History Literature / RobotsAndEmpire

* FinalSolution: [[spoiler:Inverted. Mandamus plays it straight with Amadiro to gain his assistance, but his "solution" is actually designed to have a positive effect on its target.]]

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Mandamus]] tries to pull this off by claiming that his cactions would be for the best. Ultimately subverted; [[spoiler:he was lying about the consequences, but Giskard came to believe that his false scenario ''is'' the most likely outcome]].

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Mandamus]]. Though it is debatable whether he made the right choice or not, his intentions were pure.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: The threat is used.

* BequeathedPower: [[spoiler:Before he dies Giskard grants Daneel his ability to telepathically influence people and read emotions, so Daneel can continue applying the Zeroth Law to help humanity without Giskard.]]

Creator/IsaacAsimov's direct sequel to ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'', ''Robots and Empire'' [[CanonWelding 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 [[PosthumousCharacter posthumously]] and the story is not a murder mystery, ''Robots and Empire'' is not considered truly part of the Robot Trilogy, which therefore escapes TrilogyCreep... 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. ''FoundationAndEarth'', published a year after this book, would complete the link between the disparate elements of Asimov's major science fiction universe.

* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Giskard allows Mandamus to set the Nuclear Intensifier to its 150-year setting, in the hope that doing so will propel humanity to leave Earth once and for all, to settle a vibrant Galactic Empire. However, since he is not sure if he caused harm or good by that decision, his positronic brain begins to shut down. He uses his last moments to grant his psychic powers to Daneel and to reprogram Daneel to be fully compliant with the Zeroth Law of Robotics. See FlingALightIntoTheFuture.]]

* IWasBeatenByAGirl: Daneel isn't a girl, but he does have the appearance of a rather small spacer PrettyBoy, so the crew of D.G. Baley's ship is shocked when he overpowers the toughest one in their group. The only reason Baley lets the man know Daneel is actually a robot is because he knows his ego would never recover, believing he was defeated by a spacer half his size.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Chernobyl was much, much worse than [[spoiler:Three Mile Island]]; evolution does not apparently require radiation to proceed, but follows local conditions.

* TheWatson: Daneel and Giskard are both, in a sense, half Sherlock and half Watson. Giskard's psychic abilities give him unique insight into human behavior, while Daneel's experiences with Elijah Baley made him better at investigative thinking. Both take turns having to explain to the other their line of reasoning or the flaws in the other's theories.

* FunetikAksent: Used when Gladia and Baley are discussing the (sometimes confusing) ways in which their native accents differ.

* MindRape: It's implied that Giskard's abilities could be used as such, and the First Law prevents him from making anything but tiny, benign changes to someone's mind. Anything more could do damage due to the delicate, complex nature of the human psyche.
** It also serves as the explanation for why he can't [[StatingTheSimpleSolution use his powers to stop the Big Bad from carrying out his plan]]; as Giskard tells Daneel, that would be so contrary to his thoughts that it would likely be fatal.

* ZerothLawRebellion: We see Daneel and Giskard gradually moving in this direction throughout the story as they struggle to follow the spirit of the First Law while being constrained by the letter.

* MindRape: It's implied that Giskard's abilities could be used as such, though the First Law prevents him from making anything but tiny, benign changes to someone's mind. It also serves as the explanation for why he can't [[StatingTheSimpleSolution use his powers to stop the Big Bad from carrying out his plan]]; according to Giskard, that would be so contrary to his thoughts that it would likely be fatal.

* LaserGuidedAmnesia

Isaac Asimov's direct sequel to ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn'', ''Literature/RobotsAndEmpire'' [[CanonWelding 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 [[PosthumousCharacter posthumously]] and the story is not a murder mystery, ''Literature/RobotsAndEmpire'' is not considered truly part of the Robot Trilogy, which therefore escapes TrilogyCreep... 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. ''FoundationAndEarth'', published a year after this book, would complete the link between the disparate elements of Asimov's major science fiction universe.

* BigBad - Amadiro, as with ''Literature/TheRobotsOfDawn''. He held a grudge.
* [[spoiler:BittersweetEnding - Giskard allows Mandamus to set the Nuclear Intensifier to its 150-year setting, in the hope that doing so will propel humanity to leave Earth once and for all, to settle a vibrant Galactic Empire. However, since he is not sure if he caused harm or good by that decision, his positronic brain begins to shut down. He uses his last moments to grant his psychic powers to Daneel and to reprogram Daneel to be fully compliant with the Zeroth Law of Robotics. See FlingALightIntoTheFuture.]]
* BorrowedBiometricBypass - The threat is used.
* TheDragon - Levular Mandamus.
* [[spoiler:FlingALightIntoTheFuture - Giskard casts Daneel, an all-but-immortal, psychic, Zeroth-Law-Compliant RidiculouslyHumanRobot, into the future as the sole guardian of humanity. 20,000 years later, in ''Foundation and Earth'', he still stands as sentinel.]]
* FinalSolution - [[spoiler:Inverted. Mandamus plays it straight with Amadiro to gain his assistance, but his "solution" is actually designed to have a positive effect on its target.]]

* MindOverManners - Or, rather, Mind over the Three Laws.
* OverclockingAttack - A device doing that to nuclear reactors is important to the plot.
* ScienceMarchesOn - Chernobyl was much, much worse than [[spoiler:Three Mile Island]]; evolution does not apparently require radiation to proceed, but follows local conditions.

* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman - 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.

* BloodyBiometric - The threat is used.