A Tale of Many Cultures

Having finished The Robots of Dawn several days ago, I’d say it’s about time to do a post.

I didn’t really like it as much as the previous two books of the Robot Trilogy for two reasons: 1. I simply didn’t like the plot as much and 2. the exploration of Aurora’s little oddity, just as Earth’s Cities and Solaria’s agoraphobia before it.

Before I get into that, however, you need some background. Elijah has been called to Aurora (Roman goddess of the dawn) and, specifically, the city of Eos (Greek goddess of the dawn). They are named for the two goddesses because Aurora (at first, New Earth) was the first planet (other than Earth, of course) to be settled, and represented the dawning of a new era. Eos is the most populous city on all of the 50 Spacer planets, and even there, large tracts of open land are between each building.

Elijah must clear Dr. Fastolfe’s (the head of the Auroran government, the staunchest supporter of allowing Earth the right to expand into the galaxy, and the creator of the only two robots that look so much like humans [Asimov has a name for these robots, but I don’t remember it]). He has been accused of “killing” the robot Jander, the second such robot to be made (the first being Daneel). If this were to be proven, his political life would crumble, and Earth’s last hope would fade.

He faces opposition in Dr. Amadiro, who resents Fastolfe for withholding the secret of human-like robots from the scientific community.

Along the way, we meet R. Giskard, a more primitive robot that nonetheless proves to be extremely important. He is the only telepathic robot in existence (although this is not unprecedented, as shown in I, Robot). Elijah realizes this at the end of the book, and Giskard allows him to remember it, although he removes any drive to tell someone else.

Daneel plays a relatively small part, although he is elevated in status to Elijah’s genuine friend.

That first part sounded oddly like an advertisement…

If you wish to know the rest of the story, you’ll have to read it! Call 1-817-888-8888 today. And now, we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Hmm, odd.

Now, back to why I didn’t like the book so much. The main reason being, #2 the exploration of Aurora’s oddity, which is polygamy. This made for some rather uncomfortable conversations, and even one less-than-appropriate scene. Ironically, his wife is named Jezebel, while his lover is Gladia. She is also the protagonist (along with Daneel and Giskard) of the next story, though she is largely unsympathetic to my for the above reason.

This seems to run contrary to what I had come to expect from Asimov. He has also written several books on the topic of the Bible, and even used the biblical story of the adulterer that Christ saved from stoning, in Caves of Steel, which seemed to teach Daneel a lesson in humanity, having told the criminal of the story (read the book to see who it is) to “go, and sin no more.” However, it occurs to me that this blog really ought to be kept secular.

In the next story, Robots and Empire (which begins to connect three of his trilogies, Foundation, Robots, and Empire [which I read around 1 ½ years ago, and feel no need to read again]), which is set roughly two centuries farther into the future, Gladia goes to Solaria once again. Daneel Giskard Baley, descendent of Elijah in the 7th degree, has come from Baleyworld (creative name, eh?), one of 20-odd earth settled planets, to investigate occurrences on Solaria.

Solaria has recently been abandoned by the 20,000 that once lived there, though millions of robots have been left behind. It was the last Spacer planet to be settled, and the first to collapse. The Traders of the new planets have attempted to gather these robots to sell to the Spacers (robots are prohibited in the Settlers’ planets, as they believe that they lead to stagnation). When the two ships landed, however, they were quickly destroyed, leading to the questions “why?’ and “by whom?”

Daneel and Giskard consider it very odd that the Spacer worlds were willing to allow the exploration of Solaria, and believe that the Spacers are stalling for time; time to activate a mystery weapon aimed at Earth, potentially destroying both the outward expansion of the Earthmen (which they resent) and the threat of the increasingly powerful Settler worlds.

It’s interesting to note how much an over three-century lifespan would change the pace of history. If an official could reasonably expect to be in office from 1700 (long before the Revolutionary War) until now, where would we be? Personally, I share the Settlers’, and assumedly Asimov’s, opinion that we wouldn’t be too well off. With such a slow inflow of new ideas and perspectives, society would stagnate.

Did I mention that Giskard founded the science of psychohistory?

Hmm, after wondering exactly what it meant for a while, I looked up "biweekly" to find that it can mean both twice a week and once every two weeks; I plan to update that column twice weekly.