The Robots of Dawn (The Robot Series Book 3)

In the Robots of dawn, Author Isaac Asimov offers a Socratic argument for the existence and blossoming humanity of robots. And the narrative introduces the theory of psychohistory which will come to fruition in the later Foundation series. In Foundation, humanoid robots, introduced in Robots of Dawn, function in society as equals of humans. Without doubt, Asimov is the father of modern sci-fi and the philosophy of robotics in the real world.

Asimov, is'nt a Grand Master of Science fiction, for nothing! Wonderful story, with many plot twists, right up until the end! I must admit I was a little hesitant, I thought this story would be dated, but I was wrong, I have only listened to a couple of these Asimov audio books, but this narator, is Great, Very talented, and smart like the author. You won't be disappointed!

This is more for the Asimov lovers rather than a separate good read. If you were into any of his other books or enjoyed the others in the Robot Series, then I recommend this. If you are new to Asimov, I recommend Caves of Steel first

Brilliant visionary. I like everything of his I've ever read. I first read his stuff when I was in high school; now I'm nearing retirement age. The books I've re-read so far are as interesting I recalled, if perhaps with a little more exposition than I remembered.

This last of the Robot series effectively ties in to Asimov s other significant work.....Foundation.
The language is in some ways stilted or even sophomoric, but the iconic Baley carries Asimov s values through the plot most ingeniously.

Fighting against a series interweaving inevitabilities, NYPD's finest detective Elijah Bailey must solve the most important murder case of his career, the mental blockout of one of only two humaniform robots to ever come into existence. The fate of Earth rests on Bailey's shoulder as he tries to prove the near impossible. The Robots of Dawn is a must for every Asimov fan.

Part of the author's 1980's effort to link his Robot stories with his Galactic Empire series (see also "Foundation and Earth," "Robots and Empire," . . .). He would have done better to leave them separate. Fitting them together strains the storyline, which is further distracted by an embarrassing attempt to gloss the plot with sexuality. Still, I must admit to following the story all the way through. Like its two far superior predecessors, this is a detective story, and I wanted to know who done it.

Generic review for Asimov's books because I bought all of them for my collection and am writing ALL of the reviews at once.

I love everyone of his books, and each brings a great story to the table, if you are looking for a good Saga to start reading, check out his Foundation / Robot series. I've read them all the way through several times and each time, loved each book. Each book builds off the one prior and adds a whole new dynamic to the overall universe while still being able to be enjoyed individually. If you are reading this review, Just check out the book, I guarantee it will be worth it.

Living in the 21st-century, it is interesting reading a sci-fi book from the 19 30s through the 19 50s. Looking at what was predicted as opposed to what reality has created. We have cell phones we have Skype and multiple means of communication that both draws closer and further apart .

Living in the new millennium I am used to things coming or conveniently more quickly, and with a lot more action .

By comparison this book has very little action . Almost every little detail is intellectualize then analyzed to the nth degree . It makes reading rather sluggish . However the solutions and the end of the book you come as a surprise and I have to tip my hat to the master of science fiction lore.

Living in the 21st-century, it is interesting reading a sci-fi book from the 19 30s through the 19 50s. Looking at what was predicted as opposed to what reality has created. We have cell phones we have Skype and multiple means of communication that both draws closer and further apart .

Living in the new millennium I am used to things coming or conveniently more quickly, and with a lot more action .

By comparison this book has very little action . Almost every little detail is intellectualize then analyzed to the nth degree . It makes reading rather sluggish . However the solutions and the end of the book you come as a surprise and I have to tip my hat to the master of science fiction lore.

I have read almost all of Issac Asimov's science fiction. His books on robots are the best to be found. He is the author who invented the 'positronic' brain that was later used in the Star Trek series. 'Data' is R Daneel Olivaw.

Isaac Asimov is the undisputed king of Science Fiction, but in this book he ranged pretty far away from his strong suit, which is coming up with wrinkles/loopholes in the Three Laws of Robotics theme (the best examples being the stories compiled as "I, Robot"). In this book, he tried to introduce some love/sex elements but they didn't work very well. I didn't like this book nearly as well as the others in the Robot Series.

I was actually seeking the original robot series and found this series completely different. The series is very interesting and enjoyable. If you like Asimov, you know already you will like the next book.

Just love this book, for so many reasons!

First, the purely obvious one: I love the duo of Elijah Baley, hardboiled detective, and R. (short for ‘robot’) Daneel Olivaw, his partner, so of course, I would be pleased with another installment of their detecting adventures together! (While this story is the third in a series, it stands completely on its own and can be read and enjoyed without having to read the first two books.)

I also love the romance in this one. Asimov is not very big on including romance in his stories, but I can’t figure out why – he certainly writes one well enough! (Not that this is a romance novel. It’s not. But the subplot inclusion of a little romance was nice!)

And, well, this is going to sound silly, but… I love the food descriptions in this book. I am hedonist when it comes to food. Or perhaps a glutton? Sheesh, neither of those words is very nice, so maybe I’ll just say I’m a food lover. In the previous books in this robot series, it has been made clear that food on over-crowded Earth is mostly made from yeast… and Asimov’s descriptions are enough to make me think I’d just die of starvation if I had to live in his Caves of Steel. I mean, zymoveal. Yuck. It just sounds gross. I’d rather not eat, thank you. But in this book, Elijah Baley joins his partner Daneel on the planet of Aurora, the oldest of the settled planets. Here he experiences fresh/real fruit, fresh/real vegetables, real meat… sigh. Just reading about Elijah (who is, of course, homesick for Earth) lamenting that the one thing he will miss on returning to his home planet is this wonderful food… Well, I was pumping my fist in the air every time and saying “Amen!”

And finally, this book is the key piece of the series that wonderfully ties all his other books in (a) the Robot series, (b) the Galactic Empire series and (c) the Foundation series together. He drops little hints here and there that someone unfamiliar with the entire 14-book super-series would not get (even though they add to this particular story and are not out of place) and that just give me that tingly “Ooooh! That’s right! Can’t wait to get to that story again”… kind of like seeing one of your favorite actors make a cameo appearance in a movie with a line or a gesture that references some other movie that you love – and probably now want to watch next. He even puts in references to several of his short stories included in his robot short story collections. Just lovely!

Having said all that… the plot here is an interesting one, the mystery of who murdered Jander seemingly undiscoverable (with all the terrible political implications for both the planet Aurora and Earth), and yet… Elijah Baley pulls it off for us again. And I was super glad to learn more about Dr Fastolfe and Gladia… characters from two earlier books who are beautifully fleshed out here.

Overall, just extremely satisfying! Highly recommended to anybody who likes robot stories, science fiction in general, or Asimov.

Originally posted at Fantasy Literature. We review SFF, horror, and comics for adults and kids, in print and audio daily.

