Storyline: 3/5 
 Characters: 3/5 
 Writing Style: 3/5 
 World: 4/5 
 The good news for fans of The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun is that this is more of the same. This reads much more like it was written only two years after the second Robot volume (as the internal chronology suggests) than the twenty-six years which elapsed in real time. What we have then is a book published in 1983 that reads more like it was published in 1959 (or even earlier). Asimov didn't permit advances in technology and improvement in the literature to alter his conception of the robot future. This does give an internal coherence to the Foundation and Robots series though at the expense of some staleness. Two minor areas he did update are worth recognizing, however; one good and one ill. The impact of television by the 1980s must have impressed Asimov, and he had fun interjecting commentary and descriptions that were enjoyable bits of worldbuilding and social commentary. The second "advance" was in the area of prurience. Asimov was evidently feeling emboldened by the times and felt the need to delve into (as casually as could be affected) masturbation, sex toys, and robot sex. Other mainstream authors such as Heinlein or Nivens would have made this much more explicit, but Asimov's experimentation came off more as a dirty old man opening up about personal fantasies. Most of the book and characters retain a golden age innocence and the contrast with the cavalier interest in eroticism never achieved the casualness that Asimov was aiming for. Otherwise, this was just another robot book. 
 In fact, in many ways this was too similar to The Naked Sun. The basic structure is replicated, the characters are largely the same, and the writing and ideas are largely carried over from earlier in the series. I was pleased, however, by a couple of embellishments. This book was far less concerned with building up the world of Aurora (as was the second of Solaria) and more with understanding Earth and Earthmen. This was a nice touch and well-executed. The second and even more surprising delight to be found was the ending and resolution. I've never thought the closure of Asimov's books to be remarkable, but Asimov worked wonders in the closing pages here and imbued a spirit and connectedness to the novel that had been missing through the bulk of the tale. I didn't particularly enjoy this book for most of the reading, but Asimov saved the best for last, and I'm left with a regarding warmth toward the book and series.