Beginning To Bring It All Together

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

In the early 1980s, perhaps in recognition of his own mortality, Isaac Asimov returned to some of his earlier science fiction classics to finish what he'd started and then abandoned in order to focus on writing science books in the late 1950s.

The first of these, Foundation's Edge, was something of a disappointment (to me anyway) and I approached the remainder of Asimov's later fiction with some degree of trepidation.

That was unnecessary for Robots of Dawn, a great novel, published in 1983, that completed the Lije Baley trilogy that began with Caves of Steel (1954) and The Naked Sun (1957.)

Series Background

Set in the far future, mankind has splintered into two groups -- those who have remained on Earth and become entombed in their "caves of steel," huge underground and domed cities; and the "spacers," who left to colonize the stars and now are considered a separate and malignant race by those left behind.

In the first novel, Caves of Steel, we are introduced to Lije Baley, an Earth policeman, and R. Daneel Olivaw, a humanform robot who is assigned to help Baley solve the murder of a spacer on Earth. As Baley learns to accept the robot as a sentient being, he also begins to see the Earthman's lot in a different light.

Baley and Olivaw are again teamed up in the sequel, The Naked Sun, which is set on the planet Solaria, where another murder has taken place and Baley is brought in to solve it. A subplot of the second novel was Baley's ongoing efforts to overcome his fear of the outdoors (outside the caves of steel,) something he shares with all people on Earth, and he begins to realize that unless the race can overcome its fears and leave the planet, it will likely die out.

As a result of his actions in the first two novels, Baley has become something of a folk hero on Earth, and the beginning of the third novel finds him leading a movement to break out of the agoraphobia inducing caves of steel in order to plant the seeds of future off-planet migration. This movement does not sit well with many, on or off planet, as he will soon come to realize.

Robots of Dawn

This novel again pairs up the two main characters, while adding a third, seemingly disinterested party, robot Giskard. In this case, Baley is summoned to Aurora, most powerful of the Spacer worlds, to solve a crime of "roboticide." It seems that another humanform robot (Daneel being the only other one in existence) has been destroyed in a fashion that points the finger at his creator, Dr. Han Falstolfe.

Falstolfe, the de facto leader of the Spacers, has been pushing the cause of allowing the Earthmen to migrate to other planets, against the pressure of others who want to keep the Earthies down. If Falstolfe is not proven innocent, he will lose his influence, Earth is doomed, and if the calculations of the budding robot scientists Giskard and Olivaw are to be believed, mankind itself will soon fade from the pages of history.

Baley must face his fears, his past (a relationship with a Solarian woman, who has migrated to Aurora,) and those who wish evil to befall him, Falstolfe and the two robots.

Commentary (Spoilers)

Asimov has shown a predilection to mystery stories in the past, and he generally wrote good ones. Unfortunately, far too often he uses red herrings to misdirect (a good ploy) but then brings in something from left field that no one could see coming (not a good ploy.)

The characters continue their development from the previous novels quite well in spite of the 25 year layoff. Baley has lost a bit of his hard-nosed naivete and Olivaw continues his growth in understanding human society.

The Solarian woman, Gladia, has adapted fairly well to life on Aurora, although she still prefers the company of robots to humans with the exception of Baley and (to a lesser extent) Falstolfe. Before the book is done, Baley and Gladia will have to meet their desires and fears of one another head-on.

Because of Asimov's stated intent to "bring it all together" by merging all of his disparate novel series (Empire/Foundation, Robots, Lije Baley) there is a bit of license taken with the characters of Giskard and Olivaw, who are given the task of linking the past robot books to the Foundation series. Significant portions of this book are given over to "discussions" between the two robots on the current situation and how it may impact "future plans."

I like this return to the past far more than Foundation's Edge, as it is a well written book that introduces acceptable plot modifications to the whole Asimov Universe timeline. As a science fiction murder mystery, it reads very well, with just the right touch of futurism added to what is essentially a Sam Spade novel with robots.

If there is a downside to this, it's Asmiov's tendency to be overly dramatic, particularly with the ending of some of his books. In all three of these books, although the focus is on a murder, in reality the true issue is sociological, and the resolution of the crime becomes less a matter of seeing justice done than one of pushing along an agenda.

In this case, the closing section of the book resolves most of the outstanding issues of the current story, sums up those brought up in the first two novels and the sets the stage for what I consider to be the best of the four Daneel Olivaw novels, Robots and Empire (1985.)

Conclusion

If one starts at the beginning of Asimov's "ultimate series," with The Complete Robot and follows the whole line down to 1986's Foundation and Earth, this novel fits in well. In a few short years (1982-1986,) Asimov effectively tied together the majority of his SF works and the spent the final years of his life plugging the holes between the series. And, while The Robots of Dawn served to assist in that process, it is a fine novel that stands on its own.

I would suggest reading the full Asimov series in order, but at the very least, if you enjoy this book, go back and read the other two Lije Baley / Daneel Olivaw mysteries. They demonstrate that, while 25 years may have passed, Asimov knew what he was doing from the word "go."

-- A.D. Jensen