I really enjoyed being able to read all the Susan Calvin stories and that one is a good 'snap' to let the dear lady finally retire. If your spec. Lots to discuss. Not just tech, but character motivations, meaning-of-life, future of men's fashion, etc I could easily stand to read this yet again in a decade or so.
Mar 25, Chris rated it liked it. This includes I, Robot as well as a bunch of other robot stories. All in all it's an enjoyable collection. Does it add much to the experience of reading I, Robot? The other stories are much the same thing in many cases and quite different in others. It's a bit jumpier in flow since it's a heavy collection, but there are some gems included here that really stood out: "The Tercentenary Incident", "Victory Unintentional", and "The Bicentennial Man". Aside from that last story, it doesn't This includes I, Robot as well as a bunch of other robot stories.
Aside from that last story, it doesn't add a whole lot to the robot experience, but it does contain some fun stuff. Also included is "Mirror Image," a story about R. Daneel Olivaw and Elijah Baley, of the Robot novels series. While I did enjoy reading this, I gave it one less star than I, Robot for two reasons. It no longer had the "Mind and Iron" binding narrative that made I, Robot flow smoothly from story to story.
Also, by the end of the book I was honestly tired of robots. May 23, Seth Peters rated it really liked it Shelves: sci-fi. The Bicentennial man is my second favorite Asimov story - The Last Question is my favorite but that's in another book. The rest of this book is still 4 stars though.
These short stories form the basis of contemporary sci-fi dealing with robots. They invariably will reference Asimov in some way or another - or at least not have any ideas that Asimov himself hasn't come up with already in this book. Totally recommend. Jul 14, Tim rated it it was amazing Shelves: science-fiction , short-stories-novellas , favorites , reviewed , own. My first Asimov book and I loved it, from the first till the last story included.
His Foundation Trilogy is still waiting to be read, but as I saw this collection of short stories, I decided to tackle these first. Everything is neatly explained in the foreword and the different introductions t My first Asimov book and I loved it, from the first till the last story included. Everything is neatly explained in the foreword and the different introductions to each segment in this compilation by Mr Asimov himself, topped with a pinch of humour, which I didn't know he had.
The various stories were put together according by theme: Non-human Robots 3 , Metallic Robots 3 , Immobile Robots 6 , Humanoid Robots 3 , Powell and Donovan 4 , Susan Calvin 10 a robot-psychologist - or someone who likes robots more than humans , Two Climaxes 2.
Of course, the Three Laws of Robotics return throughout the book and are crucial in how robots work and interact with mankind: 1: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm; 2: A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law; 3: A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law; About law no.
A robot must therefore be able to distinguish a child from an adult, a police agent from a bank clerk, etc. Asimov tried to show that robots can be used for various kinds of work and tasks, some more specialized than the others.
And that's how they are used today: assembly plants, computers, construction, in hospitals, self-driving cars not fully trustworthy yet, of course , and elsewhere.
We just don't always think about it or simply take it for granted. With all those stories, Asimov offered a broad view on how robots are implemented in our lives, how they can be implemented and how they can become even human-like. And there are human-like robots today, as demonstrated by a. Honda, or in hospitals or geriatric places, to help the elderly. Who doesn't remember the cartoon series ' The Jetsons ' and specifically Rosie, the household robot?
She's also in this book, albeit in a different version. A few stories, one of them being 'The Tercentenary Incident', reminded me of current happenings: A president who has a robot double why?
But the robot gets destroyed during the public event, after which the real president shows up quickly to reassure the public that he's fine. Reminded me, in a way, of the coup in Turkey, the army wanting to overthrow president Erdogan. In another story, 'The Bicentennial Man', Andrew the robot wants to be free, but is still subjected to the Three Laws, which allows for humans to abuse this and get him to do things which are harmful to himself, despite Andrew wanting to become a human being and going at great lengths to obtain his goal, even it means a quick death.
But it also shows how humanity will always have a sly way to abuse others, robots or otherwise. And how people aren't ready yet to fully accept robots as equals, unless perhaps in a certain animal shape. Or, if you want to go extreme: What if - but that's a what if many of us won't experience anymore, I think - robots become so free in thinking and communicating that they stand up against their makers?
Although there's a bit of hard SF, Asimov's writing style is quite accessible here. If you haven't read any Asimov yet or none of his robot stories , this is a fine book to start with, since it contains all of the robot stories, more than in the previous compilations.
This is also a fine work for those interested in the possible happenings in the future of robotics or how every day life could look many years from now. May 10, Thom rated it it was amazing Shelves: anth-coll , with-kids. Daughter loved the Robot stories from I, Robot and wanted more. On research, this book had all the stories up to its publication so we went to it, reading on odd evenings over the last several months.
