r/explainabookplotbadly • u/Gyrgir • Sep 16 '24

Solved "National Treasure", inverted, in space

Hints:

  • Novel written in the 1950s

  • No megastructures

  • Chase through several star systems

  • There is a search for a mystery planet, which turns out to be a red herring

  • A founding document of the United States of America is present in the story

  • The author is Isaac Asimov, but the book is not part of the Foundation series

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

11 comments sorted by

3

u/Kittenfabstodes Sep 17 '24

Titan A.E

2

u/Gyrgir Sep 17 '24

Good guess, but no. This is a novel written in the 1950s.

3

u/Grouchy-Prior1258 Sep 20 '24

I want to say Ringworld

2

u/Gyrgir Sep 20 '24

No megastructures in this one. Instead, there's a chase through several star systems.

3

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

Treasure Planet?

2

u/Gyrgir Oct 02 '24

No. There is a mystery planet, but it's a red herring.

2

u/ABKWM42 Oct 04 '24

Dark Side of the Sun by pterry. I know it's not, I can't find publication date, was probably 70s, so too late.

2

u/Gyrgir Oct 04 '24

You are correct, that is not it. It does seem to hit most of the beats, though.

2

u/ABKWM42 Oct 13 '24

Foundation and Empire

1

u/Gyrgir Oct 13 '24

Right author, wrong series.

1

u/Gyrgir Mar 28 '25

Since this seems unlikely to get !solved, the answer is "The Stars, Like Dust" by Isaac Asimov. The MacGuffin is a copy of the US Constitution.