Aurora

Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery #3

by Mark W. Tiedemann

The Third Law of Robotics states that a robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. After the diplomatic failures of the Spacer mission on Earth, Ambassador Ariel Burgess and roboticist Derec Avery are recalled to their home planet, Aurora. Their situation only worsens when they arrive, as they become suspects in another murder--one that could only have been committed by a non-human. On a world with a 20-to-1 robot-to-human population, is it possible a robot could have violated the Three Laws governing its behavior--and if so, why? Or is something far more sinister at work?

Genres: Science Fiction, Robots

432 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Also credited as Mark Tiedemann and M. William Tiedemann.

Mark W. Tiedemann has published twelve novels---three in the Asimov's Robot Universe series, /Mirage, Chimera /and/ Aurora/---three in his own Secantis Sequence, /Compass Reach, Metal of Night, /and /Peace & Memory/---as well as stand-alones /Realtime, Hour of the Wolf/ (a Terminator novel), and /Remains/, plus /Of Stars & Shadows/, one of the Yard Dog Doubledog series, Logic of Departure, and the historical novel Granger's Crossing. As well, he has published over seventy-five short stories, all this between 1990 and 2023. /Compass Reach/ was shortlisted for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and /Remains /was shortlisted for the James Tiptree Jr. Award in 2006.

For five years he served as president of the Missouri Center for the Book (http://books.missouri.org) from which position he has recently stepped down. He is now concentrating on writing new novels, a few short stories, and stirring a little chaos in the blogosphere at DangerousIntersection.org and his own blog at MarkTiedemann.com

Oh, he still does a little photography and has started dabbling in art again after a long hiatus.

Reviews

[Jeffrey Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though the title is misleading (our inexperienced librarian filed it under author=Asimov), the plot is standard science fiction, a nicely written page-turner. Yes, the author makes some use of Asimov's Three Rules of Robotics and the subtle variants that can result after living with the Rules for a thousand years. But the main attraction to the book is the vivid scenery of an unusual dystopian planet and characters who bumble through their quests for liberation. I wanted to read more, but the last chapter seemed to be an quick effort to wrap up and be done with it.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although Tiedemann's writing doesn't feel at all like Asimov's, this book (more than Chimera or Mirage) feels like it's set in Asimov's universe. I especially appreciated the way that some of the plot elements helped to tie together pieces that came before or after. Once again, the robots are perhaps most important.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the climax to the Robot Mystery series,* the first two installments of which (Mirage and Chimera) were OK but didn't wow me, this was a surprisingly enjoyable and exciting story, though it must be said you really need to have read the two prequels in order to have any sense of what's going on. As with the other two books, it's set at that time in Asimov's future history when three factions are having increased friction with each other over policy, technology, and philosophy: high-population but ever more inward looking Earth, the Fifty Worlds (aka the Spacers) which were the first ones colonized centuries ago and which embrace all forms of robotics, and the Settler worlds, which have only been recently settled in a second wave and which, by and large, eschew robots.

The two prequels tell the story of a conspiracy to get Earth to reverse its progress toward greater acceptance of robots and artificial intelligence. It's a complicated tale that I won't go into here, but it culminates in Aurora with some final shocking discoveries on the blockaded world of Nova Levis. The usual characters are involved: Auroran Ambassador Ariel Burgess, roboticist Derec Avery, and Earth investigator Coren Lanra.

What I liked best about Aurora compared to the other two books was its greater use of "real sci-fi" locations, like the Spacer planet Aurora itself, or the forbidden world of Nova Levis and and its capital, Nova City. This book has a much grittier feel, with alien environments and creatures, criminals, gunfights, and [SPOILER ALERT] the loss of a favorite character or two.

Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of the book was the reappearance of one of the truly most terrifying antagonists in all of sci-fi, Jerem Looms, aka Gamelin. I'll leave it at that.

*EDIT: Or so I thought until I started reading Have Robot Will Travel by Alexander C. Irvine.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid close for a solid trilogy. Good page turners all three, and interesting ideas treating the reader's intelligence with respect; it isn't shy to devote lots of time to exposition that requires to engage the brain. If you read and enjoyed the two previous books, it's a no-brainer to continue.

[*SPOILERS*]

This book however suffers a bit more from some very far-fetched developments that strain credulity. Masid being let in in the inner circle and given a weapon (!) after so little interaction, for example. In general, the final act in the ship requires a lot of not stopping to think. Then, the epilogue hardly makes any sense with the background we are given.

Even so, those are minor nitpicks in a solid book.

Also the unnecessary killing-off of Lanra, at least as depicted... I didn't like it.

[Joseph F McLean]

a good detective story, fit into the Asimov world

[Martyn Lovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This third in a trilogy (with Mirage and Chimera) concludes Tiedemann's exploration of the Asimov Robot/Foundation universe.

This book is quite different from the first two. While there is still a locked room mystery contained within, Tiedemann finally gets to tying up many of the threads from the first two books. Stylistically this feels more like the first book, but this one is more interesting as more plot threads are running at once and many more issues are resolved.

Taking the action off-planet changes the setting a bit, but the nature of the other world isn't explored too much. The action is more fast paced, but there is still plenty of time dedicated to exploring the larger themes of the trilogy, which was enjoyable.

Several of the key elements get satisfying resolution at the end, though a surprising number do not - evidently Tiedemann isn't happy unless he's leaving us to wonder about some key issues he raises.

This was the most enjoyable to read of the trilogy, and made the whole thing worthwhile. Definitely not a book to read without the other two.

[Jeremiah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was so much going on in this book that nothing really ever happened. 4 separate story lines were completely pointless in my opinion. It seems as if there was an epic adventure planned, but we just get the boring outline in this book.
Coren & Hofton's story on Earth served virtually no purpose. Derec & Avery's stories were boring and irrelevant even though thy are supposed to be main characters. (I'm still not sure why they were used instead of bringing in new ones...) Mia & Masid's stories also had no meaning until the very last chapter. If this had been written as a one or two chapter short story, it might have been good.
I swear that this author just randomly sticks letters together to come up with names. I didn't think he could top the ones he came up with in Chimera for stupidity, but he did.

[Luc Pro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story as usual