Even the non-robot stories were fun : My favorite was among the non-robot stories - "Sally" is about cars with positronic brains. More of a tale of robot rights than autonomous vehicles, it is a self-contained story. Another great one was "Robot AL Goes Astray", where a robot designed to mine on the moon accidentally crash lands in a farmer's field in Virginia.
This collection is worth the read, and wikipedia will point out the few Robot stories published after this. We plan to track those down soon. To quote my daughter, "Isaac Asimov is a great writer! Dec 02, Joel rated it liked it Shelves: short-fiction , speculative-fiction , mystery , science-fiction.
Some Nonhuman Robots A Boys best friend - 3. There's something about an author you're not fond of and a page book that's just not that inviting However, I Robot was announced as a group read and, seeing as The Complete Robot contained all of the same stories minus the Dr. Calvin interviews , I figured what better time to pick it up?
I found it a real slog to start with. There's no refuting Asimov's ideas and what he brought to the genre, but I have often found him to be a pretty poor storyteller, particularly when it comes to endings; and this struck mostly true for the first half of the collection, making it a real trial to wade through. There were exceptions of course, as can be gathered from my rating of each story above , and my enjoyment definitely reached a high when I came to the Susan Calvin stories.
Not just because I found her a great character, but because it was at that point that the book became much more than just a collection of short stories.
There was a bigger picture, an overarching story detailing the evolution of robotics and it's gradual acceptance by humanity. The stories were pretty much chronological with recurring characters and this made it a greater joy to read the good stories, and less of a chore in reading the weaker ones. In fact, despite its inconsistency, I feel that reading this collection has birthed in me a stronger desire to read Asimov but not too much. I'll certainly be proceeding with the "Robot" series When I get around to it.
Nov 11, Arnab rated it it was amazing. All stories grip you, and some of the stories are absolutely brilliant and leave a large amount of after thought. Of the ones I enjoyed most are - 1. Victory Unintentional - Hilarious, hope he had written more such humorous stories!
Robbie - One of the masterpieces that get you acquainted with an Asimov robot. Someday - Nice ending. Galley Slave - One academic author, who due to his initial hatred and inability to understand robots, and ignorance, uses a robot incorrectly resulting in a vers All stories grip you, and some of the stories are absolutely brilliant and leave a large amount of after thought.
Galley Slave - One academic author, who due to his initial hatred and inability to understand robots, and ignorance, uses a robot incorrectly resulting in a version of his work being published with absurd modifications, fights for his reputation.
Bicentennial Man - The story, having rid of romantic subplot shown in the movie, is even more fast paced and drives equal or probably even more emotional response. This one is a must read! What a wonderful book. And the end, with "the positronic man", WOW. Apr 28, Laura-Kristiina Valdson rated it it was amazing Shelves: favorites , fiction , isaac-asimov , science-fiction. I read the novelette as a young girl and fell in love with science fiction ever since.
After everything he has contributed and numerous adjustments later, he might get that wish. But only if he lets himself die, as human beings are mortal. Sometimes even more decent than the human characters. His stories usually have a twist or surprising ending that surprises the reader. As such, his stories have a broad scope.
While he loves to play around with the 3 laws of robotics, Asimov certainly has a bigger message to tell with his stories. Aug 18, David Baird rated it really liked it. I read a lot of Asimov's robot short stories in my early teens, but never the novels and neither the Foundation books.
Having discovered that the robot books are a prelude to Foundation I was intrigued to revisit. I have to say that as stories they're a mixed bag. The early ones are not very well written,but do introduce important concepts into the robots' evolutions - rather fable like in many ways.
I found the prose forced and the characters shallow, added to that the early robots were treated I read a lot of Asimov's robot short stories in my early teens, but never the novels and neither the Foundation books. I found the prose forced and the characters shallow, added to that the early robots were treated in an apartheid manner - I'm not sure if this was intentional, or rather a sign if the times when they were written, but they make uncomfortable reading at times.
Over time though, Asimov's writing skill improved and he had rounder characters to work with and by using them over several stories they began to take on lives of their own - Susan Calvin being the most notable, if not the most lovable.
In many ways, the whole book is setting the scene for the final story, The Bicentennial Man. This masterwork of the sci-fi genre surely stirs the emotion of tone that has read it, but takes on further poignancy in this context. It ties up the collection nicely drawing together the philosophical discussion from the preceding tales.
Now onto The Caves of Steel! Mar 25, Sesana rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction. Almost one-stop shopping for all your robots-by-Asimov needs.
