tI won't necessarily say that this is the last of the Foundation/Galactic Empire/Robot story arc that I needed to read to complete the whole series because there is still Forward to the Foundation (the last novel I believe that Asimov wrote before he died) as well as a number of robot short stories that I may still need to get my hands on (including Bicentennial Man, the novella that the Robin Williams movie was based upon). I actually do intend on reading them in order (though the short stories are very problematic, and The Complete Robot contains four stories that are not included in the other two collection of Robot short stories, as well as a number of other robot short stories scattered about where I need to dig around to find them), though I still need to get a couple more books to have them all (even though I will be doubling up).tI remember when I was a kid that my Dad had a large collection of Asimov books on his shelf (actually, I can't say a large collection because I think the only ones that I ended up grabbing off of him were the Foundation Trilogy) and he ended up purchasing this book when it first came out. I also remember that I wasn't particularly interested in the Asimov books because, well, my Dad read them and I suspected that anything that my Dad read must be boring, and they did not have all of the wonderful things that the fantasy rubbish that I was reading had in them. I wasn't until year 12 when I picked up Foundation that I developed a taste of the writings of Asimov.tRobots and Empire actually isn't one of his best books because it seems to be more of a linking story connecting the robot stories and the Galactic Empire stories and a stand alone book, but then many of his later writings seemed to have headed down that way, though we must remember that Asimov, between about 1950 and 1980, stop writing fiction and basically ended up writing anything but. However it was due to a huge demand for him to continue to develop the worlds that he had begun developing in his earlier career than he returned to these stories and came up with the overarching idea.(view spoiler)[Robots and Empire basically explains why Earth is an irradiated wasteland in Foundation and Earth, and how it came to be like that. (hide spoiler)]
On the “Spacer” planet of Aurora, the woman Gladia’s life is a long succession of days filled with ennnui. Despite being descended from the first humans to settle other planets, her society is stagnating. Spacers live long, empty lives. Robots run all menial work and intricate rules of conduct control much of life. Into this drops D.G. Baley, descendant of Elijah Baley of The Caves of Steel and The Robots of Dawn (when Gladia met Elijah). Baley is a “Settler”, part of a new wave of colonizers from Earth who are much more dynamic than the Spacers, and are overtaking them in influence. The Settlers oppose the Spacers. He asks Gladia to come with him to help investigate a mystery. Meanwhile, powerful men plot the defeat of the Settlers.This is the last Robot novel by Asimov. It is part of his efforts to unify the Robot series with the Empire/Foundation series. Asimov has great ideas as usual but I found the writing hopelessly tedious. The fact that the Spacers are amazingly annoying people, haughty, self-centered and stuck up, does not help matters. I kept thinking that if I met Gladia I would have wanted to slap her. She is constantly bitching and moaning about trivialities.As usual with Asimov, there is almost only dialogue and very little actual action. That is not a bad thing per se, but here it has been taken to an absurd extreme. Robot Daneel and Robot Giskard spend page after page discussing events (such as there are) in excruciating detail. No eventuality or possibility is left undiscussed. One character, on two separate occasions, refuses to listen to something he needs to hear until he is convinced that he needs to hear it. Both times it is a 5-10 page ordeal. I know Asimov is trying to make the point that Spacer society is stagnating and is stuck with all these rules, but it makes reading very boring. Overall, that would be the word to describe this novel: boring.I made it two thirds in before giving up.http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=678
Do You like book Robots And Empire (1996)?
I started reading Asimov with Robot Series and finished every book from Foundation, Empire and Robot series(except this one) long before I read this book. I don't know how I missed this book while reading Robot series but I am glad that I missed reading this one that time. Believe me friends if you read this one after going through all the other book it will give you greatest amount of satisfaction possible ever through out the Asimov's universe. It will connect every missing links that have been surfaced in you mind after reading Foundtaion and Robot series. This and only this book will fill the gap between the two eras of future mankind and leave a beautiful unified story behind ( where a every event has been explained as beautifully as General Relativity explains gravity.) Plz read it but only you are done with other books of the series ( or else it will turn out to be biggest spoiler ever) . Also be ready for a new question that was being put before us when you turn last pages of this book, because if you can't bear a story to end at climax you will have to arrange a meeting with Asimov's soul in heaven to find the answer
—Pawan Kumar
È interessante seguire i continui ragionamenti che Daneel e Giskard compiono sulla razza umana: Daneel, grazie alla frequentazione passata con Elijah, ha acquisito una capacità di ragionamento simile a quella umana, mentre Giskard, pur non possedendo tale qualità, riesce, grazie a capacità psichiche, a percepire emozioni e stati d’animo negli umani ed attuare modifiche di varia entità al comportamento degli stessi. Queste due abilità si compensano ed i due robot possono ragionare riguardo all’inarrivabile complessità del pensiero umano e sulla possibilità di prevedere il comportamento delle folle, gettando le basi della Psicostoria.La recensione completa è presso http://www.jhack.it/blog/2008/12/20/i...
—Giacomo Boccardo
In some ways, this novel, which clearly and explicitly links three of Isaac Asimov's series--Robot, Foundation, and Empire--is the development of a new law of robotics. Of course, all fans of Asimov know the three laws: 1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2. A robot must obey orders given it by humans except where such orders would violate the First Law; 3. A robot must protect its existence unless such behavior would violate the first and second laws. This novel introduces a critical new law, what R. Daneel Olivaw (the classic Asimov robot) referred to as the "Zeroth Law." This law reads: "A robot may not harm humanity, or by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm." And this introduces a tension into the first three laws. This novel shows the implementation of this new law, by Daneel's friend (a telepathic robot), R. Giskard Reventlov. In some senses, the actual plot of this work is not so central. It is indifferent, in fact, as a mystery, compared with the first three Robot novels (as well as short stories). Elijah Baley, who had worked with Daneel in earlier mysteries, has been dead for a couple centuries; Daneel is now on his own (with Giskard). But it represents an effort by Asimov to begin to link his three mighty series: Robot, Empire, and Foundation. The Zeroth Law is what begins to link these, with Daneel as the key player. One would have to read later novels in the Empire and Foundation series to understand the profound consequences of the Zeroth Law in his hands. Anyhow, this is not a very good mystery on its own, but it is an important work beginning to link the three series, answer questions that had heretofore not been answered.
—Steven Peterson
