Rating: 
Summary: Pretty and hollow
Review: "Robota" is a lot like the robots in the story -- cold, lifeless, and lacking in personality. Doug Chiang's detailed artwork can't be faulted, and stops the book from being a total loss, but Orson Scott Card's accompanying novella is just plain bad.It tells the tale of how robots conquered our world, destroying civilization and turning mankind into slaves in a vast jungle. On the world called Robota, a robot called Kaantur-Set rules through a living corpse called Font Prime. But one day a mysterious man with no memory arrives with a sentient monkey, encountering the "cubed" beasts and outlaw humans. And a revolution is formed against the robots... Card should leave robot fiction in the realm of Asimov. Some authors can make robots seem real, through tiny nuances; Card doesn't have the subtlety to do that, and so his robots -- with the exception of the weird Elyseo -- are flat and completely unsatisfactory as a threat. To make things worse, this seems like half a story rather than a complete one. All the REALLY interesting stuff, such as the jewel, "cubing" (turning animals into sentient creatures), the alien Olm, Font Prime's preservation, the destruction of our civilization and retaking of Robota, are mentioned but never dealt with. Which is a shame, because the actual novel is rushed and rather boring. The climactic battle sputters out before it really starts. Caps is absolutely insufferable. He's merely dull when he has amnesia, but when he turns into a robot-human prophet he's impossible to like. Beryl is a warrior Barbie. Kaantur-Set is a cut-out villain, whose constant screeching makes him/her hard to take seriously. Only Elyseo (weird robot) and Rend (weird monkey) have any worthwhile personality. The saving grace is Chiang's artwork. He's worked for years with Lucasfilms, and that shows. It's careful, detailed, nuanced and sometimes looks like a photograph taken in an action scene. Some of the pictures are beautiful, some are outright horrific. (Star Wars buffs may want to check out certain fight photographs, which resemble concept artwork for the movies) Without Chiang's artwork, this book would have been utterly worthless. The novella is dull and pointless, but the pictures are pretty and vivid, really outstanding as illustrations. Taken together, the book is merely mediocre.
Rating: 
Summary: Stunning paintings, but...
Review: Absolutely stunning, five-star paintings wasted on a very poor story. Excellently produced book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Magnificent collaboration
Review: Academy Awar winner Doug Chiang and Orson Scott Card have produced a visually stunning science fiction book. An absolute must for anyone remotely interested in Chiang, Card, or robots. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Sci-Fi needs more books of this sort
Review: Although familiar with Orson Scott Card, I had never heard of Doug Chiang or "Robota" prior to picking it up off the shelf in the book store. Always one to judge a book by its cover, I am glad I did so in this case. Robota is a stunning portfolio of Chiang's talent. The text is underdeveloped, leaving the reader with many unanswered questions, and will likely not appeal to hard sci-fi fans. Most striking is the SORT of book which Robota is. It's a sci-fi picture book, the likes of which I haven't seen since Edwards and Holdstock published "Tour of the Universe" so many years ago. The genre would do well with more books of this type.
Rating:
Summary: A true work of art
Review: Be warned: this is a short book. If you're determined you can read it in a day. But that would mean you skim over the works of beautiful art and don't allow yourself a moment to step back and wonder about the majesty of this world Orson Scott Card and Doug Chiang have created.
Robota tells the story of Caps, a man who wakes up in a strange machine with no memory whatsoever. However, as much to his suprise as to ours, he suddenly regains memories due to circumstance at different points in the book.
This book is the tale of a hero and his growth to that title, much like Star Wars or other legendary works of Sci-fi. This story is artful and unguessable. It will grab you so that you speculate plot lines even when you're miles from the book. Best (or worst) of all, the book's length means you can read it twice without losing a good deal of your life.
I will recommend this book to everyone, as long as they don't mind short books of masterful sci-fi.
