Aurora

The largest and strongest of the fifty Spacer worlds established centuries ago by explorers from Earth, Aurora has not seen a visitor from Earth since that first generation until protagonist Elijah Baley is invited to investigate a case of roboticide that is disturbing the political scene. Like all Spacer worlds, Aurora has a mighty fear of Earth's diseases being introduced to its germ-free environment. Baley studies Aurora's history and culture en route to the planet, using book-films that he considers adolescent. Human colonists encounter few indigenous species and establish their own domestic plants and animals. Initially they call the planet New Earth but eventually rename it for the Roman goddess of dawn.

Inhabitants of the World of Dawn forget their Earth-born heritage. Major factors include: 1) the integration of and dependence on ever more complex robots into society; and 2) a vast elongation of the human life span to...