The Robots of Dawn is the third book in Isaac Asimov’s trilogy about investigator Elijah Bailey and his robot sidekick R Daneel Olivaw. In the first book, The Caves of Steel, the pair met and solved a murder mystery on Earth. In this far-future Earth, a fearful populace lives in domed cities and never ventures outside. In the second book, The Naked Sun, Elijah faces his fears and actually leaves Earth to solve a murder that occurred on a planet that has such low population density that the inhabitants have evolved a disgust for their fellow humans. When Elijah returns to Earth, he’s determined to use his new-found courage to inspire others to go outside the domes and even think about leaving Earth someday. He thinks that colonizing other planets is the only way that the human race on Earth can survive.

In this final volume, The Robots of Dawn, we find Elijah working outside the dome and hoping that his son will be one of the pioneers who will lead humans out into the galaxy again. Then Elijah gets called into headquarters where he’s told he has to go to another colonized planet (Aurora) to solve yet another murder mystery. This time, however, it’s a robot who has been murdered. The prime suspect, a famous roboticist, admits that he’s the only person who could have committed the crime, yet he claims he’s innocent. If Elijah and R Daneel can’t prove him innocent, it will have bad consequences for Elijah’s career and for Earth’s ability to launch themselves into the galaxy. Daneel is also in mortal (if I can say that) danger.

As was the case with the previous novels in this trilogy, I enjoyed the murder mystery. It’s complicated and takes a lot of effort to solve, especially because Elijah is working in a political and social culture that he doesn’t understand. (Although this actually lets him see some things more clearly.) I also appreciated some of Asimov’s inventions (virtual reality bathrooms — cool!) and the discussions about language (e.g., how specific words can change our perception of events), art, affection (e.g., the importance of human touch), sex, jealousy and love (e.g., how cultural attitudes about sex change how we feel about love — very interesting). By the way, The Robots of Dawn was written in 1983, 27 years after The Naked Sun, and this frank discussion of sex is new for Asimov (and not at all romantic).

Asimov fans will be particularly interested in how this novel connects with his earlier robot stories (Susan Calvin is mentioned) and his famous FOUNDATION series. The accused roboticist is motivated to build a model of the human brain so that he can pursue the concept of “psychohistory” that underlies the FOUNDATION novels. Asimov is interested in the evolution of the human brain and the resulting changes in human behavior. As a neuroscientist and psychologist, I love to think about these things but I just can’t believe in any of Asimov’s ideas about the future of humanity. This has been a problem for me with this entire series and the FOUNDATION series, too. I find it interesting, but I just can’t believe it. However, I realize that I’m probably just taking it too seriously because it happens to be my area of expertise. So maybe shame on me. Maybe I just need to chill.

I listened to the audio version read by William Dufris who, again, does a great job. He always does a great job.

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov (1994, 435 pages) – How do I know there’s no life after death? Because Isaac Asimov would claw his way out of the ground and strangle me if he knew about this negative review. I’m usually a big fan, and I’ve never understood people who consider Asimov to be dry and pedantic. I love and reread the original Foundation Trilogy every couple of years, and his short stories are always clever and wicked funny on occasion.

However, having struggled through The Robots of Dawn, I understand the complaints some people have. This book, third in his robot series, has his detective hero traveling to another planet (and rejoining his former, robot partner) to solve a roboticide. The first third of the book reads like Captain Kirk outwitting the all-knowing computer with convoluted logic. The detective argues with the planet’s head robotics professor (and primary suspect) for a hundred pages. Talking heads doesn’t even begin to describe the inaction.

Not only is the dialogue repetitive and unproductive, but everyone speaks as if they were college professors giving long, boring explanations on the history and operation of robots. By halfway through, I wanted someone to shoot the whiny detective and the egomaniacal professor. Considering the original victim was talked to death (put in a brainlock due to conflicting instructions), I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the resolution should involve unending talking.

But not this much. I felt my own brain pathways were fusing from looping through the same boring conversation over and over.

My hopes grew as we were introduced to the professor’s hostile daughter, her barber friend, and the head of the Robotics Institute (also hostile) as possible suspects, but it felt as if I were reading a debate team’s transcripts as each character verbally sparred with the detective to no good purpose.

Near the end of the book, when somebody sabotages the Earthling’s flier and he’s forced to confront his agoraphobia to survive outdoors, I thought things had picked up. But it was too little too late. When he debates with the planetary chairman in an attempt to keep from being exiled and prove who the killer is, I couldn’t believe they were going to resolve the conflict with yet more circuitous dialogue.

When the shocking ending came in the last few pages of the book, I realized this was a great short story fluffed up into a really boring novel. I recommend most of his works, but this robot book is a real snoozer.

Although not the last of the Robot novels, Robots of Dawn is the last of the Elijah Baley/Daneel Olivaw mysteries. It was written after 30 year gap since the prior Robot novel, The Naked Sun. Taking advantage of more permissive times, Asimov also dials up the rating - well not to R, but at least to a PG-13.
Asimov had begun the process of merging his Foundation novels with his Robot novels in Foundation's Edge published a year before The Robots of Dawn. And here Asimov introduces the character of Giskard who will be so pivotal to how Asimov ties the two series together.
It is very dialogue heavy, and there isn't much action, which might deter some readers, but I did find it enjoyable. The plot revolves around the 'murder' of the humaniform robot Jander. The mystery of course has political repercussions on Aurora as well as Earth and Asimov uses this back drop to advance his overarching future history of the Foundation Universe.

In The Robots of Dawn, Asimov begins connecting his universe by mentioning Dr. Susan Calvin, a heroine of his classic I, Robot (1950) collection. This technique would be further utilized in the fourth novel, Robots and Empire, where he began connecting his Robot books to his equally acclaimed Foundation series, and Daneel goes on to become the focal point, where it’s gradually revealed he’s guiding humankind toward idealized goals.

Fans of the first two novels and the short story “Mirror Image” will be much rewarded by The Robots of Dawn’s more mature setting, though I wouldn’t necessarily recommend the uninitiated dive-in here. The Baley/Daneel relationship—the heart of this series—is best viewed from the beginning with The Caves of Steel (1954), when these two opposites meet, not knowing that their partnership would change the future.

Once again the brilliance of Asimov shows through in the logic puzzles he sets up. However, upon rereading this novel, I see a prophetic vision of not only robots, but of people. The inhabitants of Aurora are socially isolated from one another because of their technology. They only "view" each other electronically. It is strangely prescient of the human behavior that has resulted from social media, something that did not come into being until decades after Asimov's death.

