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Summary: Isaac Asimov's crowning achievement in the Robot Series
Review: Asimov delivers the quinticential Robot novel in Robots and Empire. Delving into the robotic souls of the man-mimicing robot R. Daneel Olivaw and the uniquely talented Giskard, Asimov shows us that being human is not a state of being but something far deeper and ultimately more profound. Truly vintage Asimov
Rating: 
Summary: A very good effort from one of the masters
Review: Asimov did not originally plan to tie all the Robot, Empire, and Foundation series together. However, as time went on, that is the direction his novels took, and certain things had to be tied together - e.g. the source of the radioactivity on Earth, the fact that there are no robots in the Empire series, etc. This book is the primary step between the Robot series and the Empire series. The plot surrounds characters familiar to readers of the previous books - the robots Daneel and Giskard, the Spacers Gladia and Amadiro, etc. Elijah Baley, hero of the first three installments, is dead (and has been for 200 year), but he lives on in flashbacks which nicely tie up his life story.The plot itself is characteristic Asimov - a mystery that's far-reaching in its implications (robots apparently disobeying the 1st Law and murdering humans, and conflict between Earth colonists and Spacers) and that takes a number of twists before its resolution. This book is superior to the early Robot (and Empire) books in that it doesn't try to rush from one cliffhanger to the next, instead telling the story in a smooth and controlled manner. I enjoyed the book and its style is easy and fun to read. It is a good sequel in that it would be difficult to read on its own, as it's assumed the reader knows the characters and the general situation in the galaxy (Earth vs. Spacer worlds). However, the details of the previous books are not essential to understanding, so it's easy to pick up after not having read the other books for a long time.
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Summary: The missing link
Review: 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.
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Summary: I book I thoroughly enjoyed.
Review: By the time I got around to this impossible-to-find book, I had fallen in love with the Robot books and the Foundation books. While this is not exactly a tie-in between the two, it shows my all-time favorite character, R. Daneel Olivaw, as a soulful being rather than a metalman, as so many treated him. Though the middle is a bit meandering, the end is touching and leads one easily to the Foundation Novels. I thought the Zeroth Law was an especially nice touch
Rating:
Summary: A good ending to the Robot series
Review: I enjoyed this novel! Elijah Baley is long dead (but reappears a couple times in flashbacks) and the heroes in this novel are Daneel, Giskard, and Gladia. It's not a mystery novel like the previous books, just a straightforward novel about a couple Spacers with an evil plot of great destruction. The second half of the book really keeps you glued to the pages as the heroes eventually outwit their enemies. Sort of... Read it to learn what I mean! The book is a bit shorter than The Robots of Dawn and moves pretty quick. The protagonists cover no less than four worlds (Aurora, Solaria, Baleyworld, Earth) in their attempt to foil their opponents' plans. In the process, Daneel deduces the Zeroeth Law of Robotics! Read the book to find out what it is... I haven't read the later Empire or Foundation books yet (I'm going in chronological order), but it was still obvious to me that at the end of R&E Asimov sets in motion the future of Earth and the Settlers (Earthmen who colonize other systems). The far future is still uncertain as there are two major possible outcomes, one desirable and the other not. But at least we know what's bound to happen in the next few hundred years.
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Summary: Robots and Foundation
Review: I love both robots and Foundation novells. This is the last book of the robot novells preceded by The Caves of Steel, Naked Sun and The Robots of Down and connected to the Foundation novells.
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Summary: Not enough left
Review: I read this book in two nights, and in some respects hated finishing it, because there is no more foundation series or robot series left for me to read ... maybe i'll start all over at the beginning now. THis book si long, and some have said it is TOO long... I don't know that i agree. That is simply Asimov, and if you don't like him, you don't like him. I love his work, and reveled in this book. The conclusion was great. The zeroth law is a fantastic insight that allows for so much more plot development in the later foundation stuff he writes. I still think that Caves of Steel and Naked Sun beat this book out, but that doesn't mean it isn't great. Even gold pales next to a diamond.
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Summary: The End of the Robots
Review: I really like this book. Daneel try to revive the steps of Elijah Baley, and with Giskard and Gladia, he will try stop Amadiro in their madness to destroy the future of Earth. Only these two Robots can save mankind of the extinction: Spacers by the hands of their own laziness and Earthmen by their fanatism for Earth. A great novel.
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Summary: What a great series of books!
Review: It seemed clear to me, as this book concluded the "Robot" series begun by Isaac Asimov with "I,Robot" that a certain well-known space opera movie creator, whose theatrical chapters thus far are not just "far, far away", but involved a similar Empire and robots. But that's what good sci-fi books do...they inspire others to pick up the challenge and run with it in their own direction. This is true with all manner of books: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Childhood's End", "2001", "2010", "Ringworld", all the "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" novels, "Advent of the Corps", and many others.
Rating:
Summary: The best book in the Robot Novels.
Review: It was certainly a great book. I liked the way how Asimov got this book to inter-relate all his novels. The ending of this book provides a good conclusion to the robot series and relates it to the empire novels, thus providing a sort of sequence among Asimovs great novels (ie. the robot, empire & foundation). It also convincingly describes the aftermath of Elijah Baily, which makes the novels more interesting. But I wished Asimov had provided an explanation for the Solarian mystery in the book, because it kind of does not fit in and makes the reader wonder what happened to those humanoid robots. All in all, it was an interesting book.
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