I, Robot
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I, Robot (Robot, #1)
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3.99 of 5 stars
The three laws of Robotics:
1) A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm
2) A robot must... read full description

reviews

Dec 27, 2011
Evan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
In 1989 I drove to Indianapolis to meet Eric, a collector of rare films, ostensibly to see his 16-millimeter print of the elusive 1926 W.C. Fields movie, So's Your Old Man, of which he claimed there were only a half dozen extant copies. We also screened prints of the Lon Chaney Sr. silent, He Who Gets Slapped and the silent German mountain film classic, The White Hell of Pitz Palu, both of which, at the time, were very difficult to see but which have since been issued on DVD. For good measure, h More...
5 comments like (8 people liked it)
Jun 08, 2011
Bird Brian rated it: 3 of 5 stars
SETTING: Brian's kitchen

Brian (B): (motioning to ingredients on the table) Robot, please take these ingredients and make a cake.

Robot (R): I'm sorry, that would violate the First Law of Robotics [A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.]

B: Huh? How so?

R: My sensors indicate that you are 7% above your ideal body weight, and this cake is a sugary, fatty snack which would only push you further o More...
28 comments like (70 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Kevin rated it: 5 of 5 stars
Isaac Asimov's books were far from the normal trash novels you might buy for a 2 day read. Within anything he has written, he tries to spell out lessons in psychology.

How would we react to Robots once they become free thinkers?

How should we react to Robots when they become our slaves?

Should we institute a whole new brand of slavery for the purpose of a "clean society"?

What is sentient life?

The I, Robot novel progresses throug More...
13 comments like (15 people liked it)
Apr 08, 2009
Brooke rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I wasn't sure what to expect when I started reading this, and I ended up being pleasantly surprised. It's a series of short stories revolving around Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist with the company U.S. Robots. The stories show the progression of robots (from ones that can't even talk to the machines that govern how the planet operates) and the relationship humans have with them.

I really enjoyed the overall arc and how it was presented. I also really dug how most of the stories were More...
6 comments like (15 people liked it)
Apr 23, 2009
Shannon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
It's 2057 and a journalist for the Interplanetary Press is interviewing robopsychologist Susan Calvin, just retired. Wanting to get the “human interest” angle, he pries stories from her that reveal the evolution of robotic technology, and the evolution of robots into machines with a higher order of thinking.

The first story is set in 1998, about a non-vocal robot called Robbie who was a nursemaid and best friend to a demanding little girl called Gloria. Her mother finds their relation More...
15 comments like (8 people liked it)
Apr 07, 2009
Amy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I liked the way this collection of short stories were framed as recollections from Dr. Calvin after a long life. The stories progressed from more primitive robots to some advanced enough to be intriguing.

Robbie: A robot serves as a child's playmate and loves to tell stories. In this story, Robbie seems to have as much affection for Gloria as she does for him. This is presumed to be a case of Robbie being compelled to obey the first law of robotics. Can love and affection be disti More...
0 comments like (4 people liked it)
Mar 30, 2009
Jon rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I re-read this classic science fiction anthology for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club here at GoodReads. For my mini-reviews of each story, please references my updates and the comments thereto (some of which may contain spoilers). My favorite stories include Runaround, Liar! and Escape!
2 comments like (4 people liked it)
Oct 31, 2008
Jim rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The original "I, Robot" not the movie of the same title, is excellent & is a classic. It set the tone for almost every artificial intelligence novel since it was written. The three laws of robotics first appeared in these stories. There are quite a few stories from humorous to touching to scary. Asimov had a pretty good idea that artificial intelligence was similar to fire - a dangerous servant. He proves it in these pages. More...
0 comments like (7 people liked it)
Jan 18, 2008
Loren rated it: 4 of 5 stars
From ISawLightningFall.blogspot.com

I first cracked the cover of Asimov’s short-fiction collection I, Robot without much relish. I’ve never enjoyed hard science fiction, a genre whose proponents often seem more interested with the gravitational pull on Mars or the finer points of quantum physics than in crafting an entertaining narrative. Imagine my surprise when I realized I, Robot isn’t SF at all. It’s a collection of mysteries.

From police procedurals to cozies, hardboil More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
May 28, 2010
James rated it: 5 of 5 stars
The laws known as the Three Laws of Robotics are as follows:

LAW1 A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

LAW2 A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first law.

LAW3 A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the first or second law.