If you enjoyed this, you might also enjoy Cognition Chronicles: The Redstone Legacy

This sci-fi mystery takes place in the distant future when the Earth is vastly overcrowded and the entire population lives underground and has severe phobias about going outside. When the story opens a humanoid robot has been "killed" on the planet Aurora which was colonized by Earth people long ago. A famous roboticist - the only one in the galaxy who knows how to create humanoid robots - is accused of the crime. The detective Elijah Baley, an Earth-man, is called in to investigate with his robot partner. Elijah's job is made doubly difficult because most Aurorans despise Earth people, considering them to be infectious and vastly inferior to themselves. The case is very important beause its solution may determine whether space is further colonized solely by humanoid robots and Aurorans or whether Earth people will be allowed to participate. Some interesting twists and turns lead to a satisfying surprise ending.

Here is a great book by Isaac Asimov that continues a great series. I like throughout the book how he ties in the ‘Foundation’ series with introduction of ‘psycho mathematics’ as just beginning then eludes to a ‘foundation’ being needed.

Here we see two of our favorite characters return and see that robots aren’t just seen as outsiders anymore. He see Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw working together. We also see other robots brought into the story which makes it better. Here Baley is given an impossible task that if he was left unhindered by a robot he could have solved it sooner, but what’s the fun in that. We also see that some of the ‘spacers’ are changing their view of ‘Earth’ and humans in general. In the end the author brings back favorite characters and spins a good story that will keep you guessing through most of it. Enjoy reading it and ignore Wikipedia because it’s slightly off.

After "The Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun", "The Robots of Dawn" is the third and final murder mystery pairing the duo of the agoraphobic Earth detective Elijah Bailey with his humaniform robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw.

In "The Robots of Dawn", the detectives run into yet another seemingly impossible mystery, but this time the mystery is not that the murder seemed impossible for anyone to have committed, but seems impossible for one man to have NOT committed, even though that man seems incapable of murder. The mystery is set on the capitol of the Spacer worlds, Aurora. Although the society on Aurora is much more normal than the skewed and unhealthy psychology in "The Naked Sun", the spacer residents are still not too happy about being in contact with a "dirty, germ ridden Earthman" ... although most are polite about it.

Asimov ends the book with an action and a concept that knocks long time readers of his robots novels on their respective ears. When I put this book down I turned to my wife and said "That's the best book I've ever read. It might be the best book ever". I'm sure I was caught up in the moment, but that was how profoundly I was affected by the events and the single important concept that wrapped parts of this mystery up. You'll remember R. Giskard long after you're done with reading this book.

I think I'll read it again right now! ;-)

Police Investigator Lije Baley has solved several mysteries with his robot partner and friend R. Daneel Olivaw, but now he is presented with an impossible situation--and a situation that Earth's and humanity's survival depends upon. A human-formed robot has been 'killed,' yet the only man with the capacity to destroy the robot in this way is the man whose efforts may save Earth. Worse, Baley's investigations take place on Aurora, the planet of dawn. And on Aurora, as in all the spacer world, Earth-humans are regarded as sewers of disease, short life, and ignorance.
Author Isaac Asimov develops his most emotionally compelling stories in his robot series and THE ROBOTS OF DAWN certainly shows this lineage. Not only is Baley re-united with his partner, but he also finds himself involved with the spacer woman who holds a special place in his heart. Using a combination of logic, bull-headed determination, and intuitive leaps, Baley proves that good investigative techniques are a universal, whether on Earth or in the spacer worlds.
Asimov, one of the masters of the golden age of Science Fiction, further develops his wonderful partnership between human and robot. While perhaps not as powerfully compelling as the two earlier works in this series (THE CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN), fans of these books will find THE ROBOTS OF DAWN completely enjoyable. Likewise, fans of Asimov's FOUNDATION series will find that Asimov used ROBOTS as a transitional novel between these two series, explaining how the society described in the Robot books is able to transform into that of FOUNDATION.
Written in the early 1980s, ROBOTS shows a mixture of sophisticated futurism and curious misses. I was amused by the way Asimov's robots skillfully input data into the computer system--surely any robot sophisticated enough to be self-aware would be able to input data directly (e.g., through a wireless, wired, or infra-red link) rather than requiring digital manipulation. Readers who consider the pre-PC era in which this novel was written, however, will appreciate Asimov's reach in his futurism rather than his misses.

The Robots of Dawn is the third novel in Asimov's Robots series, which integrates excellent detective plot threads with "social" science fiction. This book follows the others with the formula of introducing the readers to a new location, with a new murder to solve while continuing the relationship between human detective Elijah Bailey and robot Daneel Olivaw. This book has more action then Asimov's previous works which works well despite not being one of Asimov's best strengths.

This book and series in general is a prime example of why I've always liked science fiction. Asimov takes the repercussions of a simple murder into a society/galactic morality tale. It's not preachy but it's certainly thought provoking while saying much about the human condition. Also this book doesn't really work that well as a stand-alone and should be read third in the series.

This book came out 25 years after it's precursor and did not disappoint, arguably being the best in this series. It was nominated for a Hugo in 1984 but lost to a good but far inferior Startide Rising by David Brin.

Bottom Line: Asimov rocks! This series will leave you thinking about the future of human kind I guarantee.

The best science fiction places more emphasis on the art of fiction than on the excitement inherent in the promise of future science. It is Asimov's brilliance to place timeless themes of human conflict in a unique setting, permitting an examination of those themse from previously unknown perspectives.
And so in "Robots Of Dawn" Elijah Baley, the quintessential Everyman, is thrust into conflict by forces beyond his control and is forced to confront a succession of seemingly intractable problems charged with terrible geo-political and personal ramifications Baley is armed only with his relentlessly honest character, and two very useful, but also very limited aids, in the robots Daneel and Giskard. The dialogue that Baley has with his robot assistants is near-perfect in pitch, as the three work relentlessly, with a combination of pure logic on the part of the robots and logic tempered by knowledge of human nature on the part of Baley, through each hurdle presented by a hopelessly insoluable murder mystery.
That the mystery will be solved is left in doubt to the very end of the story, and each suceeding chapter brings the reader both closer to and farther from the solution. In the course of unveiling clues to the murder, clues to nature of human conflict, to Asimov's "Psychohistory," are also revealed, and carefully explored.
In the end, while the solution to the murder is wholly satisfying, it is the depth of the characters, their extraordinarily real personalities, that stays with the reader. This book is not just for science fiction readers, but for anyone who enjoys beautiful, clear, and highly intelligent writing.

