This is chronologically the first of Asimov's Galactic Empire trilogy, though published second in 1951 after Pebble in the Sky the previous year. Asimov once described this as his least favourite novel and in some respects it hasn't aged well, particularly in the depiction of the only female character. On the other hand, the science and technology feels more advanced than in the original Foundation trilogy, written a decade before but set many thousands of years later in galactic history. Of course it is a truism to say that SF says more about the time in which it is written than the time in which it is set. The plot here centres around a rebellious aristocrat whose father has been executed by the aptly named Tyranni who rule a confederation of planetary systems near the Horsehead Nebula. The final plot Macguffin about the inspiration for the rebellion being the US Constitution is a highly implausible anti-climax that was not Asimov's idea, but insisted on by the editor of the magazine in which the story originally appeared in parts. Certainly one of his weaker novels, but still a decent page turner. ( )

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. ( )

The 6th in what can be seen as the "extended" 15 book Foundation Series. While this book was written in the 1950s, it includes many aspects later incorporated into the Foundation Trilogy. The key focus of this book, in relation to the Foundation Series, is to show aspects of the Galactic Empire's rise and decline. ( )

Not his most engaging work. For me, the interesting bit was the boy-girl dynamic which he along with other golden-age SF author were often criticized for. At least he tried. ( )

I've seen general opinions online that the Empire books are a weak point of the overall series, and while reading this book, I could see why. It was a bit of a slog for a while, and there were no familiar characters from the other books. It was an okay read overall, just not as engaging as the others I've read. It doesn't seem to have anything particularly relevant to the rest of the series, so it probably could be skipped altogether unless you want to devour every single word written by Asimov; this one doesn't push the series forward as much as just provide an aside at a random point in the middle of when the interesting books happen. It's like a superfluous novella.
I'm undecided about whether or not to continue the Empire books, but I think the next one or the one after that deals with Trantor, which shows up in the Foundation books, so that's a reason to possibly continue. ( )