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''The Stars, Like Dust'' is a 1951 science fiction mystery 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 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." 〔Asimov, Isaac. ''In Memory Yet Green''. Avon, 1979, p. 600.〕 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 Sky'', though it was written one year later. The Trantorian Empire 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. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Stars, Like Dust」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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