but 25 years prior to, so I'm sure Lucas or somebody that inspired Lucas was inspired by this. Feels very classic sci-fi, with a terrific ending!
This is the first of the Empire series. I wasn't really into this one as much as the Robots books, mostly because of Asimov's ridiculous attempt at a female character. It also seemed to be a bit out of continuity with the Robots stuff in places (mostly the stuff about nuclear war on Earth), although I think he wrote these ones first. Hopefully the next in the series will be better.
This early novel by Asimov is a fun bit, with the right amount of plots and counterplots. The characters are pretty flat, and the reveal subplot doesn't fit at all - the author agreed, and considers this his worst novel. If this is the worst he wrote, then he is truly one of the masters.
The plot loosely fits within the Foundation empire - but it seems doubtful that Asimov was planning for all this when he wrote it. Probably better to say that the elements were kicking around and this doesn't fit too badly. I thought the idea of "ruling families" was a bit like warlords, or for that matter the big ranches in old westerns.
Bonus - first appearance of the Visi-Sonor and the Neuronic Whip.
Will probably read the other two early Asimov novels soon. 2½ stars.
The plot loosely fits within the Foundation empire - but it seems doubtful that Asimov was planning for all this when he wrote it. Probably better to say that the elements were kicking around and this doesn't fit too badly. I thought the idea of "ruling families" was a bit like warlords, or for that matter the big ranches in old westerns.
Bonus - first appearance of the Visi-Sonor and the Neuronic Whip.
Will probably read the other two early Asimov novels soon. 2½ stars.