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Summary: Reading The I ,Robot Book
Review: "I, Robot" was originally the title of a story by Eando Binder (actually two brothers "E"nest and "O"tto) about their recurring hero robot, Adam Link, in the mid 1930s. Because Adam was treated sympathetically, a young Isaac Asimov, who hated stories about robots always turning on their makers, was inspired to write his own stories about sympathetic robots and the people who use them, starting with "Robbie" in 1939 (originally published in a magazine that year as "Strange Playfello"), and continuing throughout the '40s. In 1950, they were published in book form with a frame story told from the point of view of an unnamed reporter doing a story about the soon-to-retire great scientist, Dr. Susan Calvin, with the stories attributed to this reporter. The title of this book is "I, Robot" which was stolen by the unscrupulous original editor of the book, Martin Greenberg of Gnome Press. Probably because this book is more famous than the Eando Binder story, it has always had that title. These stories are classics of written science fiction because they are fun to read and they changed readers' perceptions of what robots and stories about them could be. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (an almost inextricable part of their programming and hardware) make the scientist ethical and make it impossible to make or robots into or use them as weapons, but provide alot of endless quirks and bugs that the human characters (one of whom shares my first and last name) have quite a run for their money trying to fix. The stories have also been influencial to real-life computer programmers, engineers, and roboticists. The first mention of the Three Laws is also the first time the word "robotics" appears in print, making Asimov the coiner of the term.
I refuse to see the movie of the same title because I can tell from the promos that it is nothing like the book in either plot or spirit. I am so offended and hurt by the fact that this movie has been made and proven popular, I can't tell you. Why would Asimov's widow and daughter allow this to happen? People who see the movie are mostly going only because of Will Smith and the special effects. It probably wouldn't have been made without Smith or some other major star involved. Yet he probably doesn't care one way or the other that there are people who care deeply about the book. The plot for the movie came, I understand, from another screenplay that had nothing to do with Asimov's stories and had been around for years. The studio simply bought the rights to Asimov's book and shoehorned his character names and Three Laws (which are apparently just a marketing slogan within the movie) into it in a misguided attempt to give the movie gravitas and attract a ready-made audience of Asimov's fans. But why try to attract his fans if you don't intend to follow the book closely? The people who read the book because they think it's going to have the same story as the movie are going to be just as disappointed, and will probably throw it away after reading the first two stories. The movie sounds like it might even be halfway decent without pretending to be based on the real "I, Robot." Maybe I'll sit through it when it is shown on cable.
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Summary: Asimov was well schooled
Review: Each of the stories/chapters revolves around conflicts that arise within a robot when it tries to be true to the three builtin laws to varying degrees. Every single one of them struck me as a completely realistic software bug I could see arising in my code - little nuances of interpretation and feedback loops that cause the behavior exhibited to be unexpected. I loved the models of machine learning he used to show how arbitrary reality can be.
I tore through this easily in a weekend.None of the stories involve homicidal robots or robot uprisings. I can only imagine the Will Smith movie coming out is a completely different set of plots. I hope Asimov doesn't turn in his grave.
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Summary: NOT LIKE THE MOVIE!!!
Review: I had to read the novel "I, Robot" for my high school English class. We were aloud to choose the novel that we had to read as long as it was a sci-fi novel. I chose "I, Robot" because I had seen the movie and I figured that I would already be familiar with the characters and events. This would help to make the reading much easier. I WAS WRONG! If you want to read a book that is similar to the movie, I would not recommend "I, Robot." The only similarities are some characters, the Basic Laws of Robotics, and the basic make-up of the robots themselves. HOWEVER: The novel by Isaac Asimov is an excellent book without being a replica of the movie. One of the best parts of the novel is the basic setup. The setup is that there is an unknown college student who is doing a paper on the history of robots. This student has come to Susan Calvin, one of the pioneers in robotics, and she tells him many stories that start in 1996, the birthyear of robots. (The novel was written in the middle of the 20th century, so Asimov had no way of knowing if/when we will actually invent "intelligent robots".) The novel continues as the years advance and the stories begin to consist of some of the same characters as each other. Overall, the novel was an excellent perception of the future and I recommend it to anyone who likes their novels to be sci-fi, drama, comedy, or action. TWO THUMBS UP!!
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Summary: "I, Robot" Review by WarHawk23
Review: I was thinking this book would be awesome seeing the movie previews and all, but this book was a bit of a let down.It's more like a bunch of stories that are loosely connected by something like an interview or something.The series might pick up in the other books, but I, Robot is kinda boring, so why would you want tobuy the others? Of course!You're some kind of nerd!The stories in I, Robot are boring andstart to get repeatative. Super robot gets invented,people who made robot screw up,robot goes crazy and threatens humanity. That sounds almost exciting, right? No, the robot harms no one, no bloodshed, no gore, plain clean boredom. If I had seen the movie, my expectations may have been higher, therefore my score would most likely be lowered. So, after reading this, if you still want to by it, you either want it to go to sleep, or you're a nerd.
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Summary: I, Robot - Isaac Asimov review by Niall O'Brien
Review: I, Robot is an exceptional piece of fiction. Considering how the majority of these stories were written in the 1940's, I was amazed at how "far out there" Asimov's ideas were.
