brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (01/09/84)
I recently read the Robots of Dawn, the new novel by Asimov. This is a fairly good murder mystery, and if you enjoyed Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun, you will enjoy this one. The following spoiler discusses the links between Robots of Dawn and Foundation's Edge. (another quite good book.) It is clear by the end of TRoD that Asimov now plans to link most of his books in a grand future history as many other authors of done. As you will recall, in Foundation's Edge, we discover why there are no robots in Empire society. The groundwork for this is set down in TRoD, although for the most part it is an R. Daneel Olivaw/Elijah Baley novel. So my prediction is that Asimov will do one or two more books to tie it all together. If you are like me, you kept noticing the references to Earth in Foundation's Edge. To be more specific, the Earth of "Pebble in the Sky", which was already in the Trantor universe. All through FE, there are mentions of how Earth is hidden, and how all of Earth's records are wiped in the 2nd foundation computers. Plus some master mentalists are controlling the Selden plan. I fully expected it to be an earthful of synapsified men, but it was the colony mind planet with the help of the robots. So where is earth? The plans are clear. Asimov likes to outdo his previous schemes. In Foundation, the Empire ruled, and the foundation came and took over. Then in Foundation & Empire, it was really the mule who was running the show. By Second Foundation we see it is really the 2nd foundationers that are in charge. In Foundation's Edge it's the Robots and Gaiea (I have forgotten the spelling) that are in charge. I suspect the next book(s) will show it is really the Earth that is in charge, making a complete cycle. Of course, he has also left it open for the "Eternals" to be in charge, so there could be more. I think Asimov should drop the Eternals reference, though. He still has to explain what happened to Computers too. Should be interesting. -- Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ontario (519) 886-7304