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nvmsmd's review against another edition
5.0
This book was hilarious, clever, and years ahead of its time.
SPOILERS
Let’s start with the character who is essentially the protagonist: Susan, a fucking robopsychologist, and a badass. She has been given the liberty to be authoritative, assertive, and unemotional and that is traditionally not bestowed upon women without making them unlikeable or antagonist-ic. Susan is a great protagonist to follow. Snippets of her life from when she was a student to an old woman are fascinating. "Strong independent unapologetic female protagonist" is the current buzz that people still don't understand. Asimov delivered marvelously. We don’t follow a female protagonist with legs for days and boobs spilling out in her combat uniform as she fights robots. No, we see Susan, an old woman, who cares only for robots and is passionately involved in her line of work. Her mind and her no-nonsense logical deductions are a treat to read. The only flaw - the mind reader story, her male counterparts are given professional passions and conflict whereas she was given a romantic interest and failure, but it wasn't too bad and one is allowed to have romance. I loved the fact that she basically killed the robot in cold blood at the end.
Donovan and Powell are my favorite duo. They are just stuck in impossible and hilarious situations and have to figure their way out using very genius and out-of-the-box thinking. More often than not, they are helplessly stuck before they can find their way out of the solution. Their banter is fun and solutions are just so perfectly simple yet so creative and mind-blowing that their stories quickly became my favorite.
I was really captured by the first story of Robbie. That story melted my heart and gave me all the ooey-gooey feelings. Throughout the book, Asimov displays an incredible understanding of human emotion (and robot emotion) and has the ability to weave these emotions to elicit the desired feeling out of the reader. Wasn't even 50 pages in the book when I knew that it was shaping up to be one of my all-time favorites.
These short stories were written separately from the 1940s to 1950. Factually these stories are older than Indian independence. And yet, the writing is fresh. The stories are still great sci-fi and not dated at all. The characters are all unproblematic. I am in awe of this book. Instant 5 stars.
SPOILERS
Let’s start with the character who is essentially the protagonist: Susan, a fucking robopsychologist, and a badass. She has been given the liberty to be authoritative, assertive, and unemotional and that is traditionally not bestowed upon women without making them unlikeable or antagonist-ic. Susan is a great protagonist to follow. Snippets of her life from when she was a student to an old woman are fascinating. "Strong independent unapologetic female protagonist" is the current buzz that people still don't understand. Asimov delivered marvelously. We don’t follow a female protagonist with legs for days and boobs spilling out in her combat uniform as she fights robots. No, we see Susan, an old woman, who cares only for robots and is passionately involved in her line of work. Her mind and her no-nonsense logical deductions are a treat to read. The only flaw - the mind reader story, her male counterparts are given professional passions and conflict whereas she was given a romantic interest and failure, but it wasn't too bad and one is allowed to have romance. I loved the fact that she basically killed the robot in cold blood at the end.
Donovan and Powell are my favorite duo. They are just stuck in impossible and hilarious situations and have to figure their way out using very genius and out-of-the-box thinking. More often than not, they are helplessly stuck before they can find their way out of the solution. Their banter is fun and solutions are just so perfectly simple yet so creative and mind-blowing that their stories quickly became my favorite.
I was really captured by the first story of Robbie. That story melted my heart and gave me all the ooey-gooey feelings. Throughout the book, Asimov displays an incredible understanding of human emotion (and robot emotion) and has the ability to weave these emotions to elicit the desired feeling out of the reader. Wasn't even 50 pages in the book when I knew that it was shaping up to be one of my all-time favorites.
These short stories were written separately from the 1940s to 1950. Factually these stories are older than Indian independence. And yet, the writing is fresh. The stories are still great sci-fi and not dated at all. The characters are all unproblematic. I am in awe of this book. Instant 5 stars.
sydstap24's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
sam_mehdi's review against another edition
4.0
It's like sci-fi Sherlock Holmes with robots. A sequence of "mystery" short stories that are loosely related, but could each be read independently. I found it very entertaining and easy to read (Asimov himself once described his writing style as evolving around one principle: "to be clear"). There were many very interesting ideas posed in the book; one of my favorites was: "if humans had infallible robots to govern and direct them, would they let the robots do so? Or would human pride and distrust win out?"
I also have to laud Asimov for how convincing his sci-fi is. Each of these stories feels like it could happen in the next few decades. And for writing in 1950, Asimov's foresight is definitely impressive.
Last fun fact: J.R.R. Tolkien, who once said he generally disliked "modern books," made an exception of Asimov. I doubt my recommendation would be of greater value than J.R.R. Tolkien's, so listen to him!
I also have to laud Asimov for how convincing his sci-fi is. Each of these stories feels like it could happen in the next few decades. And for writing in 1950, Asimov's foresight is definitely impressive.
Last fun fact: J.R.R. Tolkien, who once said he generally disliked "modern books," made an exception of Asimov. I doubt my recommendation would be of greater value than J.R.R. Tolkien's, so listen to him!
kmthomas06's review against another edition
4.0
This was a lot different than I was expecting. Mainly because I saw the movie years ago and this is not in any way, shape of form like the movie. I could see the few parts they decided to keep and added to the book they actually used for the movie (one of the later books in the trilogy but I agree, I, Robot is the better name) but I'd have to read that one to see how much they stayed true to that story as well.
That said, I liked the format of this book as it explored different problems encountered as new and better robots were designed and sent out into the galaxy to work for us. I am slightly disturbed by the "everyone is OK with the fact Machines are ruling the universe" at the end but at the same time also concerned that I wasn't as worried as I should be. Like Gloria Calvin, the main thread weaving all the stories together, I have faith in these particular Machines, which are clearly showing the signs of the problems to come in the rest of the series, but are still in the stage of benevolent overlords. Asimov is heavily on the technical language but I followed it without a problem and I liked the use of Calvin's character, a robopsychologist, to continually bring us back to the struggle of how these machines are emulating humanity and how humanity deals with that fact over time.
That said, I liked the format of this book as it explored different problems encountered as new and better robots were designed and sent out into the galaxy to work for us. I am slightly disturbed by the "everyone is OK with the fact Machines are ruling the universe" at the end but at the same time also concerned that I wasn't as worried as I should be. Like Gloria Calvin, the main thread weaving all the stories together, I have faith in these particular Machines, which are clearly showing the signs of the problems to come in the rest of the series, but are still in the stage of benevolent overlords. Asimov is heavily on the technical language but I followed it without a problem and I liked the use of Calvin's character, a robopsychologist, to continually bring us back to the struggle of how these machines are emulating humanity and how humanity deals with that fact over time.
ratkowe's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
cornholio29's review against another edition
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
dwimblim's review against another edition
3.0
3.5. Interesting robot stories. Beep boop. I liked the ideas of the stories after I read them but I was slow getting through them. I'm glad the book wasn't too long.