Reviews

The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov

vighneshgawad's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective

5.0

saturniidae's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mawzer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

connor1736's review against another edition

4.0

I feel like all of my reviews essentially say "the first half sucked but the rest was good," but this book was particularly bad. Nothing interesting happened in the first 100 pages. I learned almost nothing about Aurora (the planet where the story takes place) and the characters basically just whined about how impossible their task was. I feel like half the worldbuilding went toward describing how Auroran bathrooms work.

Then, suddenly, the story gets real crazy real quick and I was hooked. Compared to the first two robot books, this one does a much better job of revealing things gradually, rather than dropping everything at the end. Even so, the ending was the best of any book I've read this year. I will definitely have to re-read this book some time with the knowledge I now have.

softasapanda's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

hrisbooks_'s review against another edition

2.0

Roboty z planety świtu mają wiele trigger warnings i nie podobały mi się — byłam ciekawa kto zabił ale za dużo w fabule było s3k$ualnych wstawek, zupełnie niepotrzebnych wg mnie dla samej intrygi;
— te kwestie związane są ze skrzywieniami, autor rozkłada je na czynniki pierwsze i głównie skupił się na kobietach — wyziera od nich taka frustracja, że rzucają się na wszystko co popadnie: roboty, córka robi awanse ojcu czy Baileyowi i kulturowo na Aurorze to czynienie awansów Ziemianinowi jest najgorsze

blissful_day's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective

5.0

sylum's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

asimov's review against another edition

inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

ztaylor4's review against another edition

3.0

I loved the first two Lije Baley / Daneel Olivaw pair-ups (Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun), but this book is far weaker than those two.

Spoiler

The story would have been a lot stronger if Asimov had cut the free love proselytizing and weird obsession with off-world bathroom habits, and then significantly trimmed the bits about Baley's crippling agoraphobia. Asimov's clumsy world-uniting with the material of the Foundation series reminded me of the way that the weaker Foundation novels introduced Robot material.

At some points, the detective pair-up was as satisfying as in the previous books, but Lije's repeated insistence that he was just making low-chance guesses because he had nothing to lose (and was invariably correct) sometimes felt undeserved, as did Asimov's approach of frequently reducing Daneel from the able police detective of the first books to semi-intelligent window dressing in this one.