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The Complete Robot

(Robot #0.3)

Isaac Asimov

4.35 · Rating details · 14,247 ratings · 440 reviews

THE COMPLETE ROBOT is the definitive anthology of Asimov's stunning visions of a robotic future…

In these stories, Isaac Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age: when Earth is ruled by master-machines and when robots are more human than mankind.
Contents

9 • Introduction (The Complete Robot) • (1982) • essay by Isaac Asimov
15 • A Boy's Best Fr ...more

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Mass Market Paperback, 688 pages

Published 1995 by Voyager/HarperCollins (first published April 9th 1982)

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Mar 07, 2018 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it it was amazing

Shelves: asimov-isaac

If a topic is so comprehensive, each short story, as in this case, has the potential for a whole Netflix, amazon prime or facebook watch series with a movie and video game.

Now the topic of robot rights and ethic will become a real subject to deal with, probably beginning in the most enthusiastic countries in this field, such as Japan and Korea. Yes, other countries build nice robots too, but they have mentalities and beliefs that don´t integrate living things in their mental superstructure. So If a topic is so comprehensive, each short story, as in this case, has the potential for a whole Netflix, amazon prime or facebook watch series with a movie and video game.

Now the topic of robot rights and ethic will become a real subject to deal with, probably beginning in the most enthusiastic countries in this field, such as Japan and Korea. Yes, other countries build nice robots too, but they have mentalities and beliefs that don´t integrate living things in their mental superstructure. So the first few cases, when a perfect, conscious AI gets transformed into a robot body, maybe the beginning of a whole new societal structure. Many questions will arise.

When and how to give them human general rights, voting rights, the right to reproduce.
How to deal with humans who still want to work, even if it is not necessary anymore? If it is more expensive for each company and the state to let a slow and error-prone human do the job.
What if humans and robots fall in love and want to have kids that are hybrids or cyborgs? With these descendants, the same series of questions as with the robots occurs again.
If cold, artificial structures get rights, depending on their intelligence and sentience, what should be done with all the tortured and enslaved animals? That domestic cattle isn´t happy lies on the hand, but what if cats and dogs get technology to express their opinions and have nothing more to say than: "We had to do what you wanted and got Stockholm syndrome or simulated joy cause we had no other option. Free us, we want to build our own state."

There are so many options on the table, because each culture, depending on its development level, will deal with it in another way.

One always interesting question is: Will they become evil by themselves as we did? As soon as they realize that manipulation and the will and ability to hurt and kill others brings power, will they go our way? I believe yes, cause each intelligent species soon recognized the evolutionary advantage of being a villain. And a mind needs certain freedoms to function so that it can´t be created with so many restrictions to avoid this classic dilemma. But hey, we are potential monsters too, so what else should we expect from the life that we create.

Tropes show how literature is made and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... ...more

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Apr 09, 2018 Sr3yas rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2018-hall-of-fame

Undoubtedly, Asimov's Robot stories set the standard for science fiction short stories around the literary world. His Three laws of Robotics are celebrated and debated even decades after its inception and his Robot stories are still described as visionary. This anthology collects almost every Robot short stories written by Asimov in his lifetime. Only six Robot short stories are left out, and 31 of his coolest and sharpest stories can be found in this collection, organized by Asimov himself to g ...more

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Jan 02, 2017 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2017-shelf, sci-fi

This happens to be a re-read because I happened to have forgotten that I read the complete short stories of Asimov when I was much younger. :) That being said, I enjoyed them the second time around too.

The three laws of robotics were obviously in play but what sticks most in my mind is the light professional tone of Asimov throughout every single story. They weren't uncomplicated, but they were definitely studies of stark spotlight stories that always had definite points to be made.

They might no ...more

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Jan 07, 2010 Manny rated it really liked it

Shelves: story-review, science-fiction, mentions-twilight, parody-homage, the-goodreads-experience, pooh-dante

Strong Opinions: a Susan Calvin story

Weems landed his helijet neatly, and congratulated himself on his early start. When he managed to get the coveted parking spot closest to the front gate of U.S. Robots, he always felt that the rest of the day would be a success too. He flashed his badge at the security guard, and took the fast pediwalk to his office. Now he would get half an hour to work undisturbed! But he had barely hung up his hat before the visiphone buzzed.

"I'm sorry, sir," said his secr ...more

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Apr 08, 2014 Leonardo rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: hugo-winner, nebula-winner

This one took some time.

Not because it was hard to read, or because it was bad. I was actually saving it. I didn't enjoy binge reading the short stories. They went too fast. I ended up reading one or two between each other book I read. I read one and sort of ruminated on it for a while. It was the way I could enjoy the stories the most, I figured.

I enjoyed the various stories differently. Sometimes the puzzle/conflict it presented was the part I enjoyed the most, sometimes the way the characters ...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Simona B rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: collections, 1900, favorites, in-english, science-fiction

I remain firm in my opinion that these stories (some more than others) are among the most enjoyable, perfect things ever written.

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Dec 09, 2007 James rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Scifi fans, tech people

Shelves: science-fiction

Just finished reading The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov, if you all haven’t read it you should do so. It contains all the stories from I, Robot as well, not the Will Smith paff though, it is completely different.
Here is a run down of the stories.

A Boy's Best Friend:-
A boy and his dog on the moon but the dog is a robot, what happened when his parents want to give him a real dog and what makes you love something?

