Product Description

Isaac Asmiov's classic novel about the decline and fall of Solaria. Gladia Delmarre's homeworld, the Spacer planet Solaria, has been abandoned - by its human population. Countless robots remain there. And when traders from Settler worlds attempt to salvage them, the robots of Solaria turn to killing...in defiance of the Three Laws of Robotics. Pax Robotica Long ago, Gladia's robots Daneel and Giskard played a vital role in opening the worlds beyond the Solar system to Settlers from Earth. Now the conscience-stricken robots are faced with an even greater challenge. Either the sacred Three Laws of Robotics are in ruins - or a new, superior Law must be established to bring peace to the galaxy. With Madam Gladia and D.G. Baley - the captain of the Settler traders and a descendant of the robots' friend Elijah Baley - Daneel and Giskard travel to the robot stronghold of Solaria...where they uncover a sinister Spacer plot to destroy Earth itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124450 in Books
• Published on: 1994-01-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 512 pages

From the Publisher
THE CLASSIC ROBOT NOVEL

From the Inside Flap
Long after his humiliating defeat at the hands of Earthman Elijah Baley, Keldon Amadiro embarked on a plan to destroy planet Earth. But even after his death, Baley's vision continued to guide his robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw, who had the wisdom of a great man behind him and an indestructable will to win....

About the Author
Isaac Asimov, world maestro of science fiction, was born in Russia near Smolensk in 1920 and brought to the United States by his parents three years later. He grew up in Brooklyn where he went to grammar school and at the age of eight lie gained his citizen papers. A remarkable memory helped him finish high school before he was sixteen. He then went on to Columbia University and resolved to become a chemist rather than follow the medical career his father had in mind for him. He graduated in chemistry and after a short spell in the Army he gained his doctorate in 1949 and qualified as an instructor in biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine where he became Associate Professor in 1955, doing research in nucleic acid. Increasingly, however, the pressures of chemical research conflicted with his aspirations in the literary field, and in 1958 lie retired to full-time authorship while retaining his connection with the University.

Asimov's fantastic career as a science fiction writer began in 1939 with the appearance of a short story, Marooned Off Vesta, in Amazing Stories. Thereafter he becarne a regular contributor to the leading SF magazines of the day including Astounding, Astonishing Stories, Super Science Stories and Galaxy. He won the Hugo Award four times and the Nebula Award once. With nearly five hundred books to his credit and several hundred articles, Asimov's output was prolific by any standards. Apart from his many world-famous science fiction works, Asimov also wrote highly successful detective mystery stories, a four-volume History of North America, a two-volume Guide to the Bible, a biographical dictionary, encyclopaedias, textbooks and an impressive list of books on many sapects of science, as well as two volumes of autobiography.

Isaac Asimov died in 1992 at the age of 72.

Customer Reviews

The missing link
Asimov, like Heinlein, came, towards the end of his career, to integrate the characters and universes from all of his major works into one huge, interconnected fictional world. This was not his original intention, but it's the way that it worked out. Chronologically, the Robot series is first - which started out in the form of short stories, and then a series of novels, of which this is the fourth - followed by the Empire and then the Foundation series. The third Robot book, The Robots of Dawn, was a sequel for which readers had to wait 25 years for. The next book, this one, came a mere two years after it. Robots and Empire, however, represents a major break from the tradition of the previous Robot books. The three subsequent books were all murder mysteries staring the Earthman Detective Elijah Baley. This book, however, is not a murder mystery, but more of a straightforward story - and Baley has been dead for over 200 years. It picks up where The Robots of Dawn left off, in a slightly different context. This is a fast-moving and quite entertaining book in its own right, and you will certainly want to read it if you enjoyed the previous three novels. It is sometimes painfully obvious, however, that this book was intended solely to provide a smooth transition from the Robot series to the Empire series. Consequently, the book does this job very well, tying up the loose ends from the previous Robot book, and clarifying what would have been several contradictions between the Robot and Empire serieses - the reason for the radioactivity on Earth, the motive behind the immigration of the Earth people, and the fact that there are no robots in the Empire novels, etc. However, this comes with a price: the book is not all that great in and of itself. There is not really that much in the way of plot - certainly not like the great mystery plots in the three previous novels; indeed, even the original robot short stories were more or less mysteries themselves. That said, despite this weakness, the book is still very fast-paced and quite fun and entertaining to read - and, of course, provides the necessary transition between the two serieses. Whatever the book's individual merit, you will want to read it if you plan on going through the series. This vast integration of all these epic stories, this book included, show the visionary and plotting skills of Asimov, and you can not help but marvel at his unquestioned virtuostic abilities. The vast scale of this fictional universe - including also three books by other authors - can be very daunting to the neophyte. I suggest you make use of the several very helpful "Listmania Lists" at Amazon, so that you will know what order in which to read the books, and so that you can start on and enjoy the unparalleled fictional world of Isaac Asimov.

science fiction detective mystery concludes [no spoilers]
"Robots and Empire" is the conclusion in the awesome science fiction series concerning R. Daneel Olivaw and new partner R. Giskard. Two hundred years have passed and although Elijah Baley has passed away, his influence remains with the technological masterpiece R. Daneel Olivaw and the extraordinarily gifted R. Giskard. Restricted by the Laws of Robotics, Daneel and Giskard must find a way to thwart any plan a certain enemy executes while unable to employ what they consider Elijah's aggressive techniques. Reading about Daneel trying to think like the great detective Elijah is moving and fun. The fond memories the robots and long-lived Spacers elicit make the novel a touching story. The brilliant detective story is a work of art.

Thank you.

Another wonderful Asimov Story
Robot and Empire is another entertaining story from the prolific writer Isaac Asimov. Set many decades after Robots of Dawn, when the Earth detective Elijah Bailey has long ago passed, Robots and Empire tells the story of Dr. Kelden Amadiro's nefarious attempt at destroying Earth and the Settlers. The Auroran Gladia, along with the robots Daneel and Giskard, must go to great lengths to protect Earth and countless lives.

What I really enjoyed about this book was the interaction between the robots Daneel and Giskard. As both characters work at deducing and anticipating Amadiro's motives and actions, it's really interesting to watch the relationship between these two as they provide much needed counsel and assistance to one another. It's very entertaining to follow along as the fly all over the galaxy in an attempt thwart Amadiro's plans. It's even more interesting to see them attempt to circumnavigate the famous 3 Laws of Robotics which they often find hinder, rather than help, their attempts at protecting Earth. I don't think I'm revealing too much to say that Daneel even goes so far as to introduce the Zeroth Law of robotics which is basically the need to protect all of humanity. This plays an integral part in the unfolding of the book.

I was pleased that the whole book moves at a speedy pace(I took less than two days to read this), with nothing seeming trivial or overly drawn out.This book is very entertaining and as it's only the fourth work I've read by Asimov, I'm moved to read more of his books. Perhaps the only real complaint about this book is that the ending is slightly anticlimatic, but rather touching and fitting. If you like Asimov's work, particularly his robot books concerning Elijah Bailey, I think you'll really enjoy this book.