The Robots of Dawn: The Robot Series, Book 3

I read all three books in this series and liked them all. They are good detective mysteries. A bit like Agatha Christie but a few more foibles than Hercule Poirot has.What I found really interesting in the last book - Robots of Dawn - is a bit of a precursor for the foundation and Hari Seldon. Perhaps Hari was not human but a robot whose purpose was to help humans along out there in their galactic empire. Perhaps Hari is friend Giskard doing his thing to insure that "Earth itself that is the true World of the Dawn". Maybe!!!

We don't read Asimov for his great portrayal of character, especially human sexuality. I believe we read him for his breathtaking ( some for his time) ideas and his brilliant plotting. Here the old master adds sexuality into his story line and it works exceptionally well. As an old fart, who has loved this genre since my childhood in the early 50's, Asimov is among the great creators of science fiction. Have fun.

As the short bio in the book says, Asimov wrote 470 books and three major series. One of them introduced the concepts of robots, their contributions to human progress, the emotional response to early models, and the researchers who designed improved models. In  The Caves of Steel (R. Daneel Olivaw, Book 1) , he introduces Elijah Baley, a detective on Earth who must investigate a murder of a human visitor known as a 'Spacer'. After that success, he is called away from Earth to clear a beautiful Spacer, Gloria Delmarre, of her husband's murder in  The Naked Sun (The Robot Series) . A dramatic movie is made after he closes the case, and it creates no end of complications for Baley. This book continues the pattern- only the victim was a robot.In 'Dawn', Asimov imagined Baley as a middle-aged man, most comfortable when surrounded by people and the teeming city. He works hard for the measly privileges given to a civil servant. If he could get over his fear of outdoors, maybe he could emigrate to a new world; Earth is experiencing high unemployment. So, visiting the leading Spacer world of Aurora might lead to opportunities. The space flight is uninspired but once there, we are given decent character descriptions and scenes are detailed. The single POV writing drags at times, repeating some emotions, puzzling over inane details of Spacer society, meals, and robot actions.The plot is split among Baley's search for perpetrator, relationship with several suspects, and his foibles (including storms). After a vehicle breakdown, he is walking for help in the dark:'And then he remembered that lightning might hit trees and might kill people. He could not remember that he had ever read a description of how it felt to be hit by lightning or if there were any measures to prevent it. He knew of no one on Earth who had been hit by lightning....His teeth were chattering and he was trembling.Another flash. Not a bad one. For a moment, he caught a glimpse of his surroundings.Trees! A number of them. He was in a grove of trees. Were many trees more dangerous than one tree where lightning was concerned?He didn't know.Would it help if he didn't actually touch a tree?He didn't know that, either. Death by lightning simply wasn't a factor in the Cities and the historical novels (and sometimes histories) that mentioned it never went into detail.He looked up at the dark sky and felt the wetness coming down. He wiped at his wet eyes with his wet hands.He stumbled onward, trying to step high. At one point, he splashed through a narrow stream of water, sliding over the pebbles underlying it.How strange! It made him no wetter than he was. ' (p. 352)Like a good mystery tale, there are twists until the very end. Baley offers advice for several characters to take. This time, Asimov writes a sweet romantic interlude.The real impact of this book is to discuss the programming of humanoid robots, impersonal video conferencing, and especially, the need for humans to move population off Earth and settle new worlds. He interrogates people who knew the robot's owner, interacted with it, and the man who designed it. In between, he battles his fear of the outdoors, of strange technology, and nature, learning to depend on robots for information and partnership.Published long after the first two books, this links to the future Empire and sets the stage of Foundation series. In the future, Human settlements will grow into that empire and robotic design lead to Psychohistory. And Daneel Olivaw will appear again....

A very good story that is timeless and an excellent explanation of the human condition. Very well constructed with believable characters.

He is still the best. The stories may be in science fiction, but the truth behind them are always about relationships and love. Not always happy ends, but always about man's ability to love.