On the world of Aurora, politics dominates the day. The prominent roboticist who created the humaniform robots is accused by his political nemesis of a very serious crime. Once again, he calls upon Elijah Baley, the now galactically-reknowned police detective from Earth. And once again, Baley must travel to another Spacer world, where by his very Earth-nativity, he is treated with hostility. Again, Asimov sheds light on the dichotomy of the Earth and Spacer cultures, where reliance on robots on the Spacer worlds has made them weak in a sense, while the human aversion to anything robotic has also failed in its prejudice. At stake is the very future of the Earth natives ability to expend outward as they once did to found the Spacer worlds, a future very much opposed by the majority of the Spacer populace. If Baley fails to exonerate the accused, then the reactionary elements of Aurora's political entity will prevent any Earth colonizations. Again, Baley teams with R. Daneel Olivaw to solve the mystery. It was this novel in which first we began to see Asimov tying together his three marked series: Robot, Empire, and Foundation. Again, as with the previous two Robot novels, Asimov shed more light on the nature of humanity after expansion into space, while setting the groundwork for the far-flung future of his following series.

This was written much later than the original two robot novels, the three Empire novels, and the Foundation trilogy. It and the following book, ROBOTS AND EMPIRE, link the first two robot books with the Empire series and leads up to Foundation.
There are a couple of points easy to miss here. First, psychohistory is first suggested by Dr. Fastolfe, and then advanced by the two robots. Secondly, while there is a mystery involved here, the emphasis is on the future of space exploration and who is going to be in it. The original pioneers into space have become spoiled by their reliance on their robots and no longer have the spirit of adventure necessary to continue further exploration, and yet they are fearful of the idea of generally despised Earth people colonizing planets.
So much indeed is at stake here. For full enjoyment, I suggest reading first the Susan Calvin stories and also "The Bicentennial Man" which are in Asimov's THE COMPLETE ROBOT, and then THE CAVES OF STEEL and THE NAKED SUN, the first two Elijah Bailey & R. Daneel Olivaw novels. And be prepared for this book to be more centered on mankind's future venturing into space than in the mystery element.

Although, in this year 2002, I have just recently finished reading The Robots of Dawn directly after its prequel, The Naked Sun, and thus did not have to endure the 25-year wait between the novels as many who read that book when it came out did, I can assume that they, as I, considered it worth the wait. This is a very good novel, indeed. When Asimov first began writing his robot stories in the 40's, the concept itself was relatively new and bold - and, to many, unthinkable. Of course, when this book finally came out, in 1983, robots were no longer a novelty - and the dictations of their behavior had, by then, moved beyond Asimov's original fundamental Three Laws of Robotics. Still, the conflicts in this book, as in virtually all of Asimov's other robot stories, hinge crucially on those Three Laws, and the complications inherent therein. It is amazing that, as much as Asimov had already written on the subject up to that point, he could still come up with new and novel twists relating to them - but he does, indeed, and does so very well here. Although the actual unraveling of the mystery itself, as in The Naked Sun, never quite reaches the peak of intensity and excitement as did the plot of The Caves of Steel (the first novel in this series), this is, nevertheless, a far more ambitious work than the previous two books - not only in length, but also in scope. With this book, Asimov also begins to tie in the Robot series with the Empire and Foundation serieses (as he does in the sequel, Robots and Empire) to create one grand, monumental fictional universe. This is a testament to the skill and unique visionary perspective of one of the greatest fiction - not just science fiction writers - of the 20th century. Anyone who loved The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun will undoubtedly love this further amazing edition to the series.

Robots of Dawn is now the most personal of Asimov's Robot/Empire/Foundation universe for me. Parts of this book kick colon, however, parts fail miserably. I'll get to that in a sec -

Once again we have a murder mystery for Elijah Baily and R. Daneel Olivaw to unravel, this time on Auroria, home-planet of R. Daneel. Dr. Fastolfe is prime suspect of 'roboticide' by causing a mental freeze-out on Jander Panell, the only other humaniform robot in existence (the other of course being R. Daneel). As we know from Caves of Steel, Dr. Fastolfe is the most brilliant roboticist known, and the creator of the humaniform robot. It is of prime urgency that Elijah prove to the Chairman of Auroria that Han Fastolfe is innocent. This is not only in the interest of Han and Elijah, but for the interest of Earth and humanity.

Certain qualities of this book are excellent. For instance Asmimov crafts dialog between characters masterfully. Some people may complain about this book having too much of it, but for me Asimov pulls it off with such force and drive that I feel like reading it forever, often into the wee hours of night.

There are aspects of this book that I just didn't like. I love Asimov for the same reason I love a good Pixar movie, it's innocence. Other works of Asimov are very G to PG type material and with Robots of Dawn things change. It just doesn't feel right. Don't get me wrong, I love dark novels, I'm not prude or goodie-goodie at all so it's not an issue of personal hangups, it's more an issue of just feeling like Asimov is trying too hard to be edgy and an author of his caliber just doesn't need to go there.

Some of the ideas explored here are infidelity without guilt, um... self-serving sexual satisfaction, sex with robots and sexual tensions between a father and his own daughter. I don't have a problem reading about these ideas, I just have a problem with Asimov writing about them if you know what I mean.

The other problem I have is that some of this book feels a bit forced. I can tell where Asimov is force-fitting pieces so that he can tie this whole universe together. The investigation that Elijah goes on itself is well done but certain plot devices used with a character named Giskard are a bit too convenient and a bit corny in my opinion. I wont delve into that because it would be impossible to do so without giving away major spoilers.

I hope as I move forward in the Robot/Empire/Foundation series Asimov goes back to just great writing with innocence. I'm reading these books chronologically (with the exception of Prelude to Foundation and Forward the Foundation, those will be last) so hopefully when I move to the Foundation books and his other earlier works they stay consistent with the Asimov's style that I've now come to know and love.

Oh well, I'll get over it. I know Asimov's potential and this may just be one of his rare duds for me. I give this one an optimistic 2.5 (rounded to 3 for the store). I still very much look forward to reading more Asimov.

I listened to the audio version with William Dufris.

The narrator is incredibly good. I liked the book, but to me the narration might have been the best part. William Dufris is able to mimic multiple characters. Each one sounds interesting. None of them are irritating.

I have read other Isaac Asimov and generally like him. I found the story interesting, it made me think, I enjoyed the reading (listening).

But I don't think this is his best. At times, the story seemed to drag some. If I had been reading the text version, I might have skimmed a little. And I found the allusions to female anatomy and sex situations sometimes awkwardly written.

"The Robots of Dawn" is the third fascinating novel in the awesome science fiction series involving Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw. The gifted roboticist Han Fastolfe asks the agoraphobic (afraid of open places) plainclothes cop Elijah Baley, since he solved previous mysteries, to unravel a crime committed on Aurora. The offense entails the murder of one Jander Parnell and as Fastolfe is the most likely candidate to have caused the crime, he trusts only Elijah and Daneel, a technological masterpiece restricted in his behavior by the Laws of Robotics, to pursue the case. Although Elijah faced the open airs of Solaria, he will struggle with his phobia on Aurora while becoming accustomed to the robots of a different society. Another lovable robot enters the picture to associate with the dynamic duo in the crime solving process. The story is well written and kept me interested throughout with a gripping ending.
Thank you.