This is in itself the plot of the short stories tha More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Apr 14, 2009
Otis rated it: 5 of 5 stars
As an engineer I couldn't help but love this book. It's full of logic games! The 3 rules of robotics are a very rich medium for lots of fun puzzles, and I very much enjoyed reading them. I think the book originally came out in serial form, as it was broken down into short stories or capers. Kind of reminded me of Sherlock Holmes - another favorite of mine.

Examining robots also gave a canvas for defining what it is to be human. I loved the robot religion story. Robots with a sup More...
2 comments like (3 people liked it)
Jan 05, 2010
Markham rated it: 3 of 5 stars
I am inclined to tear this book apart in a review. I expected better. And yet it gripped me like no book has gripped me for years.

The bad:
Rather than a novel, the book was a collection of short stories which pertained to the same story world. I desired a "novel" experience, one in which the reader is engaged in a single plot for several hundred pages. Several characters surfaced in more than one short story.

Originally published in 1950, it is hardly an More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Dec 14, 2011
Todd rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I've read this book a few times over the years and what keeps pulling me back is Asimov's incredible passion for the scientific side of the story. The characters, which normally are the draw, are not front and center in these stories. It's the machines and what will or won't happen to them with the best programming intentions. One would think with Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics that nothing could go wrong and that's part of what makes this so much fun. If you are a fan of the movie with Will Sm More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Jan 29, 2012
Leslie rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Hugely important and influential in the history of SF. It's always interesting, when reading old SF, to see what that period's vision of the future was, what the authors projected forward into their imagined future and what their blind spots were. SF claims to be about the future, but it's really always about the present. Asimov foresaw humanoid robots with emotions and personalities, but he didn't foresee personal computing or changes in gender roles or the position of women. Really interesting More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Apr 11, 2009
Beth A. rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book asks the question, if we created robots who were faster, smarter, and stronger than us, what would they think of us? Anticipating a certain amount of disdain, resentment, or rebellion, U. S. Robotics built into the robots’ programming the Three Fundamental Rules of Robotics. “One, a robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Two, a robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Nov 05, 2008
Suzanne rated it: 5 of 5 stars
I really loved this book. In fact, I read it pretty quickly throughout one day. I actually finished in the line at the commissary which has been so ridiculously long lately that I've learned to carry a book along.

I had seen the movie previously but I have learned not to trust a movie version. I was correct in this case. I'm not sure exactly where the movie came from at all. They only similarities that I remember are the 3 robot rules.

So this was actually a collection More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Oct 06, 2007
Chris rated it: 4 of 5 stars
My first assumption of this book was that it was a novel with a robot as the first-person narrator. Instead, it was a collection of short stories held together by a series of interviews by a first-person reporter of unknown species (though I have no reason to believe he's anything but human). Once I got past the initial re-adjustment over the book's nature, I thoroughly enjoyed its content. The stories were all well-crafted, well-thought-out, and imaginative. They delved into the awkwardness More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Sep 09, 2007
Tracey rated it: 4 of 5 stars
I'd wanted to re-read I, Robot this summer, before seeing the only-tangentially-related movie, but some SOB stole/lost the library's copy & the only copies I could find locally had Will Smith's smug face all over them.

I found a lovely hardback edition with an artsy dust cover still intact at the used bookstore last weekend & restrained myself from devouring the short story collection in one gulp. While I found that I remembered the majority of the denouements, (with poor Donovan & Po More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Mar 02, 2008
Chris rated it: 5 of 5 stars
This book was a very enjoyable read- especially when you think about the time period when it was written! Everything is conceived of way before you would have thought it possible for someone to dream it up.
The book is a series of short stories about robots- or rather human-robot interaction, and how "they" are looked at compared to "us". The last 3/4 of the book is from "Susan Calvin's" stories- a robot psychologist that trys to solve problems with the robots More...
0 comments like (1 person liked it)
Oct 29, 2007
Elida rated it: 1 of 5 stars
I am currently reading this book with my son as part of his summer reading list, (new school, therefore he has to do his summer reading during school session) and as I was reading, I discovered that this book is so different from the movie version of I, Robot starting Wil Smith. Usually there are differences between movies and books, but in I, Robot there is are significant differences, such as no mention of Wil Smith's character. My son and I are slightly in the middle of the book so maybe late More...
6 comments like (2 people liked it)
Mar 08, 2011
Manny rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Asimov gives you quite a good idea of what's it like to have to debug an artificial intelligence, before there were any. Applause! The movie, however, is an abomination that should have been strangled at birth. They've made Susan Calvin sexy; you see her suggestively outlined through the semi-opaque glass of her shower cubicle.

