The Robots Of Dawn
Isaac Asimov - The Robots Of Dawn
The Robots Of Dawn is the third book of Asimov’s Robots books, and features the human & robot crime-solving tag-team of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw. Baley is an Earthman, and Olivaw a humanoid robot not physically discernible from a human being, one of two humanoid robots in existence. The book opens with the other humanoid robot, Jander, dead (or at least as dead as a robot can be as they never technically live).
Baley is brought to the planet Aurora to solve the crime, which has been pinned on expert roboticist and Jander’s maker, Han Fastolfe. An investigation ensues, and as Baley follows the clues, Asimov weaves hints of the Foundation series into the plotline, as well as a slightly annoying romantic subplot. Baley has a tenuous grasp of Auroran society, as humans on the outer worlds live for centuries on large estates with small populations, as opposed to the largely underground cities of Earth, with their large populations with short lifespans. Most of this book focuses on the culture of Aurora, which I found much more delightful than the actual plot which was formulaic and very linear.
As Baley stumbles from clue to clue, he inexplicably solves the case and eventually returns to Earth a hero of his people.
I found Asimov’s weaving the Foundation series into the book annoying. Other than that, this book was quite good. His inclusion of sex wasn’t annoying as it was in the other books he wrote in the 80s, as it was actually part of the plot, and it doesn’t exactly follow the quality = 1 / (length * year of publication) formula I had devised earlier, but I’m still not in love with the idea that every book of Asimov’s should happen in the same universe. Failing that, Asimov should have been much less overt in having all his later work pointing inclusion in the Foundation universe and timeline. True fans could have picked up on much more subtle hints and felt like it was an inside joke they were sharing with Asimov, rather than having it thrust upon them.
I would recommend this book but only after you have read the first two Robots books, The Caves Of Steel and The Naked Sun.
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