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A review by ztaylor4
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
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.
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.
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.