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Summary: This was the best book I have ever read.
Review: The Positronic Man is a truely sad novel, about a robot who longs to be human. It is Asimov at his best. You laugh with the main character, and I gurantee that unless you are heartless, you will actually shed tears by the end of this novel. You come off reading this novel with a better understanding of what it means to be human and how we take it for granted
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Summary: A tale of ambition and societal backlash
Review: The story of a mechanical creature who wishes to become human is an old one, appearing in many forms over the centuries. In this superb story, a robot, named Andrew by the children who adore it, begins to exhibit human characteristics, due to the unpredictability of its' positronic memory circuits. Slowly, through a series of step-wise modifications, Andrew is altered so that his functions become more human. Throughout the tale, Andrew exhibits many of the characteristics of being human, although his human society is currently exhibiting a backlash against robots doing anything to appear as anything other than robots.
This is also a tale about human politics, emotions and insecurities. Some of the prejudices exhibited against robots are strikingly similar to those humans have against other humans not of the appropriate type. Asimov and Heinlein are masters at describing the consequences of technology and in this book, they are at their best. I have always considered Asimov's robot stories to be the best of all his science fiction works. They deal with limits placed on technology, through the hard-wired laws of robotics to the social restrictions placed on robots so that they do not appear too human. And yet, he also presses the envelope, in that he has humans becoming intimate with robots, even to the point of suggested sexual contact.
I consider this to be one of the two best science fiction books that Isaac Asimov wrote, with the other being Nightfall. It is an old tale, but told with emotional entanglements, such as having Andrew being treated not as a monster but as a member of a human family as he pursues his quest to be declared legally human.
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Summary: machanical heat-wrencher
Review: this book does not have the recognition and wider appreciation it deserves. The final gesture of 'going to heaven' with little miss calling him ends the book in subtle style. My only sci-fi book, but one of my favorites of all.
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Summary: As intriguing and compelling as the original
Review: This book exemplifies what is best about science fiction. Most people evoke images of spaceships battling it out in space or aliens who want nothing more than to invade our planet Earth. But if one truely wants to read an example of what science fiction is all about, then read this book! How does humanity react when its own creation decide that it wants its own independence? What does it mean to be human? A question that is always on our minds... Please read this book. It is a great story of one questioner who dared to ask "Why Not Me?" instead of accepting the status quo.
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Summary: Sci-fi at its best! :-)
Review: This book exemplifies what is best about science fiction. Most people evoke images of spaceships battling it out in space or aliens who want nothing more than to invade our planet Earth. But if one truely wants to read an example of what science fiction is all about, then read this book! How does humanity react when its own creation decide that it wants its own independence? What does it mean to be human? A question that is always on our minds... Please read this book. It is a great story of one questioner who dared to ask "Why Not Me?" instead of accepting the status quo.
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Summary: Asimov truly has a handle on the nature of humanity.
Review: This is a novel about a truly beautiful human being...who just happens to be a robot. Over a span of centuries you see this robot develop as most humans only wish they could. He grows to care about those around him, his masters and then their children and their children's children as time passes, and you grow to care about all of them as well as him. Ask yourself, what price would you pay to be as good a human being as this robot has managed to become? Because he sure pays bigtime. Asimov should have won a Nobel Prize for his work, and I hope someday they give it to him, even though he won't know about it.
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