Just when you thought the first two books "Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun" were as good as Asimov gets, here comes "The Robots of Dawn" and knocks them both down in one blow.
In this novel, a middle aged Detective Elijah Baley sets out on his most defying investigation ever. His journey takes him to the capital of the Spacer Worlds; the planet Aurora, where he is reunited with his old partner R. Daneel Olivaw.
The story has everything that I missed in the first two books, including some romance with the sexy Gladia Delmarre (which Lije was always too cautious about in "The Naked Sun").
Asimov hooks you on the "whodunnit" trail right from the start, and gives you a knock on the head right at the end. Truly spectacular, a work of a genuis.
In this book, Asimov makes Aurora feel like your own world, describing every bit of detail with superb depictions and without a single sense of tediousness. For the first time, the relationship of robots with humans when it comes to sexual intercourse is explored, and how the three laws of robotics handle it.
An absolute MUST read for all those who adored the first two books of the robot series. Isaac Asimov, I personaly salute you.

The last of the Elijah Baley trilogy, in which New York City detective Lije Baley must deal with the culture of the spacers -- humans whose ancestors abandoned earth to form a galactic empire, who have become much more powerful than the crowded millions who remain on Earth. In so doing, he must cooperate with the robot detective, R. Daneel Olivaw. In this last in the series, Lije is middle aged, and must go to the planet Aurora -- center of the spacer world -- to solve a murder. He is reunited with the gorgeous Gladia, and the plot thickens to a point where Earth's fate hangs in the balance.

I read this book some years ago and was fascinated by Asimov's incredible vision of robots and how the would actually function in society. His vision of the positronic brain set the stage for future Science Fiction involving robots and it probably continues to drive AI efforts today. Great book.

Isaac Asimov, the Grand Master of Science Fiction, brings us another detective story set in the Robot series: The Robots of Dawn. Some two years after the events of The Naked Sun, police detective Elijah Baley is called upon to investigate a crime on the Spacer planet of Aurora. He is accompanied again by the humanlike robot Daneel Olivaw. After the events on Solaria which have been turned into what amounts to a "movie" in this setting, Baley is famous which has caused his superiors on the police force to be resentful. This new case is one which will have deeper consequences than discovering truth and justice: if he does not succeed in clearing Dr Falstofe of roboticide then Baley's career will be destroyed and the opportunity for Earth to ever reach for the Stars again and colonize the Universe will be eliminated as a powerful group of Spacers (those humans who have already colonized several planets and now will not permit Earth to take to space again). In short, it is imperative that Baley succeeds. Dr. Falstofe has been accused of causing one of his own robots, the humanform Jander, to "mind freeze" and render the robot useless. The accusation is given on the presumption that the Doctor did this so that the Spacers who are against Earth would be discredited. By his own admission Dr. Falstofe is the only human alive with the intellectual capacity and knowledge to be able to force a robot into "mind freeze". He also maintains that he is innocent. While there is no "crime" in the sense of breaking a law, it is a "crime" in the sense that being guilty would discredit Dr Falstofe and Earth would suffer the consequences.

The Robots of Dawn gives the reader a further sense of the culture shock of being in a place where everybody is just like you, except that they are nothing like you culturally. Things that Elijah Baley fears are commonplace on Aurora, and they fear or have distaste for the things of Earth. The main thrust of the story, however, is a mystery. If the good doctor is the only person who could have committed the crime and the good doctor did not commit the crime, then who did? And why? The reader is led through the story by Baley's investigations and we are certainly invited to make our own guesses based on the information at hand. Asimov does an excellent job of having Baley ask all the questions that provide us with all the information and we, as well as he, are left to figure out the solution. The formal inquisitive nature of Baley does force the language and writing to be somewhat stilted and, well, formal. The novel has an unemotional feel to it, and not just when the robots are speaking or on the page. There is a certain formality to everybody and while it may fit the narrative, it can make for reading that is a bit dry.

As a standalone science fiction novel, The Robots of Dawn has not aged especially well. The characters are not very well developed and there is little to distinguish the characters from each other besides their names. The story itself does not have sufficiently high stakes to be truly compelling, or at least the stakes do not feel as if they are truly important. For Earth, the stakes are quite high as well as for Baley, but somehow this does not come across on the page. With all of this said, The Robots of Dawn is worth reading for those reading through Asimov as the Robot series flows into the Empire series which flows into the Foundation series. All of these novels bridge together to give a vision of the future as imagined by Isaac Asimov. I do feel, however, that Asimov works better as a short story writer than a novelist, but there are many novels of Asimov that I haven't read.

-Joe Sherry

I read the Foundation books before this and the 2nd Robot novel. This is by far the best book he has written in that genre; Foundation / Robot. This was a book that went deep into the characters and even had a well crafted romance. "Romance?!? By *gasp* Asimov?!" Yes, romance. It reads like a great crime novel that happens to take place in space. It even has the buddy detectives; one hard boiled space-phobic cynic, the other a logical robot with a pure soul.

Yep, sounds sappy on paper, but he pulls it off. This was Asimov's "adult" novel. Less gee-wiz and more plot development. Yes, he still clings to his formula but he really makes the formula sing.

You should really read the first 2 robot novels before this one. Then you will really appreciate how much heart he put ino this one. You can really tell he loved these characters.

The robot novels were always my favorite of Asimov's work. This book was written by the science-fiction master well into his career, demonstrating a significant improvement in his powers. This builds on the characters introduced in Caves of Steel and Naked Sun. You should read those before venturing into this novel.
Asimov combines the mystery genre and many of his futurist ideas together in this series. Not only do you get to experience a great mystery-adventure, but you're also exploring the social consequences of near-human robots. Daneel Olivaw, the robot partner to detective Elijah Baley, is one of the most memorable characters in the field of speculative fiction.
This is the best place to start reading Asimov. The sequel, Robots and Empire, is excellent as well. After reading the Robots books, try the Foundation series, which starts slower but gets very good--and ultimately rewards readers of the Robot books by tieing it all together.

I don't give it five stars even though it is that good simply because it takes two hundred pages(in my opinion, it doesn't start getting really exciting till Bailey interviews the daughter Vasilia) before things get really intrigueing.

I find Asimov is usually good with the first book of his trilogies, and then maybe the third, maybe the fourth book of a series is really good after some so-so second sequels. Foundation is good, Caves of Steel is good, and I forget which empire novels go in which sequence(it's been awhile for me with those; and besides, I must admit I liked the two that I read; the currents of space is the one I havn't read). Well, Foundation's Edge and Robots of Dawn I found are pretty good. I didn't like the mule in the foundation series because it was more about some magical ability instead of some scientific outcome, but he puts the whole mule thing in a good light in Foundations edge.

