Our favourite detective duo, Daneel and Elijah, are back at it.

This time it’s off to the planet Aurora, where there’s a murder to solve: the murder of a humanoid robot.

Into the mix we have a second robot, Giskard, who isn’t all he seems to be.

And unlike Elijah’s trip to Solaria, on Aurora he is going to have to go outside a lot: scary!!!

Adding to the pressure of the investigation on Elijah is that Earth will only be given Spacer help in moving out to new planets if he solves it in the short time he has.   If he doesn’t his life on Earth will be ruined because Earth is expecting him to get it the help it desperately needs.

A really enjoyable cast of characters, including a couple of old friends, one from Spacetown and one from Solaria.

Really well written and totally enjoyable all the way through.

Next up is Robots and Empire

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This is in the collections, The Complete Robot and Robot Visions.

Daneel is passing near Earth when the spaceship he is on has a legal issue with two passengers, so he stops in at Elijah’s office to get some help resolving the situation.

Admittedly, you already know which mathematician is lying long before the big reveal, but you read it anyway just coz you want to see how Elijah comes to the same conclusion.

All in all, a nice little novella to bridge the gap between The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn.

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Plainclothesman Elijah Baley is called to Washington, where he’s told he’s being reassigned, reassigned to a murder investigation on a Spacer world known as Solaria.

The Spacers have asked for Elijah because Solaria, having no crime ever and therefore no police force, have no idea how to go about investigating a murder.

As he arrives on Solaria he is informed that his partner will be waiting for him, which turns out to be R. Daneel Olivaw.   And so our dynamic duo are thrown once again into searching for clues to solve the mystery.

Once again, there’s two really good aspects to this story, one being the murder investigation and the other being our exploration of Solarian society.

I have to admit, that being a devoted introvert i much prefer this society to the one in The Caves of Steel.   I think i could quite enjoy living on my own massive chunk of planet with countless robots to fulfil my every need.

Another page turner that just seemed to fly by.

Next up is Mirror Image.

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We pick up many years after our last story.   The Spacers have forced an embassy on Earth, Spacetown, and an uneasy truce is in place until, one morning, someone murders a Spacer Ambassador.

And so one of New York’s finest, Plainclothesman Elijah Baley, is assigned to the case.   And then he finds out that his partner will be a Spacer Robot, R. Daneel Olivaw.

As the assignment progresses we are introduced to a dystopian New York of the future, which is just one of countless mega cities around the planet.

So there’s two really good things about this story, one is the dystopian future city life that we get to learn about and explore with our protagonists, and then there’s the assignment itself and the race against time to hand over the murderer to the all powerful Spacers.

Super enjoyable, a real page turner.

Next up is The Naked Sun.

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It’s in the collection, The Early Asimov.   Don’t spend a lot of money on it because you should be able to find a copy of this novella on it’s own around the internet somewhere.

After all the robot stories, we skip forward many years until humans have colonised lots of far flung systems.

Earth is overcrowded and under resourced so many people are wanting to go to the new frontiers, but the frontier has banned all immigration and won’t accept any more people from Earth.

But someone on Earth has a plan, the “Pacific Project”.

Another good story.

Next up is The Caves of Steel

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You can find this in Gold.

A single child family gets a sibling child-robot to hopefully tame down their unruly human child.

And things take an unexpected turn.

A good little story exploring the differences between feelings towards a real human child and a robot child, especially when one considers the behaviour of both towards their mother.

Next up is The Positronic Man.

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You can find this in Gold.

An author has a robot that expresses a desire to become a writer.   So the author gets several upgrades done to the robot in order for it to write stories.

With a good little twist at the end.

Next book is Kid Brother.

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You can find this in Robot Visions.

A bit far fetched, with Isaac rewriting the Fantastic Voyage but using a robot to cure cancer instead.

Does the cure work?

Can it be done again?

Or is it all just “too bad”.

Read it and find out.

Moving on, next up it’s Cal.

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You can find this in Robot Dreams.

This is a throw back story with Susan Calvin back at work.   Not sure where it’s supposed to fit in the general timeline of things though, so i’ll just leave it where it is.

A robot is having strange dreams and Susan is called in to consider what to do about it.

Another good little story.

And the next story will be Too Bad.

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