Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

More of a 3.5 stars, really.

I had to balance this one in my head as a re-read from long ago, my impression of humanity's exodus into the stars, my enjoyment of Asimov in general, against a tale compared against all of SF in general.

As a friend points out regularly, one cannot judge a book on ideas alone, even if I do appreciate Asimov for his clarity and ideas. The story, the full novel, is, frankly, kinda boring. At least, I was bored.

On the other hand, I did enjoy getting a full tour of the spacer worlds, getting to know so many kinds of people, and I really enjoyed the discussions between the two awesome robots even if I didn't care all that much about the humans. It still wasn't enough to carry the full tale.

BUT. This is a necessary book for the grand future history that Asimov wrote, from Robots, to Empire, to Foundation, to beyond. I'm willing to ignore the usual complaints as long as it forwards the foundation. :)

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