ARC Review: Gold Dust by Catherine Asaro

Gold Dust
Author: Catherine Asaro
Series: Dust Knights (Book 2)
Publication: Baen Books (October 7, 2025)

Description: BORN TO RUN; BORN TO FIGHT, A PAIR OF STAR-CROSSED LOVERS COMPETE IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES

COMPETITORS IN THE INTERSTELLAR OLYMPICS MUST OVERCOME POVERTY AND INTRIGUE

Three interstellar civilizations vie for honors in the Olympics, including the Skolian Imperialate. The thriving, populous worlds of humanity have always dominated the Games. The team from Raylicon, a dying world of scorching temperatures, has never won honors.

IS CHANGE COMING?

Mason, the coach for the Raylicon track and field team, makes a startling discovery: The Undercity, an ancient culture hidden in ruins beneath the desert, carries a secret. In a place where crushing poverty exists alongside a culture of dramatic beauty, a group of spectacular runners has existed for centuries, even millennia, unknown to the outside universe.

The Dust Knights are the best of those marvels. With the help of Major Bhajaan, an Undercity native, he recruits the Knights. And so change sweeps their world. The Undercity faces a civilization they've never trusted, one that sees them as barely even human. Now, they must all learn to work together.

THE KYLE UNIVERSE

Skolia needs the Undercity to trust them—for hidden within its enigmatic population is one of humanity’s greatest resources. Their inbred population has created a large concentration of Kyle operators, an otherwise almost extinct group of humans. Kyles can do more than run; only they have the neurological makeup needed to utilize a vital technology, one that gives Skolian its sole advantage over their conquering enemies. The army wants the Kyles to work for them, but after centuries of being despised and left to die by the rest of humanity, the Undercity wants nothing to do with them.

Until Angel, one of the top runners among the Knights, joins the Kyle Corps—and dives into a world of neurological marvels, including star-spanning networks that access a dimension with dramatically different laws than our space-time universe.

THE STAKES COULD NOT BE HIGHER AS THE DUST KNIGHTS COMPETE FOR THEIR WORLD—AND THE FREEDOM OF HUMANITY

My Thoughts: The second book in the Dust Knights series has a number of dust knights trying to qualify for the Olympics. They have to deal with all sorts of prejudice and the poverty of their lives. After all, they agreed to run for the Raylicon team in exchange for clean water and food. 

Besides training for the Olympics, Angel is working for the Army training to be a telop - a critcally needed skill to keep the Skolian Imperialate from being conquered by the much more numerous Trader Empire. Many more than average of the people who live in the Undercity are empaths and telepaths which is one reason that Raylicon has become interested in the population they disparaged as lazy and stupid. 

Angel is quickly outpacing her instructors and, in true Undercity style, is exploring the vast new world she is being trained to navigate. Her investigations help Bhaaj who is investigating a possible forced merger between two interstellar corporations. The Scorpio Corporation and Abyss Associates are both companies of interest to the Majdas who are Bhaaj's employer. The CEOs of both corporations happen to have children who are on the new Olympic team. 

One of the viewpoint characters is Kiro, the son of an executive of the Abyss Association. He really wants a track Olympic medal and is willing to slight his accounting degree at Cries University to pursue his dreams. He's also an empath who forms a firm friendship with three other young people from the Undercity who have been looking for a fourth for their dust gang and are also training for the Olympics. 

This was another excellent story with great worldbuilding. I enjoyed Angel's descriptions of Kyle Space. I also enjoyed figuring out the mystery which centered around the two corporations, their connection to Undercity Drug cartels, and secrets buried in the past. 

I received this one in exchange for an honest review from Baen Books. You can buy your copy here.