Classic Science-Fiction

Isaac Asimov is a prevalent name in science-fiction. He was one of the first sci-fi writers who was actually respected and paid well for his craft, and today he is still a force in and outside of his genre. He deserves to be read because his ideas are at play today.

The three laws of robotics say that a robot cannot harm a human or through inaction cause a human harm, they must obey humans, and they must keep themselves out of harms way. "I, Robot" deals with these laws and the history of robotics through an episodic retelling by Susan Calvin to a reporter. Susan is the leading robopsychologist as US Robotics in the mid 21st century, but she is retiring. Through short stories the audience hears tell of robots from early on who could not speak to robots in the mid 21st century who run the economy. Each chapter is a new story of how a problem arouse with a robot and how the three laws can explain any flukes the robots may have. Each story is linked together with familiar characters and the fact that this is all connected back to Susan who is relaying this story. Because each story is about a robot who has gone wrong, or something weird that has happened, they are mini-mysteries or puzzles. Each error needs to be corrected, but first the scientists must figure out why and how the mistake happened. This is not all set in a lab, however, but some are on Earth, others are in space, or on other planets.

The book is not like the movie...at all. I think the movie is actually based off of the first novel in the robot series, "The Caves of Steel". Originally Asimov published each story in sci-fi magazines and then put them all together in the book with the connective tissue being Susan Calvin's memoir. They work as a whole, but you can tell they are meant as individual pieces. As I think is typically the case with a lot of sci-fi, characters come second to plot and ideas. The characters are dimensional, but they are not the focus of the novel. Instead it's really about robotics, and the speculative future.

Personally this book wasn't for me. I'm not a futuristic, technology, space person, and there is some technical language in here that my anti-science brain didn't like. It was not over zealous on tech language and it's nothing the average reader should be afraid of, but it just doesn't appeal to me. On top of that I thought the pace of each story was a bit more leisurely and longer than I would like, especially when I'm already turned off by the setting and plot line. I am not saying this was a bad novel. On the contrary it was good. Asimov is able to write well and he set up a nice world for more books about robot/human interaction and artificial intelligence. I will not be reading them though.

If you like sci-fi, or if you want to diversify yourself and step outside of your boundaries, you should try giving Asimov a read. If not this novel, try The Caves of Steel. It is a mystery and the pace is compelling, but it still holds the sci-fi elements that are important and it is a part of the "I, Robot" universe.