Most, but not all, of Asimov's robot and robot-like stories are included here, including all of the stories from I, Robot. I wouldn't suggest reading this instead, of course, because you're missing all of the wonderful bridging narration.
Exciting, for me, and it made reading the book more than worthwhile. I loved i Almost one-stop shopping for all your robots-by-Asimov needs. I loved it, but I would really only recommend it to readers who are completely addicted to Asimov's robots, enough so that they want to read everything. It's too big of a chunk to be an entry into that world. But if you have read and loved the robot books, this is a natural next step. Oct 25, Toomas Tuul rated it it was amazing.
It's a short story collection, each of which would be suitable for a Black Mirroresque episode. True, Asimovs robots are a little bit more lighthearted and don't leave you with a feeling of existential dread.
But every story consists of Asimov trying to find more clever ways of refuting his famous Three Laws of Robotics, and - well - succeeding. It's refreshing to see someone trying so hard to prove themselves wrong. Since the short stories are from throughout Asimovs' life, it's is also an intel It's a short story collection, each of which would be suitable for a Black Mirroresque episode.
Since the short stories are from throughout Asimovs' life, it's is also an intellectual journey through one of the most fertile science-fiction minds of the 20th century. Jan 15, B. Richardson rated it really liked it. This is a collection of Asimov's robot based short stories. What seemed unique to me was that, besides a couple stories very early on, each story here is placed in a sort of loose chronology. As you move further into the book you are also moving further forward in fictional time.
In this way the book, while still m This is a collection of Asimov's robot based short stories. In this way the book, while still maintaining the anthology feel, also seems to be something more. It is more as though you are getting a snapshot from different points on a future historical timeline. If you like classic sci-fi you will probably really like this book. If you don't Aug 30, Cathy rated it really liked it Shelves: science-fiction , read-in , short-stories , ebook-owned.
My dad just discovered Prelude To Foundation , and was excited to discover that Asimov had written books in the series beyond the original trilogy.
I had recently become aware of this as well, but also found many books in the series written by other authors. Because publication date does no correspond with storyline date, I felt overwhelmed. But the into to Prelude includes Asimov's list of the order in which he feels his 14 robot, Empire and Foundation books should be read. The list only lacks F My dad just discovered Prelude To Foundation , and was excited to discover that Asimov had written books in the series beyond the original trilogy.
The list only lacks Forward The Foundation , which came out after Prelude. So now I'm on an Asimov quest, to read the entire list of 15 books in order. My friends all know how much I love a series, after all. I've only read the stories in I, Robot recently and the original Foundation Trilogy many times but not recently at all before, so this should be fun, familiar enough to slip into the mindset easily but still lots of new ideas to discover.
Wish me luck! So on to this book, which Asimov considers to be the first on his list. As it's a book of short stories, I wrote brief reviews as I went along. Sorry it got so long. Don't worry, the rest of the books are novels or stories only.
Here goes: Boy's Best Friend - exactly how I feel about my dogs; it's about loving, not being loved. Sally - do we have the right to create and control? Someday - Life before computers was, "just plain messy. Also if Heinlein named Mike after some of Asimov's computers. True Love - Asimov invented a lot of ideas. The first Match. Robot AL Goes Astray - "jumpin' tooting' blazes, no! Pretty soon no one will know what negatives are.
Just plain good storytelling. Victory Unintentional - lots of interesting chemistry and good story. Good twist! Robbie - includes another Cinderella story. Let's Get Together - Fear causing advancement in science and decency. Predicts NYC as a target. Mirror Images - sequel to Caves and Naked, read after reading the novels.
The Tercentenary Incident - a bit predictable now, but maybe not when it was written. First Law - written as a spoof Runaround - the one about Speedy, a fun exploration of The 3 Rules Reason - A creepy examination of some real world scary people told using robots. Catch That Rabbit - more laws application Liar! Satisfaction Guaranteed - Calvin. Ah, foolish hearts. Takes place in the '90s again, boy are we behind his vision!
Lenny - all of the stories with data entry show physical means of entry, either perforated tape as in this story or some sort of symbols pressed into paper or plastic. No idea yet of electronic means of communication with computers. Galley Slave - science vs. Little Lost Robot - Calvin. I can just see Sonny in the I, Robot movie starring Will Smith, ducking in and out of rows of robots. It's amazing how the movie took isolated ideas from the stories to make one complete tale.
Risk - Calvin. The stories at this point relate more, building on one another and have continuing characters. Robots has interstellar travel, and humanity has the opportunity for galactic empire. Sign up Log in. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.
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DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Loved each and every part of this book. I will definitely recommend this book to science fiction, fiction lovers. Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download.
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