The Robots of Dawn

I consider myself an Asimov fan, and I recognize that he's generally an author you come to looking for great ideas more than great characters. Having said that, this book really didn't work for me on any level. I consistently found it contrived and long-winded. If you cut out all of the references to the design and use of "personals" (i.e., bathrooms), as well as the...more

I consider myself an Asimov fan, and I recognize that he's generally an author you come to looking for great ideas more than great characters. Having said that, this book really didn't work for me on any level. I consistently found it contrived and long-winded. If you cut out all of the references to the design and use of "personals" (i.e., bathrooms), as well as the almost comically bad sex and clueless ruminations thereon, you would have a significantly shorter and moderately better novel. As I was reading the second half of this book I couldn't get out of my head the notion that Asimov had written an 84 point outline of the plot, and then turned the project over to a robot with the assignment to write a chapter on each. At least there were a couple of scenes that left me chuckling thinking about the possibilities of a Daneel/Elijah slash treatment. This was my 27th science fiction book read in 2008; it left me feeling that maybe a little genre break would be in order.   hide