Robots and Empire

This is the fourth and final book in Asimov's series of robot novels. This is set 200 Earth years after the action of the previous three so does not feature detective Elijah Bailey, though a distant descendant of his appears, alongside the long lived Solarian/Auroran Gladia, and of course Robots Daneel Olivaw and Giskard Reventlov, the latter of whom has acquired the ability to read human emotions. The whole course of this novel is basically around Giskard and Daneel arriving through stumbling ratiocination at a new Zeroth Law of robotics, that a robot may not harm humanity or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. They arrive at this law in the course of foiling the plans by two Auroran roboticists to wipe out Earth through show more accelerating its natural radioactivity until it gallops out of control and makes the planet unlivable, thus, in their estimation, freeing the galaxy for the Spacer worlds to conquer. This is, as always, a very clever narrative, yet, I felt it suffered without a strong and likeable central human character, so this is probably my least favourite of the robot novels, though still very good. show less

This series continues to be among my all time favorites. Reading it for the first time instills so many incredible feelings - humanity's settling of the stars, the psychology behind growing old, nature vs. nurture, class warfare and the future. The callbacks to previous books had enormous emotional impact, Daneel and Giskard are fascinating protagonists, Gladia and DG are magnificent in their own right. I've rarely read a book that so easily painted a picture in my head of what everybody would look like, what every scene felt like. A terrific ending, and a very satisfying conclusion to the Robots Series. Onto Empire!

DNF at about 33 percent. It’s dull, sexist, prolix, and incredibly repetitive. The characters are manipulators, narcissists and the people who serve such persons. I read the plot summary on Wikipedia and see that I missed very little.

The notion that Asimov wrote “hard” sci fi when one of his central plot devices is inexplicably telepathic robots (synthetic persons, artificial intelligences) seems laughable to me.

As I’ve said previously even the allegedly big ideas aren’t that big. Big cosmoc space colonialism and exploitation is the big healthy future for humanity ! In fact, it’s the only healthy future ! All others lead to degeneracy and death of the spirit !!!!

I’m beginning to loathe Asimov for the same reasons I show more loathe Heinlein, a situation I did not anticipate at all. That makes me sad and I hope the later books can make me feel more of the wonder and pleasure I felt with “I, Robot” which I still recommend most heartily.

I’ve got a bunch of the rest of the books checked out from the library and I will try the next in the chronology Asimov himself assembled, with hopes for better. show less

Of his Robot Novels, I think I liked this one the best. Yes, it was written to tie the canon together, and as such had deliberate foreshadowing of the later books, but it was still adventurous and and an interesting twist there at the end. Now on to the Galactic Empire novels...

"Sequel to Robots of Dawn and prequel to Foundation." (Despite contrary publication dates.)
Same source describes Foundation in a way that makes me think I might like them, after all.
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Well, I wound up reading first Foundation before any of these Baley/Daneel novels. And I didn't like it all. Had I read RoD and RoE first, I might have liked it better. But I don't intend to back up and try again. However, I will still look for the Baley book that I missed, [b:The Naked Sun|76685|The Naked Sun (Robot, #2)|Isaac Asimov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1439756125s/76685.jpg|1583154], even though it was recapped in these later books to the point of 'spoilers.'

Reading this as a stand-alone probably would not work well at all. And show more I don't know how to rate it objectively. I loved it, because I love watching Asimov's robots in action, talking among themselves, pondering the difference between robot and human, testing the limits of the Three Laws....

Highly recommended to ppl who do like Foundation, to ppl who like Bicentennial Man or other Asimovian robot stories. Asimov did develop his writing by the 80s; these last Baley/Daneel books have actual characters, including females that pass both the Bechdel and the Mako Mori test. The writing itself is more graceful & smooth. The adventures & intrigue are interesting & thoughtful enough that I enjoyed them, even though neither adv. or intr. are things I like in novels. The hard science is probably mostly very far-fetched, but I found that I didn't care, because the discussions of humans and humanity are so thoughtful & thought-provoking.