I kind of find Robots of Dawn kind of a prelude to "Prelude to Foundation." And, like i've already said, it took two hundred pages for anything interesting to start happening; before then, it is a lot of sex I guess. I thought he did a masterfull job with the whole daughter of the master robotist thing and then he concluded things pretty well even though I grew impatient to get back to doing some real mathematics. I liked how he managed to put the future of the galaxy to the whims of human chance and issues. That was what I was expecting as well, but, I was starting to wonder.

This is definitelly not the first Asimov book to read for those who havn't read one book by him! This is a book you read if you've already read some robot, empire, and foundation books(preferably the first of each series for sure . . . and, yes, there's some others, but like I said, I generally don't like the second of each series except maybe the empire series).

Once again, the second half is worth getting through the first half; it all does have a reason!

It's a wonderful thing, "The Robots of Dawn," not just the book but the title itself. It is cold (robots), as science is seen to be; and it is warm (dawn), as poetry is seen to be. The two together (robot and dawn) form the core of great science fiction: the order and reason of science and technology, the vulnerability and unpredicatbility of human nature. They clash to create something unique in the world of literature, something beyond words that can only exist in the imagination of a true sci-fi fan. This book has it all. The objectivity of the reasoning mind (the investigator, Bailey - not to mention his robot companions) and the passions of a frantic heart (those Bailey investigates). This book simply could not have been better.

One of my most favourite books of all time. If there was one thing the late, great Isaac Asimov could do, it was to craft a tale around extremely clever dialogue. Following Elijah Baley along his investigation is much more fun than it ought to be. The bulk of the story is literally our detective interacting with possible suspects of a murder, and the dialogue alone makes you turn the pages long into the night. Very clever stuff from one of the greatest minds of all time.

In "The Robots of Dawn," Asimov once again examines human nature through the devices of science fiction. The plot revolves around the "murder" of one of two humaniform robots in existence, which protagonist Elijah Baley is called to the Spacer home world Aurora to investigate. Asimov's characters and plot are deep, and his understanding of human nature is truly remarkable. This book is not only a very engaging work of science fiction and mystery, but also a shrewd exposition of the motives and prejudices of human beings. And yet Asimov manages to provoke in his readers a strong sense of hope for the future of humankind.

Great conclusion to the robot trilogy - need to read all three of the novels in the correct sequence in order to fully appreciate the progression of the themes. The story is nicely written, focused, taut, humorous and incredibly insightful; the mystery aspect of the story is also very well done.

Decent book, I give it a B-. It is twice as big as either of the prequels in The Robot Murder Series, "The Caves of Steel", and "The Naked Sun". Unfortunately, The Robots of Dawn isn't as good as either of those two. One of the problems were the number of editorial errors (typos, syntactical errors, etc.) - I remember counting at least six or seven. The other problem is that "The Caves of Steel" is Asimov's premiere work, and much of Asimov's other work pales in comparison. All three books can now be found in a 3-in-1 "Trilogy", which might be the best way to go for some folks.

The Robots of Dawn is a great book, so great that once you get started, you can't put it down.
The planet on which the roboticide (murder of a robot) takes place is Aurora, the capital of the Spacer worlds. Elijah Baley, veteran of two other such incidents, arrives with his humanoid robot partner Daneel, and another robot, Giskard. Baley must attempt to free the man accused of the roboticide. And he interviews several people to come to a conclusion of who killed the robot. But Giskard, the seemingly unimportant robot, is a lot more than what anyone thinks

As a mystery/whodunnit, it is horrible. Many of the reviewers here have commented on how difficult it was to anticipate the ending; of COURSE it was difficult; that's becuase the ending made no sense; worse, there was a perfectly logical, elegant solution to the mystery that was completely ignored simply for the purpose of jamming in a deus ex machina that would tie in to some of Asimov's other stories. And worse yet, it would have been possible to use the elegant solution as a part of the deus ex machina, if he really HAD to have that tie-in, and it would have made perfect sense.
I can't explain here what that "elegant solution" is without giving away the book's ending, an unpardonable crime when reviewing a mystery, but if you're curious (and have read the book) feel free to e-mail me and I'll let you know what I think.

For those of us who enjoy taking a
peek of things to come, as we go down the
road of machine intelligence, Isaac Asimov
never disappoints.
In Robots of Dawn we are faced with the horrors
of a roboticide. The killing of a humaniform
robot. A robot who was loved by a human, and
who made love to a human.
It is all so simple and yet it is written so
prophetically right that it has all the hallmarks
of a genius. Isaac Asimov - once again.
Compelling.
-Simon

Out of the robot series,this was my favorite. Again,Asimov deftly defined a seemingly unsolvable mystery and gave a solution,making Baley one of the most interesting characters in sci-fi fiction. This has a neat twist at the end,that looking back,I should of seen coming. Not bad for an earthman.

This book almost denies its promise. It has the characters from the first two Bailey novels, but it does not have the charm and feel of the other books. A corpse without a soul.

I think Asimov fell into a rut. He has his established Foundation and Robot novels--either alone would establish him as a grandmaster--and then spent his later years knotting together the two continuities. For die-hard fans, this is what they want. For a casual fan like myself, it gets tedious at times.

The index is quite revealing. Half of the chapters begin with "So-and-so Again." And that is how the chapters read--redundant. The artistry and the craft are there. So is the emotion and psychology of Daniel. But they get long and drawn out, like the zip-forwards sections in the film "2001."

(Actually, the book could be condensed to a short story or novelette.)

So the story was slow, and has useless diversions into Bailey's agoraphobia, the logorrhetic description of the lavatories (a trademark of Stanly Kubrick), Gladia's sexual hang-ups, and Baileys hideous betrayal of his wife. And all Bailey offers is a casual "I don't regret it at all. I would even like to do it again." (421)

In fact, this is the hallmark of Asimov's later books. The core robot novels ("I, Robot", "Caves of Steel", "Robots of Dawn"), and the original Foundation novels ("Foundation", "Foundation and Empire", "Second Foundation.") are rather chaste and reflect the traditional morality that is the product of 6,000 years of human experience (See The Lessons of History, 35-42).

The later retconned prequals ("The Robots of Dawn," "Prelude to Foundation", "Forward the Foundation") are rather lascivious. It is as if a Freudian damn burst in Asimov's mind. And these forays into the titillating are not only rather distracting, but also problematic. In the Foundation series Asimov merely states that the Empire is decaying, but never gives an explanation why. Asimov cribbed too much from Gibbons, and should have also read Augustine's "City of God" which provides a Christian (and therefore moral) analysis of the fall of Rome. It was the moral-sexual attitudes that Bailey held that caused the empire to fall, and not robots.

