R. Daneel Olivaw

R. Daneel Olivaw. The R stands for robot, but he is made to look and act human, and has been endowed with the best qualities of a human. He gets his start as partner to detective Elijah Bailey. He had a tendency to pop up in books unexpectedly. He is probably my favorite Asimov character. I hope I am remembering and spelling these things correctly. It has been a few years since I read these books.

Daneel Olivaw actually comes up in lots and lots of Asimov's novels. In fact all of Asimov's books have this Foundation theme behind them and it is possible to read all of them as a kind of Galactic History.

Something like Pebble in the Sky would just chronicle a short unimportant incident in this History whereas a book like Second Foundation would talk about a big really important even in the series. However both of them would fit into the framework even though conventionally only Second Foundation is counted as part of the Foundation series. And Daneel with his links to Hari Seldon and with his role as the guardian angel of the Foundation is probably the single most important character here.

The books following the story arc begun in the Susan Calvin stories and ending in the Foundation Books feature Daneel as the only character appearing in each era. The entire story arc including such books as The Caves of Steel, Pebble in the Sky and Second Foundation are refered to as Isaac Asimov's Galactic Saga or Future History. They take up about a yard of well used, much read shelf space.