I, Robot

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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.

Rating:
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 - 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.

Rating:
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.


Rating:
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: "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.