The stories have no connection to each other with the exception of certain characters etc. and this is what I loved the most. Asimov has managed to create numerous visions of disorder in a unique and intriguing way. This book is guaranteed to invoke positive cerebral thinking and I for one was delighted that it did so. It proved that no matter how perfect we think the Three Laws of Robotics are - they can only lead to one outcome...Revolution.
Make no mistake - Asimov's ideas were well ahead of their time, and only by reading this book will you come to understand his genius.
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Summary: I Robot Review.
Review: I, Robot was a strange book. The whole book is basically a collection of short stories, told in an interview between a robopshycologist and a reporter. The stories did not relate to each other, except for some of the characters involved and the connection of logic. One reason I liked this book was that the short stories themselves were incredibly well thought out. Each chapter was written with a new theme, evolving around the three basic laws of robotics. I, Robot did have lots of interesting puzzles and logic. I also felt that the three laws of robotics and the short stories were very creative. The book was not what I expected, being a novel about each experience Dr. Calvin had, I was expecting more action, but the logic puzzles in the book were just as pleasing. The fact that robots did not wage war on humanity was something I wanted to happen, but did not occur.
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Summary: This Creaky Classic is Showing Some Rust
Review: If you keep in mind that this book was written in 1950, you can understand why it was considered ahead of it's time. Unfortunately, time has since passed "I, Robot" by.
Asimov was the first author to seriously consider the psychology of the thinking machine. Through the course of the nine short-stories in this book, Asimov cleverly chronicles the robot evolution. The machines go from from mute and loyal nursemaid to benevolent overseers that govern humanity.
But as one reviewer previously stated, Asimov seems a better thinker than writer. And the archaic writing style and stilted dialogue (so obviosuly written in the 50's) tend to be distracting from his brilliant ideas. And even those ideas have been better explored in recent years in much more provacative ways. Then again, without "I, Robot", there wouldn't be "The Matrix", or "The Terminator".
The book is a classic. But you might want to read it before it becomes an antique.
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Summary: What's that I smell? It's the garbage that is I, Robot.
Review: 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.)
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Summary: Classic for a reason
Review: One of the pleasures of age (although not too much age) is being able to revisit old favorites and to reexperience them from a more mature perspective. Sometimes they hold up, and sometimes they don't. Asimov's "I, Robot," is one of the former rather than the latter.
Like many longtime SF aficionados, I first read "I, Robot" in early high school, along with other classic works of the genre. I remember being bowled over by it at the time. Since then, Asimov's take on robots has shaped much later SF writing on the topic. Asimov's "Three Laws of Robotics," for example, have become almost axiomatic. Even Star Trek's Data is partially the child of Asimov's robots.
The first of a number of Asimov works dealing with robots, `I, Robot" is an interconnected series of stories. These stories chronicle the development of artificially intelligent robots from their early, most primitive days when they are hardly better than nursemaids ("Robbie") to later days when they essentially take over the world from their willing human masters ("The Evitable Conflict"). There are a few characters that recur from story to story, notably Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist who feels more comfortable with the machines than with humans and the two "test pilots" Donovan and Powell. But the human characters are really secondary to the robotic ones.
One of the recurring foci of these stories is the psychology of the robots. Asimov sets forth his classic "Three Laws of Robotics," which (in order of priority) enjoin a robot to 1) not harm a human through action or inaction; 2) always follow human orders (unless doing so would cause harm to a human); and finally, 3) to preserve itself unless doing so would violate the first or second laws. In principle, these Laws seem simple enough, but in practice, there are often unexpected complications, especially as robot intelligence become more sophisticated. In "Reason," for example, Donovan and Powell must handle a robot whose logic parallels Cartesian reasoning on the existence of God. "Liar" is a study of the unexpected effects on the emotions of individual humans when a mind-reading robot attempts to uphold the First Law. The final two stories, "Evidence" and "The Evitable Conflict" deal with the intersections of the Three Laws as increasingly complex machines begin to take over coordinating and managing the economies of the world.
"I Robot" was originally published over half a century ago, but it remains remarkably fresh in its insights. In fact, it's hard to believe that these stories are really that old.
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Summary: Robots must follow the rules...
Review: Re-reading "I, Robot" before the movie comes out was a good idea, I'm glad I did. For me, reading Asimov if often a fond trip down memory lane. But if you have never read Asimov or looking for somewhere to start, I would highly recommend "I, Robot" as a first glimpse into Asimov's world(s). Here is a wonderful and timeless collection of nine short stories that all center around a central theme; The Three Laws Of Robotics. The three laws are: 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 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. These laws are the central theme to each individual story, and connecting them is a running "Runaround", "Reason", and "Catch That Rabbit". Always under the direst of circumstances, they must figure out the malfunction of the robot before something terrible happens. Very entertaining stories. Some of the other stories are about Dr. Calvin's personal experiences, such as "Liar" and "Little Lost Robot", but all fall back onto the laws as their basic theme, and whether or not humans will ever accept robots among them. Once finished with "I, Robot", I very highly recommend the "Foundation" series, one of my favorite Asimov themes, along with the Robot Trilogy and another favorite, "Nightfall". Asimov has the gift of creating lively, likeable characters with a technical backdrop to his all-to-human stories, and always infuses a bit of humor into them. Truly one of the great masters of Sci-Fi, Asimov is a must-read in my opinion, and "I, Robot" is a wonderful starting point. Enjoy!
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