Book Review: Robots and Empire

This is probably the saddest Asimov novel I have read till now. For the first time, he explores the robot psyche thoroughly and though we know that robots don’t feel emotions the way we do, we become certain that they do feel.

The two robots Daneel Olivaw and Giskard who were introduced in “The Robots of Dawn” are the heroes of the book and this is the first in which we hear about the “Zeroth law of Robotics.” The concept was discovered by Daneel since he thought most like a human and was fleshed out in the conversations the two robots managed to have with each other while the humans were unaware of it.

The first moving scene was when Daneel requests his memory not be tampered with as there was a risk of losing that part relating to his long dead friend Elijah Baley whom he always called “Partner Elijah”. I found this friendship between a robot and a human remarkably stirring. Daneel was also the last person to see Elijah alive just before he died of old age.

The relationship between Daneel and Giskard was another highlight of the book – a relationship which becomes closer as the story goes on. The books ends in a very sad manner.

And finally, we see the attraction and reverence that settlers on other planets feel for Earth – the mother planet. Certainly no other place is like it, and we’re introduced to an interesting reason as to why Earth holds such variety of life compared to other planets.

The story also ties in with a lot of others earlier in the Foundation Series and explains a lot of things which were mysteries at that time – specifically about how Earth came to be radioactive. This is quite a tragedy since we the readers are also Earth people and don’t want to see our home planet come to harm. But it happens nevertheless.

If  “Foundation’s Edge” was the most thrilling of Asimov’s novels, “Robots and Empire” is the one filled with the most pathos. A critical book of the series and one that pushes up my already high regard for Asimov.