I really enjoyed listening to and reading the book using the Kindle app on my iPhone. It departs from the first two novels in its exploration of sexuality on Aurora in general and in particular of sexuality between robots and humans on that particular planet in the fear distant future. Most of the discussion of sexuality surrounded the character Gladia and her sexual experiences with a humaniform robot whom she considered to be her husband and who had been found dead in the sense that his positronic brain had ceased to function. Elijah Bailey had been summoned to solve the case with dire consequences for both himself and for earth if he failed, which seemed to be the path that he was headed down for most of the novel as he chased lead after lead without promise of success. He had a meltdown in a thunderstorm, which I found annoying because of my experiences in this day and age, but to the character it was very realistic in the time period that story was set where human beings from Earth were agoraphobic from living completely enclosed inside of buildings (Caves of Steel) and never had contact with the world outside. There was a sexual attraction between Gladia and Elijah Bailey who had been called to Aurora to investigate the roboticide. The attraction resulted in sexual encounter near the end of the novel. Asimov approached the subject matter frankly with consequences for those involved and with tenderness in the case of Gladia and Bailey. The novel moved along slowly at first, but it did pick up with more interest and excitement towards the ending, which made me to listen or read as much as I could to find out the eventual outcome, which I never could have imagined but which I really did enjoy. I would recommend reading the first two novels, Caves of Steel and Naked Sun first and then this one afterwards. it's a trilogy which involves the main characters and some other characters from the previous novels, and which ends with this novel.

Great book by the Father of science fiction. A good series to give to young readers to show them what a real reading experience should feel like. A murder mystery set on another planet! What could be cooler!

Too much human, not enough robot.The insistence on the detective narrative would’ve been bearable if it wasn’t so loose and stretchy.The last 10 pages of the tired silly uninteresting narrative between Baley and Gladia was so strenuously boring that I gave up and googled the ending.Only worth reading if you’re interested in scifi history.

The Robots of Dawn is the third large novel about robots from the legendary sci-fi author Issac Asimov.(The first book being  Caves of Steel , the second,  The Naked Sun  and I would also recommend reading  Robot Visions  before this as though not necessary some of the short robot stories are referenced in The Robots of Dawn and I found the background knowledge of these made certain story aspects clearer)The storyline follows a similiar premise to the previous book. Once again Elijah Baley is set in the middle between hummanity's two factions, Earth, the planet of his origin and the far more powerful spacers, 50 colony planets that broke away from their mother planet forming completely different ideas and cultures. Baley is a policeman, quite a good one by all accounts, and having solved a deliate murder on the spacer world of Solaria previously has once again been called upon by the spacers to solve a murder on their most powerful homeworld Aurora. This murder however is of a robot, the accused claims he is innocent but also admits he is the only man who has the skill or knowledge to do it. Baley's task seems to be an impossible one but for his own career and possibly the fate of Earth, he has to try.I enjoyed this book immensely. While there are robots in the story, they aren't the real focus, it's people's use of the technology in society, how they are viewed, used and occasionally manipulated though never malicious thanks to Asimov's adhered to 3 laws of robotics that form the story, in short this book is fantastic because it's not about robots, but people.Asimov explores how this technology would change society, effect culture, and the psychological impact, or culture shock if you like, of these different things. Baley being an Earthman has lived in giant hive caved in cities so going outside for him is an unknown and even feared experience, Aurorans find it hard to work together due to their extended lives and Solarians rarely meet other people and live their lives alone, the thought of touching another human repellent. Mixing these elements together with a murder mystery makes for very interesting reading though it can be a tad slow at times.I recommend both this book and the rest of the series.+ View of technology and how it effects society is absorbing.+ Interesting characters.+ Deep well thought out cultures. Caves of SteelThe Naked SunRobot Visions

This is the third of Asimov's novels featuring Earth detective Elijah Baley and Robot Daneel Olivaw. The first two were fairly short novels published in the 1950s, whereas this one was published in the 1980s and is twice as long. It is still distinctively Asimov, with the classic extensive exploration of the three laws of robotics and the differences between customs and attitudes of Earth and the Spacer world of Aurora, though it lacks the tight plotting of its predecessors, and some of the scenes are too drawn out. This is a novel of ideas par excellence, and sets the scene, very far into the future, for Asimov's Galactic Empire and Foundation series. Very good, though as a novel in its own right, not in the same class as The Naked Sun.

Elijah and Daneel are investigating a roboticide on Aurora in this book, but the crime mystery is completely secondary to the essence of this book, which are Asimovs thoughts about how human societies might develop given different circumstances and his problematisation of the 3 Laws of Robotics. Quite possibly my favorite SF book of all time :-)

I do not read Pure Sci Fi books too often mainly Koontz/Herbert/King but, when told to get the Asimov series, I made the leap and found I could not put them down and ended up reading one after the other. These are excellent books and keep you interested all the way through the lifetime of the foundation series. I would recommed these to anyone who likes to read well written and gripping books. I have tried other since but no other author can keep me interested as Asimov did. I suppose it is dependent upon individual tastes and these are my cup of tea. Seller was excellent providing great service and delivery.