Robots and Empire

Elijah Baley has been dead for nearly two centuries. In that time Earth's people have lost their fear of open spaces and spread to new worlds by faster-than-light travel. They call themselves Settlers and honour Earth as the mother planet. The Spacers, long-lived people of fifty older worlds, still look down on them and still rely on robots.

On Aurora, Gladia Delmarre, who knew Baley in life, receives a bequest from the roboticist Han Fastolfe: his two robots, R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov. Only Daneel knows that Giskard has a secret ability.

A descendant of Baley asks Gladia to help investigate Solaria, a planet now empty. The three travel there together. Meanwhile Fastolfe's rival Kelden Amadiro and his ambitious apprentice Levular Mandamus work on a plan that threatens Earth itself.

The First Law of Robotics stops Daneel and Giskard from acting directly against a human being. Their search for a way past that limit leads to an idea that reshapes the Three Laws and the future of humanity.

This fourth Robot novel, published in 1985, ties the robot stories to the Galactic Empire and Foundation future history. It leans less on detection than the earlier books, moving between worlds and cutting present action with flashbacks, much as the Foundation books do. Readers who have followed the series through The Robots of Dawn will find the connection to the wider future history here.