Rating: 
Summary: Good pictures, weak story
Review: Chiang is a competent and creative designer of fantastic worlds and creatures. Card, as we know from his past novels such as Ender's Game and Lost Boys, is a skilled spinner of tales. However, as beautiful and alluring as this collaborative book is, it left me with an empty feeling. Bascially it's a glorified portfolio and sketchbook of Chiang's artwork, and a very thin novella by Card. The characters are flat, and the few intriguing ideas (what does it mean to be human? can human consciousness be transferrred to machines? can human memory be stored in the crystals of the earth's crust?) are not fleshed out. The plot is more like an outline than a fully-realized novel. This book will appeal to younger readers (age 10-14) but may disappoint the more sophisticated sci-fi fan--like the recent Star Wars movies or video games aimed at younger audiences. However, the art is stunning, and the story is at least minimally entertaining. It's just that, as a previous reviewer noted, it leaves you wanting more--much more (character and plot development, deeper exploration of philosophical sci-fi themes, more admirable female characters, etc.)! The book is beautifully printed on glossy, heavy stock, hardbound with silver covered boards (no dustjacket) and a pasted-down image on the front cover. It would make a nice gift for the younger sci-fi fan or gamer.
Rating:
Summary: I expected more...
Review: Dough Chiang is a great artist and conceptual illustrator, however the artwork in this book looks like concept designs intended for a movie pitch. All the characters resemble more or less those in the Star Wars movies, with very little original design. True that this maybe because Dough was also the one who gave the look to many robots and characters in the Star Wars
movies, but wouldn't it had been logical to create a whole different world for his Robota story? something that would seem fresh, new, never before seen, to spice up our interest in it? Concept art differs from book illustration art in that the first has to be dramatic, loud, sharp, and bright to quickly convey the idea, the design, or the concept. Illustration art -in a book like this one- should complement the story's mood, character emotions, and overall feel, like the soundtrack in an epic movie, which transports us , like a vessel, through the various emotional currents, from start to finish, leaving us feeling we were part of the story, after it has ended. Think Gladiator, The English Patient, Star Wars. This book looks like a compilation of unrelated concept art, with too many too bright colors, and compositions that seem too calculated, never a shadow or a blur, everything sharp, no place for the eye to rest a little, as if the artist wanted us to see everything he drew (concept art) in the same style, over and over.
Maybe having several artist contributing their styles would have made the book more interesting visually.
And the writing is sort of competing for space with the art. Maybe having more pages of continuous text between every page of art would have made it a better book.
It's not the kind of book I'd thought it would be.
Goes to show that you could be very good at one thing, like Dough is at concept art, and not in another, like creating an illustrated novel.
Rating:
Summary: Robota
Review: I am a young reader and a great fan of Chiang's work. very experimental and thought prevocing. The story of Robota makes you think the same way a movie does, simple in text and colorful artwork make this book an unbelievable thrill ride. There is art work on almost every page and a plot that twist and turns. Doug Chiang has really made a new world with this one there were just a few things that puzzled me and went unexplained but that is to be expected. I hope this one is really made into a movie
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I am not your typical Sci-Fi enthuist and was unfamiliar with the work of Card or Chiang until this book. However, through this collaborative piece these guys have won my respect! Every robot rendering featured in this book is comprized of unique personality and fine detail. In fact, the amount of intricate detail in every painting continues to amaze me. Aside from the paintings this book carries an interesting story line. Card and Chiang are definitely a winning team. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for stunning Sci-Fi illustrations and a great story.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: I am not your typical Sci-Fi enthuist and was unfamiliar with the work of Card or Chiang until this book. However, through this collaborative piece these guys have won my respect! Every robot rendering featured in this book is comprized of unique personality and fine detail. In fact, the amount of intricate detail in every painting continues to amaze me. Aside from the paintings this book carries an interesting story line. Card and Chiang are definitely a winning team. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for stunning Sci-Fi illustrations and a great story.
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