Robots and Empire

Isaac Asimov's direct sequel to The Robots of Dawn, Robots and Empire bridges the Robot Trilogy with the chronologically later Empire and Foundation novels. 200 years after the death of the protagonist of the Robot Trilogy, Elijah "Lije" Baley, the balance of power has begun to shift back toward the humans of Earth, who have begun settling new worlds thanks to his efforts. The Spacers, descendants of the first wave of space colonists, are troubled by the apparent extinction of human life on Solaria, the latest- and most sparsely-settled of the Spacer worlds. Gladia "Solaria" Delmarre, Elijah's onetime lover and the only Solarian ever to emigrate, is sent along with one of Elijah's descendents, and her loyal robot servants R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Relentlov, to investigate. What they find there leads the real protagonists, Daneel and Giskard, to investigate a conspiracy with implications for human life on Earth and throughout the galaxy.

Because Elijah is only present posthumously and the story is not a murder mystery, Robots and Empire is not considered truly part of the Robot Trilogy, which therefore escapes Trilogy Creep... barely. Nonetheless, three of the four main characters debuted in that series (one in each book, coincidentally) and the setting is very much informed by the events of that series. Foundation And Earth, published a year after this book, would complete the link between the disparate elements of Asimov's major science fiction universe.

Tropes present include:

 * Asexual Life Partners: Daneel and Giskard.
 * Big Bad - Amadiro, as with The Robots of Dawn. He held a grudge.
 * Borrowed Biometric Bypass - The threat is used.
 * The Dragon - Levular Mandamus.
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia
 * Mind Over Manners - Or, rather, Mind over the Three Laws.
 * Overclocking Attack - A device doing that to nuclear reactors is important to the plot.
 * Science Marches On - Chernobyl was much, much worse than ; evolution does not apparently require radiation to proceed, but follows local conditions.
 * Title Drop
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Solarian Overseers. Later, Amadiro tries to use it to argue that Earthmen aren't human... only to be told that Solaria sets a bad precedent.
 * Title Drop
 * What Measure Is a Non-Human? - Solarian Overseers. Later, Amadiro tries to use it to argue that Earthmen aren't human... only to be told that Solaria sets a bad precedent.