duane@anasazi.UUCP (Duane Morse) (12/18/85)
The inside jacket reads: [First paragraph skipped -- mainly hype] "Two hundred years have passed since THE ROBOTS OF DAWN and Elijah Baley, the beloved hero of the Earthpeople, is dead. The future of the Universe is at a crossroads. Though the forces of the sinister Spacers are weakened, Dr. Kelden Amadiro has never forgotten -- or forgiven -- his humiliating defeat at the hands of Elijah. Now, with vengeance burning in his heart, he is more determined than ever to bring about the total annihilation of the planet Earth. But Amadiro has not counted on the equally determined Lady Gladia. Devoted to Elijah Baley, the Auroran beauty has taken up the legacy of her fallen lover, vowing to stop the Spacers at any cost. With her two robot companions, Daneel and Giskard, she prepares to set into motion a daring and dangerous plan...a plan whose success -- or failure -- will forever seal the fate of Earth and all who live there." [Last paragraph skipped -- also hype] I'm not sure that the person who wrote the above summary really read the book. First, Gladia is a Solarian, not an Auroran. Second, the people of Earth don't hold Baley in particular reverence: the Settlers do. And Gladia doesn't...well, this is only supposed to be a mild spoiler, so I won't say more. I may be in a minority, but I didn't care for THE ROBOTS OF DAWN. I found it to be very boring. It's the first SF book by Asimov that I didn't like. From reading the above description, I had trepidations about starting ROBOTS AND EMPIRE. I'm happy to report that my fears were unfounded. The action takes place in the pre-Foundation era. Baley's hope that some people from Earth would settle new worlds has been achieved. The main characters are Gladia, Daneel, Giskard, Amadiro, and two newcomers, one a coworker with Amadiro, the other a Settler and descendant of Elijah Baley. Daneel and Giskard really have the center stage, though. I found the book to have two very interesting ideas about the Laws of Robotics, but I won't give away what they are. In general, things moved quickly; in fact, there were a few places in which I couldn't force myself to put the book down until I found out what happened next. I give this book 3.5 stars (very, very good). -- Duane Morse ...!noao!terak|anasazi!duane or ...!noao!mot!anasazi!duane (602) 870-3330