This is the third book in the Robot Series and starts the merge with the Empire and Foundation series. The first and second books are not necessary to understand the setting of this, but helps if you read these books. Here, the characters that will save and create the future of mankind,(starting in the fourth book, Robots and Empire) are defined and presented. These book are a touch of genius that will make all the series make better sense when read together.

You know that when you read an Asimov novel not to expect great literature - or even good science fiction. But even in comparison with other Asimov novels "The Robots of Dawn" ranks low.

The story resurrects Elijah Bailey, a detective who has previously appeared in two (better) novels. He is investigating a case of "robotcide" on the Spacer planet Aurora, a crime with implications for the future of space exploration. It continues the late Asimov trend of trying to reconcile his two overarching themes - the Foundation universe and the robot stories. Needless to say, this requires quite a lot of forcing, to the detriment of this and other late Asimov science fiction writings.

Unlike earlier novels, in this book it is all to easy to see the underlying scaffolding on which the novel sits. If you pay attention you can figure out early on who is responsible for the crime that forms the centerpiece of the novel (to within a character, at least). The resolution of the story is unsatisfactory, and several points in the novel strain plausibility. And he continues his "modification" (aka abandonment) of the three laws. While the laws of robotics were never particularly realistic they made for a good plot device. Asimov, however, is now either too lazy or too inept to work within a straightforward interpretation of these laws, and so he bends them to suit his needs - here and in his other late robot writings.

Perhaps the worst part of the novel center on Asimov's attempts to write about sex. Early on in his career Asimov was criticized for the "sexlessness" of his writings, and this apparently bothered him, as in this book (and other late Asimov stories) he tries to write about sexual matters. Embarrassing is the best thing one can say about his attempts to do so. There are simply some things particular writers cannot do well. An author should accept his/her limitations and play to their strengths. This novel is a cautionary tale of what happens when this is not done.

Character development and the portrayal of real three dimensional humans (or robots) - forget about it.

My advice - find a Heinlein novel you haven't yet read and enjoy good science fiction from the classic period...or even an early Asimov novel. Don't waste your time on this one.

Although I think there are better science fiction writers than Asimov, somehow his ability to pull one into a book always succeeds. This was one of my favorite of the gazillion Empire, Robot, and Foundation books that were all tied together (rather oddly, since they were written completely separately, but with fun twists) by Asimov toward the end of his life.
If you are an Asimov fan or a fan of respectable writing, this book, plus the other robot novels, will please you.

I read all of the Robot novels when they first came out, thoroughly enjoying the characters. Each novel got better than the previous one. Robots of Dawn, the third in the series, is a far superior story than its two predecessors. The writing is criper, even edgy (I didn't remember so much sexuality in Asimov's writing.) Read them order, knowing that each gets better.

Isacc Asimov is my favorite author and this is Asimov at his best. I was reading and trying to figure out the mystery with Baley to see if I could figure out the mystery before it was explained to me and I couldn't! It was just incredible how subtle Mr. Asimov was in writing his novel. When Mr. Baley was interviewing people he picked up on things that I would not have seen in a million years! You should definitely read this book.

Another brilliant future society potrayed by Isaac Asimov, albeit not as well as in the previous two books of the trilogy. On the other hand, the mystery, for the first time in this trilogy, is perfect -- because the perpetrator is not easily identifiable (as in the previous books), but sufficient clues exist that it is theoretically possible to figure it out before the answer is revealed (although I did not).

Enjoyable book not so much for the plot as for the examination of the future social aspects of human/robot interaction. One thing I find difficult to understand is why do Asimov's space colonies require so many robots per person? These colonists seem very wimpy.
Interesting Earth/colony conflicts; analagous to Britain/US relationship. Earth seen as inferior to Spacer worlds.
Fun to read. One odd thing: Asimov seems to be unusually interested in human bodily functions and bathrooms.

I really enjoyed the first two books, but I couldn't finish this one. It was just so repetitive. I got more than halfway through before giving up. The characters were talking in circles, and I have better things to do with my time.

Well, here it is: the final robots mystery starring Baley and Daneel. Personally, I think this falls to second or third place in the trilogy, with The Naked Sun as first place. This is in no way a knock of the book, mind you. This book's plot is more involved, making the mystery aspect even tougher to solve. I had thought of the solution, but never given it any thought. This novel takes place on Aurora, the main Spacer world. Its a pleasent mix--not population saturated like Earth, but not robot city like Solaria. My only sort of complaint--sometimes it seemed a bit too long. However, when I finished it, I wished it was longer. Go figure. Now that this novel is done, and Baley has solved his final case, there is only one place to go-- Robots and Empire

This is the last one of Robot books and quite well written. As always, the logic is quite perfect and works well. However as i read, i was more aware of Baley's various reactions and thoughts that the actual story. (because i don't think the solving crime stuff wasn't very good as books written before) I loved the style of writing and descriptions. Just as usual, Asimov wrote another great work! Don't miss this book if u liked the other Robot books!

Great book. Gives great psycology of humans and robots. We see how diffrent robots "think". Plus it is a great who's done it. Asimov brings back a great idea from "I, Robot" I couldn't put it down, fonoshed it within a day. I never expected the ending, even though it was hinted to through out the book. shows the power of Asimov as an Auther. Plus their is deffinete charecter develpment througout the robot series. this future us deffintly possible. Technolgy without using thehumanity of life.

I think that it is a great novel. I don't like the "read mind" idea, and I don't like the idea of the psicohisory created by a robot. But, if I forgive those things, is a good one. Asimov, allways surprise me.

While not as intriguing or complicated as some current great science fiction, I cannot help but feel that it was books such as this that laid the foundation for the wonders and complexities of today's writings. There is also a purist simplicity to Asimov's robot books that is refreshing.

This is just a part of the whole. In it you, if you are willing to open yourself to the thoughts, can see more of what a bright future we can have with compassion, understanding and acceptance of ideas that are foreign. Please read these books with an open mind and open heart.

I have at last read every book in the robots and foundation saga. I must say i admire Asimov for being able to keep the magic alive across so many novels. However, this novel implies that Giskard invented psychohistory and the only part us humans play is to be nudged along by this telepathic robot. Overall it is a good read, and continues the epic of Robots and the Empire for all us die-hard Asimov fans. The character of Han Fastolfe though really taxes my patience.
If you have read the first two books in this series, and are hungry for more... do go ahead and buy it!! ...

