By far the best in the Empire series, yet still a little lackluster. I would have enjoyed hearing about more than three planets with a focus on only one in a book about an empire encompassing the entire galaxy.

The standard Asimov ruductionism is at play throughout, but at least here some of the characters actually fail to deduce reality correctly, and are consequently puzzled by the missing facts. This has seldom happened in the Asimov I've read so far - it seems that if you use logic and are intelligent then absolutely everything can be deduced by the wind and a toothpick in the Empire.

The obligatory romance has again aged terribly. But this should be of no suprise if you've read the first two books in the series.

Story wise, it was quite fine. I think the whole time travel idea didn't need to happen. That character could have been from the present, with a different demeanor and the whole thing would have turned out the same, and not leave unexplained questions about time travel.