Isaac Asimov himself noted that his most famous Foundation series finds its essential roots in the Robot books of the past. In his Introduction to Prelude to Foundation, he listed those books in order–and at the end of this post, I’ve also organized them based upon their fictional start dates in Earth Years. Perhaps only the nerdiest of nerds is interested in a list like that, but it keeps me grounded when I read, so I’m sure someone out there will appreciate it.

Robots and Empire: The Story

This fifth book follows closely on the tails of the previous three Bailey books, and R. Daneel Olivay is a holdover from those novels, even though Lije Baley himself is long since dead. Baley’s one-time love interest, Gladia of Solaria, is still alive and kicking 160 years later, so there’s enough overlap to keep me my interest alive.

In this tale, descendants of Gladia and Lije (the surprising results from a one-night-in-orbit rendezvous that we knew nothing about) approach this ancient, beautiful woman about Solaria and the possibility that unknown folks are intentionally killing settlers whenever they land upon the planet. Thus, one descendant, Daneel Giskard, takes Gladia back to Solaria to investigate—though her only real protection is her memory of the place and her ability to speak the language intelligibly. Gladia hopes to prevent war and to see that the Spacers (humans dwelling on other planets) and the Settlers (newbies to a planet) can live in peace. She discovers, however, that it’s not really a human-to-human problem but rather something a bit more sinister.

Robots and Empire: Moving the Story Forward

While this book was far less gripping than the other Baley (or rather, Daneel) novels in the series, it did move the story along a bit further. I’m honestly still unsure about the overall plot of the later Foundation books, though my guess right now is that the robots will become such perfect humanoids that they’ll be indistinguishable from true humans and will ultimately have a desire to take over the universe for themselves.

While I genuinely don’t know the coming plots, the above paragraph is my guess, and here’s one reason why. At one point in Chapter 15, Giskard and R. Daneel (both robots) admit to each other the temptation to view each other as human, at least momentarily and long enough to weaken the First and Second Laws. This is huge, because if the Three Laws of Robotics can be bent, then perhaps they too can be broken.  Time will have to tell if this is the case or not! In fact, Daneel even says this in Chapter 14:

There is a law that is greater than the First Law: ‘A robot may not injure humanity or, through inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.’ I think of it now as the Zeroth Law of Robotics. The First Law should then be stated: ‘A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm, unless this would violate the Zeroth Law of Robotics.’

The difference between his Zeroth Law to the First Law is the word “humanity” vs. “human.” This seemingly insignificant adjustment is huge, as it would allow a robot the right to harm a single human being if (in his machine’s estimation) doing so would help save the larger humanity. It’s quite a shift, and it will be interesting to see if it plays out to the Robots’ advantage in the future!

Robots and Empire: A Good Perspective on Language

One line in the middle of the book really stood out to me. As an amateur linguist myself, I really liked what Gladia says when discussing the Auraran dialect in Chapter 9:

Every dialect is amusing—or peculiar—to those who are not accustomed to it and it tends to mark off human beings into separate—and frequently mutually unfriendly—groups. Dialects, however, are only languages of the tongue. Instead of those, you and I and every other human being on every inhabited world should listen to the language of the heart and there are no dialects to that. That language—if we will only listen—rings out the same in all of us.

It’s a new and opposite take on the concept of  “heart language,” and I think I like this perspective better, “The language of the heart” is really nothing more than “Truth,” something that rings in everyone—that is, until they suppress it.

Conclusion

This wasn’t my favorite book in the series, but that’s just part of the territory when it comes to series. At least it wasn’t as lewd as its predecessor, Robots of Dawn. The next book, The Stars Like Dust, is supposed to take place 1200 years later, so it’ll be interesting to see if there are any recurring characters and what wild changes the universe experiences in that time.

©2024 E.T.

Read More from Isaac Asimov:

• The Extended Foundation Series:
  1. The Complete Robot (1982) [A.D. 1995]
  2. The Caves of Steel (1954) [A.D. 3421]
  3. The Naked Sun (1957) [A.D. 3422]
  4. The Robots of Dawn (1983) [A.D. 3424]
  5. Robots and Empire (1985) [A.D. 3630]
  6. The Stars Like Dust (1951) [A.D. 4850]
  7. The Currents of Space (1952) [A.D. 11129]
  8. Pebble in the Sky (1955) [A.D. 12411 or 827 G.E.]
  9. Prelude to Foundation (1988) [12020 G.E.]
  10. Forward the Foundation (1993) [12038 G.E.]
  11. Foundation (1951) [12067 G.E.]
  12. Foundation and Empire (1952) [13800 G.E.]
  13. Second Foundation (1953) [13850 G.E.]
  14. Foundation’s Edge (1982) [14200 G.E. or 498 F.E.]
  15. Foundation and Earth (1986) [14200 G.E. or 498 F.E.]
• Short Story Collections:
  I, Robot (1950)
  Buy Jupiter (1975)
  Gold (1995)
  Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots (1964)
• Other Novels:
  Fantastic Voyage (1966)