I do admit, though, that if you're not a fan of classic SF; if you prefer shiny new books, you probably don't need to hunt down a copy of this. show less

Some 220 years have passed since the end of The Robots of Dawn. Elijah Baley has been dead for a long time. His son Bentley (also long dead), had joined the settler space colonists and built a home on the planet of Baleyworld. Dr. Han Fastolffe has also passed on, leaving only Gladia to ponder Solaria's recent abandonment. At least she still has Daneel and Giskard in her "employ".

Just when she gets ready for another small 'eternity' of boredom, Gladia meets D.G. Baley, one of Elijah's descendants. Despite her initial misgivings, she agrees to accompany him to Solaria to investigate the mysterious destruction of two settler space ships. Given Solaria's abandonment, such a thing shouldn't be possible after all, right?

Little does she know, show more that all this is just the beginning of a whole slew of political conflicts. Luckily for her, Daneel and Giskard are way ahead of the situation... or are they?



And... I finished The Robot series.

The good news is that almost all my questions about the Foundation Universe's history have now been answered. The fate of Solaria and Baleyworld, as described in Foundation and Earth, make a lot of sense. Seeing Giskard figure out the very basics of Phsychohistory made for a very interesting read as well.

The bad news however, is that I'm starting to like Isaac Asimov less as a writer. I even moved him lower on my favorite authors' list.

To be clear, it's strictly his writing style that bothers me, as it reads more like a scientific treaty than a sci-fi novel. Some might argue, that this is part of Asimov's appeal: making fictional history seem real. Unfortunately, I am one of those superficial readers who wants to read a novel, rather than the "Beginner's Guide to Psychohistory".

Bottom line, from a purely scientifical point of view it is a brilliant book. It's also an extremely satisfying read, for those who've been left wondering at the end of the Foundation series. Still, the writing style is not particularly easy to follow.

There are way too many passages taken up by lengthy expositions on human vs robotic thought patterns. They're indeed very interesting, and worth leaving in, but 3 phrases instead of 103 would've made for a much more entertaining read. 3.3/5 stars
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review of book 0.1: I, Robot
review of book 0.2: The Rest of the Robots
review of book 1: The Caves of Steel
review of book 2: The Naked Sun
review of book 3: The Robots of Dawn show less

I really, really liked this book, like the previous ones in this series. One of the reasons why I love Asimov, beyond the fact that he presents us a futuristic civilizations so fascinating and different from us, but deep down still identical to our current humanity, is that in his books there is everything: there's fun, there are emotions, there's mystery, tension, love, friendship, many reflections on human psychology and relationships between people (reflections that paradoxically are often shown with the eyes of the robots). In short, really, everything.
It doesn't seem possible to me that this is the end of the Robot series, that we will no longer see Daneel, that we will directly go to an already fully established Empire without show more knowing all that's happened in between! But I can't really say that that is a flaw, because actually, after the first moment of frustration for the unsatisfied curiosity, it's not bad to have an open ending, that let us imagine future events and allow us to keep the memory of these characters that we loved so much.
In conclusion, therefore, a beautiful book that extraordinarily concludes a fantastic sub-series. And now I cannot wait to continue! :D

Questo libro mi è piaciuto veramente, veramente tanto, come i precedenti della serie.
Uno dei motivi per cui amo tanto Asimov, oltre al fatto che ci presenta civiltà futuristiche tanto affascinanti e diverse da noi, ma sotto sotto ancora identiche all'umanità di adesso, è che nei suoi libri c’è di tutto: c’è divertimento, c’è emozione, c’è mistero, tensione, amore, amicizia, tante riflessioni sulla psicologia umana e i rapporti tra le persone (riflessioni che paradossalmente vengono spesso mostrate con gli occhi dei robot). Insomma, veramente, tutto.
Se dovessi proprio fare una critica, direi che il finale è stato un po’ troppo veloce e un tantino insoddisfacente, ma questa è davvero una piccolissima pecca, che a ben vedere, passato il primo momento di insofferenza per la curiosità insoddisfatta, non è neanche male perché mi piacciono molto i finali aperti che ci lasciano immaginare gli eventi futuri e ci permettono di serbare il ricordo di quei personaggi che abbiamo tanto amato.
In conclusione quindi un libro bellissimo che conclude straordinariamente una fantastica sotto-saga. E adesso non ve l’ora di continuare! :D
http://www.naufragio.it/iltempodileggere/20522 show less