I, Robot

Customer Reviews

NOT a novel

This is a collection of Asimov short stories written over the ten year period between 1940 & 1950, and then collected together, abridged, and given a thin narrative to tie them all together. Read "The Complete Robot" instead.

Robot Review

I,Robot by Isaac Asimov is the first book in the Robot Series.

I have found that this book is almost always labeled as a collection of short stories about robots. This is a sad misconception in my opinion. The novel is written from the point of view of Dr. Susan Calvin, a "Robosychologis" for U.S. Robotics who is being interviewed by a young reporter. The "collection of stories" is actually her accounts of several problems concerning the development of new robots throughout her carrier.

I found the book quite enjoyable. Like most of his works, Asimov poses problems and then walks the reader through the solution. In many ways I would say this book follows much of the same form as the first book of the original foundation trilogy. The only downside I found was a lack of character development and action. Like other works I have read by Asimov, he is more concerned with the logic and science behind his writing than any amount of story telling. Therefore, he leaves out a lot of information about the characters in his books. For one, the identity of the interviewer is never revealed to the reader so he is merely used to link the stories together. Personal information about most of the other characters is quite sparse as well. As far as action goes, he seems to enjoy telling stories with least amount of this actually occurring as possible. Most of the book is spent explaining and working through problems, through dialog or experiments. In short, his characters pose a problem they are dealing with, gather information, run tests and experiments, discuss everything in great detail and then present their solution. This could be tedious and boring to some readers but all in all I would still suggest this book for those who are ready for something stimulating to read.

What's that I smell? It's the garbage that is I, Robot.

OK, for the life of me, I cannot understand how Asimov has come to be revered as a great of science fiction. The dialog in this book is so overly simplistic one would think it's targeted for a grade school student. (Hmmm...On second thought, that's an insult to all grade-schoolers out there.) Characters are predictably dramatic, and the plots (yes, plots...this is a series of short stories, not a novel) definitely cross the line (and make leaps and bounds into the land) of ludicrousness. Case in point: The robot that reads minds, and has a conversation with a roboticist about the fact that she's in love with another roboticist. (Are you serious here, Izzy?!!!)

In short, don't buy this garbage. Opt for any of Arthur C. Clarke's books instead. (Childhood's End, for example, would be an excellent alternative.)