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political system depicted in the book will be transformed into some kind of a federal, representative democracy. That could have worked fine if this was a stand-alone novel. As part of a series, it does not work because we know that galactic civilization is not going to develop in this way. Trantor will expand and expand, until the entire galaxy is included in its empire. Trantor and its empire have many points in their favor, but it is not a democratic federation. So, the re-discovery of the US Constitution led nowhere, it did not shape a new political reality, and in the end probably ended up right back in a collection of old documents. Of course, the fact is that when Asimov wrote this he probably did not yet fully realize that this was going to be an integral part of a comprehensive long series."
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317:: "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."
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The space jump is made with the co-ordinates given to them by the late
Autarch. However, they find a planetless system with only a white-dwarf star. Aratap lets Farrill and the others go, believing that there is no rebellion world. Aratap makes it clear that he will never be chosen as Director. Biron
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In a fight, Farrill subdues the
Autarch with help from the Autarch's aide, Tedor Rizzet, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and Rizzet try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni
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Biron
Farrill, about to complete studies at the University of Earth, is told by Sander Jonti that his father, a rich planetary leader who is known as Lord Rancher of Widemos, has been arrested and killed by the Tyranni and that his own life may be in danger. On Jonti's advice, he travels to Rhodia,
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The
Tyranni spaceship that was stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels led by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner. With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about the well-being of his daughter and his brother. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of
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magazine. Asimov felt that Gold's judgment was at fault by attributing too much power to the
Constitution as a document. Asimov later considered the premise highly improbable and became annoyed at Gold for having persuaded him to insert the subplot into the novel. Whatever Asimov's opinion of the
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There, they meet the
Autarch of Lingane, who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth, who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula as they believe that for any rebellion
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Reviewer Jane Fowler noted, "Making the re-discovery of the United States
Constitution into the climax of the plot implies that the space civilization depicted is going to take up this Constitution as a model for building a new political structure, that the "space feudalism" which dominates the
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fleet arrives and takes them prisoner. Aratap interrogates
Farrill, Artemisia, Gillbret, and Rizzet to ascertain the co-ordinates of the rebellion world, but they do not know where it is. However, the Autarch reveals the information to Aratap. Rizzet kills the Autarch with a blaster in anger.
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While Aratap interrogates
Farrill, Gillbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and short the hyperatomics. Farrill, realizing the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gillbret is injured and later dies.
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It is further revealed that the
Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for and has found a document that will help a future empire, likely Trantor, govern the galaxy. The document is eventually revealed to be the
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Escaping with Artemisia oth Hinriad, the daughter of the Director of Rhodia, and her uncle Gillbret in a Tyranni spaceship, they travel to the planet Lingane. It is not part of the Tyranni conquests but maintains "peaceful" relations with them.
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It is eventually revealed that there is indeed a rebellion in the making, on Rhodia itself, with the Director as its leader; he deliberately took on the persona of a nervous and timid old man to throw off suspicion from himself and his planet.
336:, that 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 elements but gave a different cause than nuclear war.
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the strongest of the conquered planets. There, from the Director of Rhodia's cousin Gillbret, he hears rumours of a world on which rebellion against the Tyranni is secretly being plotted.
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The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere. When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship, apparently to set up a
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seemed a realistic future; its widespread and enduring radioactive contamination might be remembered, at least in folklore, for thousands of years. By the time he wrote
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becomes 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
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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.
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magazine. It was serialised in three parts in the January, February, and March 1951 issues. It was published as a novel on February 15 of that year by
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world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula.
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The Tyranni, who come from the planet Tyrann, rule a minor empire of 50 planets near the
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Asimov noted in his autobiography that the genesis of the Constitution subplot lay with
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termed the novel "a first-rate piece of imaginative story-telling". The magazine's
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dominion over the Russian principalities as a model, much as he used the declining
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found the novel "a rousing adventure story of the remote future."
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told readers "Don't miss" it and the other Empire novels. In
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in early 1951, and issued in book form around the same time.
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is a 1951 science fiction mystery book by American writer
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novel, he never actually withdrew it from publication.
506:Joseph D. Olander, Martin Harry Greenberg, (1977)
237:Asimov once called it his "least favorite novel."
320:In contemporary terms, however, Asimov wrote the
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376:and Artemisia are allowed to marry.
952:Lucky Starr and the Rings of Saturn
931:Lucky Starr and the Oceans of Venus
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475:: 27. February 15, 1951.
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890:Forward the Foundation
539:Galaxy Science Fiction
521:Galaxy Science Fiction
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170:Galaxy Science Fiction
1029:Other science fiction
1000:Norby Finds a Villain
883:Prelude to Foundation
855:Foundation and Empire
818:The Currents of Space
685:The Currents of Space
658:Isaac Asimov's Utopia
599:title listing at the
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151:The Currents of Space
1122:1951 American novels
980:Norby's Other Secret
964:The Norby Chronicles
876:Foundation and Earth
811:The Stars, Like Dust
664:Roger MacBride Allen
607:The Stars, Like Dust
596:The Stars, Like Dust
492:. Avon, 1979, p. 600
265:The Rebellious Stars
261:The Stars, Like Dust
183:The Stars, Like Dust
165:The Stars, Like Dust
21:The Stars, Like Dust
1049:The Gods Themselves
1037:The End of Eternity
1005:Norby Down to Earth
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490:In Memory Yet Green
241:Publication history
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781:The Robots of Dawn
767:The Caves of Steel
760:The Positronic Man
557:, July 1951, p.156
523:, May 1951, p. 84.
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