I can't continue with this review. I'm starting to get too emotional. Sorry. A few things are still sacred, you know?
___________________________________ More...
5 comments like (2 people liked it)
Mar 18, 2008
Smarti rated it: 1 of 5 stars
This rarely happens to me: I just could not finish this book. I found it unbearable and about half-way through I really did not care about how these stories would continue. In my opinion, it is incredibly poorly written and frankly, I found these robot stories dull and boring content-wise as well. I read that this is supposed to be one of the classics of sci-fi. I don't have a lot of experience with that genre but if this book is supposed to be one of the best, I doubt the genre is for me.
More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
May 21, 2010
Jimmy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book was fantastic. Nothing like the movie. While the story (as a whole) sometimes lacked a bit as it seemed more like a collection of short stories, the underlying themes were well maintained and had a very realistic learning curve.

That said, this book was made for problem solvers. If you love mind puzzles and lateral thinking, you will probably love this book. You are given the same set of 3 rules for every 'issue' and have to rationalize a solution given the specific environ More...
0 comments like (2 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Irwan rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This book contains several short stories about robots. Those stories revolves around the idea of three golden rules implanted in all robots so that their existence will not endanger human beings. Although it is presented rather dryly to some people - possibly literary people - as a computer programmer I found the stories intriguing and stimulating.
This is where the common everyday things meet hard logical reasoning machine. A robot that has to lie in order to conform the three golden rule More...
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Jan 08, 2008
Frank rated it: 3 of 5 stars
Time has not treated this book well. As robotics develop further and further w/o any regard to the three laws, it becomes more and more of a series of logic puzzles and less of a work of science fiction. That Asimov feels that humans might one day be better ruled by benevolent AI seems almost quaint and childish w/ a half century of robotics research being directed towards developing new killing machines. It is a fun read and a must for fans of vintage science fiction but it is simply no longer More...
0 comments like (3 people liked it)
Oct 02, 2011
Jean added it
Isaac Asimov's seminal novel about robots and how they behave.
This is a collection of short stories that document the evolution
of robotic technology in the world of tomorrow and the societal
changes they trigger.

I started reading it in preparation for the
movie, knowing full
well that the movie has nothing to do with the book, except for the
title. I had bought the novel a long time ago, because it's a
classic, and figured I'd read it someday. So that day has finally
come.

The book is a collection of More...
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Feb 01, 2012
Stefan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This is a collection of inter-related tales bound together by an outer "frame" tale. The stories serve to explain Asimov's three laws of Robotics and some of the problems inherent in trying to apply absolutes to semi-sentient beings. The tales are entertaining, especially the various ways that the characters find to work out their problems by either working with the laws of robotics or finding creative ways to work around them. It also deals philosophically with the idea that a man-mad More...
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Dec 23, 2011
Nathan rated it: 3 of 5 stars
This collection of short stories was originally published in 1950, and was one of my childhood reads. I am feeling a bit burnt out on dense non-fiction reading, so I'm taking a break with some lighter fare. However, my memories didn't prepare me for quite the lightness of this read.

Asimov, of course, is an big name in the field. When sf was being defined in the war and post-war years, Asimov was making his name. He could write, by crikey, but today it's just as interesting to conside More...
0 comments like
Nov 15, 2011
Jeanmccoy rated it: 4 of 5 stars
Me and Isaac Asimov have the same birthday. I'm always telling people this because I think it is unbelivably awesome and I think that maybe it makes me a bit cooler by association. I hope.
Anyway: he's one of the all-time ultimate science fiction greats. You know this, of course, and you've probably seen one of the many films made from or inspired by his work. This novel 'inspired' the film of the same title starring Will Smith but they really aren't alike. This book is definitely worth a r More...
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Oct 13, 2011
Susan rated it: 4 of 5 stars
This is a described as a collection of nine of Asimov's robot stories. Though each capable of standing alone, they are woven together by the artifice of an interview conducted with an elderly robopsychologist who had worked in the field since the earliest robots with "positronic" brains.

First published in the 1950's, these stories provided the foundation for much of science fiction that's been created since then. The three laws of robotics are introduced here, and are centr More...
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