This book was gifted to me a while back and started reading it expectantly since Asimov has such a reputation. It was very slow going. The scientific way in which he rights (I suppose it is science fiction) is intrigueing but becomes very annoying when it stops the story from progressing. I got through about a third of it but when I got to the part where the main character was talking to the alien politicion accused of roboticide.
Now it has been a while and I am a little scetchy but let's see.
First of all The Alien spends about 10 pages not answering the guys questions. Then he answers them all in overload. The way in which Asimov bombards us with facts does nothing to clarify the situation. It's a bit like hearing a 1000 word essay on the uses of a pencil, yes you can probably get a plausable 1000 words but no I don't need to read it because it's boring and i'm not going to remember it all anyway. It got to the point where I was getting information (At this point I was getting info not story) which I had recieved 3 or so times in slightly different variations. I suspected that the rest of the book was going to be made up of lengthy dialogues between the main character and suspects.
I wanted to write a bad review about this book because it annoyed me. Perhaps I should try and be concise.
We need logic in life but it is not fun and it is not entertaining. Pure logic, when it is not mixed with anything else is boring.

I recomend this book very strongly to sf and mistery readers. After all, who but Isaac Asimov would think of writing a sf novel, about the murder of a robot and the subsequent investigation carried through by an earth policeman on a strange planet such as Aurora? Definitely, the best Elija Bayley story.

Asimov's "Robots of Dawn" is a fascinating science fiction mystery. It is also a headline breaking analysis of "Robot ethics" in a secular world.

After reading the novel several times, the audio book version brought new life and meaning to the story details.

3rd novel in a series of 4. Best one of the series. Lije Bailey goes to Aurora and, as usual, solves an almost unsolvable mystery. We also get to know R Giscard, a very cute robot with special powers, which he eventually will pass on to R Daneel, thus making the Foundation saga plausible. Really a nice wrap-up.

Well, this book is just as good as the first two, except the main character does something in this book that makes me absolutely hate him. I don't like hating the main character of the book I'm reading, especially after I've come to love him so much in the first two books. It made me angry.

All the characters dialog sounds the same. Dull. Uninspired. 70 pages of dialog between 2 characters, broken up with "I noticed he stopped walking" and "I noticed we had stopped walking".
This is one of the worst books I've read in a long time. It was like a philosophical debate on particle physics between 3 physicists.
95% dry, dull dialog. 5% interesting story.
Horrible.

First off I'd like to say that my review has spoilers in it.

So this is the first book I've read of Asimov's. I thought he was supposed to be one of the best scifi authors ever. I just don't see it. Either I got unlucky and this is his worst book or he is extremely over rated. This book was 90% dialogue at least. You have to struggle through 300-some pages before anything starts happening and then it doesn't even last very long. There is really like about 3-4 pages of them discussing a word and the meanings it might have for different people in different situations. How can anyone find that entertaining? It's too long, too drawn out. Boring.

Another thing I have issue with is we have to bash our minds into boring dialogue for 400-some pages before we find out that everything we'd just read was pointless. He spent so much time over analyzing, over talking, and over thinking everything. It's like he was throwing together a story with no meaning or purpose and kept going "no, no, that wouldn't work, so I'll throw this on there, no that wouldn't work either, oh gosh darn it now I'm backed into a corner... what to do what to do..." He copped out and took the easy answer. Magic did it! We wasted 400-some pages of "mystery novel" only to find out that MAGIC is the answer!? Oh, come on! That's so lame! I thought one of the points of detective novels was to make you think things through and try to figure it out for yourself to increase your own brain power, but there's no way anyone reading it would go "Oh, yeah, the answer is totally magic did it".

Also I was not impressed that the "good guy" cheated on his wife and didn't care or even think about her till the next day, and when he did think of her he shrugged her off and thought about doing it again. I get that the point was to have the woman in the room when he was falling asleep so she could hear him talking in his sleep. But there would have been so many other ways to do it without trashing the main character who is supposed to be a good guy. For example, he could have been too weak to eat at the table so she would have had to let him eat in bed, she might have sat with him till he was done eating and he, being in his state of weakness and exhaustion, might have fallen asleep even before she left the room and she could have heard him speak then. No reason to make people lose complete respect for not only the character but the author who had the stomach to write something so horrid. I almost stopped reading then, but I continued because I was almost done with the book so why stop now. But from that point on I considered the main character a piece of trash bad guy and I hated him.

Overall? I am not interested in his other books, not in the slightest.

All the characters dialog sounds the same. Dull. Uninspired. 70 pages of dialog between 2 characters, broken up with "I noticed he stopped walking" and "I noticed we had stopped walking".
This is one of the worst books I've read in a long time. It was like a philosophical debate on particle physics between 3 physicists.
95% dry, dull dialog. 5% interesting story.
Horrible.

First off I'd like to say that my review has spoilers in it.

So this is the first book I've read of Asimov's. I thought he was supposed to be one of the best scifi authors ever. I just don't see it. Either I got unlucky and this is his worst book or he is extremely over rated. This book was 90% dialogue at least. You have to struggle through 300-some pages before anything starts happening and then it doesn't even last very long. There is really like about 3-4 pages of them discussing a word and the meanings it might have for different people in different situations. How can anyone find that entertaining? It's too long, too drawn out. Boring.

Another thing I have issue with is we have to bash our minds into boring dialogue for 400-some pages before we find out that everything we'd just read was pointless. He spent so much time over analyzing, over talking, and over thinking everything. It's like he was throwing together a story with no meaning or purpose and kept going "no, no, that wouldn't work, so I'll throw this on there, no that wouldn't work either, oh gosh darn it now I'm backed into a corner... what to do what to do..." He copped out and took the easy answer. Magic did it! We wasted 400-some pages of "mystery novel" only to find out that MAGIC is the answer!? Oh, come on! That's so lame! I thought one of the points of detective novels was to make you think things through and try to figure it out for yourself to increase your own brain power, but there's no way anyone reading it would go "Oh, yeah, the answer is totally magic did it".

Also I was not impressed that the "good guy" cheated on his wife and didn't care or even think about her till the next day, and when he did think of her he shrugged her off and thought about doing it again. I get that the point was to have the woman in the room when he was falling asleep so she could hear him talking in his sleep. But there would have been so many other ways to do it without trashing the main character who is supposed to be a good guy. For example, he could have been too weak to eat at the table so she would have had to let him eat in bed, she might have sat with him till he was done eating and he, being in his state of weakness and exhaustion, might have fallen asleep even before she left the room and she could have heard him speak then. No reason to make people lose complete respect for not only the character but the author who had the stomach to write something so horrid. I almost stopped reading then, but I continued because I was almost done with the book so why stop now. But from that point on I considered the main character a piece of trash bad guy and I hated him.

Overall? I am not interested in his other books, not in the slightest.

I had to write a review somewhere after reading this book. After reading the Caves of Steel, I thought it would be an enjoyable read. However, it was not. This was the most tedious, long-winded, horribly written piece of snot that I have ever laid my eyes on. Asimov spends way too much time saying the exact same thing over and over as if the reader were completely illiterate. The plot is horribly stupid, and non of the interactions seem 'real' at all. save your time and reread the Foundation series... This book sucked.