Sally:-
Only cars that have positronic brains are allowed on the highways and when th ...more

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Jun 02, 2019 David Sarkies rated it liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

Robot Stories: Old and New
2 June 2019

I should point out that I read less than half of this book, but that was because most of the stories that were contained therein were also contained in some of his other collections, such as the two robot collections that I only just read. However, as is obvious from the above sentence, there were also stories in here that weren’t included (and Asimov cheekily blames his publisher for that, namely because it would encourage more sales due to the fact that t Robot Stories: Old and New
2 June 2019

I should point out that I read less than half of this book, but that was because most of the stories that were contained therein were also contained in some of his other collections, such as the two robot collections that I only just read. However, as is obvious from the above sentence, there were also stories in here that weren’t included (and Asimov cheekily blames his publisher for that, namely because it would encourage more sales due to the fact that there were some unpublished stories therein).

Interestingly, a lot of these unpublished stories (or I should say stories that weren’t published in I, Robot and Rest of the Robots because there were written in his second iteration of science-fiction writing. The thing was that Asimov pretty much wrote about anything and everything, and after he was exhausted from his fiction writing he decided to go and start writing non-fiction, and apparently there is very little that he didn’t actually write about – that is what really impresses me about the guy. Hey, he even wrote two volumes on the Bible.

So, the problem lies in the fact that his second iteration of stories, well, weren’t as good as the first. That doesn’t mean that they were bad, it just means that they where, well, just not as good. Still, many of them were quite enjoyable to read, and he even has an Elijah Bailey and Daneel story included, which his fans all wanted him to write, and were somewhat disappointed because, well, they wanted him to actually write a novel, not a short story.

The book though is quite interesting in how the stories are laid out, and finishes with Bicentennial Man, a story of a robot’s desire to become human. In fact, as we move through the book the common theme seems to be the movement of robots going from machines to pretty much becoming indistinguishable from humans. Of course there is one problem, and that they are functionally immortal – it does not matter how many parts of a human body is replaced, the fact that one cannot prevent the death of brain cells (as Asimov suggests) is one of the conclusions that is reached as to why humans and robots differ, and why humans are quite resistant to robots becoming more humanlike.

There are a number of interesting stories though, and all of them seem to be thought experiments around the idea of robots, and the concept of the three laws. For instance, there is one story where prosthetics get to a point where the question is then raised as to whether we are dealing with a human or an artificial construction, and as such where is the line between a robot and a human drawn. This question is explored much further in Bicentennial Man, which is quite interesting itself, especially since the robot is definitely playing a long game.

Another idea that is explored is the limits of the second law, but then as another reviewer points out, Asimov creates these laws, and then goes to the absolute extremes to test their limits. For instance, what if two humans give orders to a robot that conflict with each other – which human does the robot obey, and how does the robot determine which human to obey? Does the robot then need to determine whether the humans are of sound mind and body, and if not, does the robot then escape the second law?

As I said, the book was actually quite good, and rather enjoyable, though the problem is that a lot of Asimov’s later writings have sort of lost the spark that a lot of his earlier writings have. The problem is though that a lot of the stories are reprints, so you might find yourself skipping over quite a few that you have already read, only to get to the ones that you have yet to read. ...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Matija rated it it was amazing

I completely loved this book. In some of the stories, Asimov simplifies human relationships, hierarchy and psychology too much, but his philosophical implications of the three laws I find profound and compelling. His stories evoke both thought and emotion, as well as visions of the future we are most probably headed for. I cherish each moment I spent within these stories.

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Oct 23, 2010 Arun Divakar rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

I thank Asimov, for bringing me out of a mess which he undoubtedly would have no idea about. It goes like this, I had within me something that approached "Reader's block", I could not complete a book in almost over a month now. I tried Woolf's "Orlando" which became words and finally letters to me which made no sense, I tried Richard Dawkins's "The greatest show.." and my brain short circuited ( for no fault of Dawkin's I may add here, a most interesting piece of work that..). In desperation I t ...more

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Aug 22, 2013 Nicky rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, robots

I've always liked Asimov's work -- one of my favourites has always been the expanded version of one of the short stories in this volume, The Positronic Man -- and so this was a nice familiar read for me. I've read some of the stories, while some were less familiar, but it is a bit like comfort eating: with Asimov, I know exactly what I'm getting. It'd be a bit much to start here with Asimov, I think, and read all the short stories start to finish. I'd pick a smaller collection, rather than a col ...more

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Feb 06, 2017 Cheryl rated it it was amazing

(I, Robot, is the first collection of short stories. Second is The Rest of the Robots. Robot Dreams only has one new story in it. The Complete Robot is reported to be truly complete.)

Ok, the edition I read has 31 stories. Doubleday/ Nightfall, 1982. Stories originally from 1939 to 1977. Perhaps all editions the same, I dunno, but there you are.

It also has a nice concise introduction about Robot-as-Menace and Robot-as-Pathos and related thoughts, and is organized by theme or (slice of) world-bui ...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Chris rated it liked it

This includes I, Robot as well as a bunch of other robot stories. All in all it's an enjoyable collection.

Does it add much to the experience of reading I, Robot? Somewhat. The other stories are much the same thing in many cases and quite different in others. It's a bit jumpier in flow since it's a heavy collection, but there are some gems included here that really stood out: "The Tercentenary Incident", "Victory Unintentional", and "The Bicentennial Man". Aside from that last story, it doesn't ...more

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Apr 28, 2020 Laura-Kristiina Valdson rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, favorites, isaac-asimov

’’The complete Robot’’ consists of 30 short stories, written from 1939 to 1977. There’s also my personal favourite, ’’The Bicentennial Man’’. I read the novelette as a young girl and fell in love with science fiction ever since. I couldn’t stop crying after finishing it. It’s about a creative robot named Andrew, who wishes to be declared human being above anything in the world. After everything he has contributed and numerous adjustments later, he might get that wish. But only if he lets himself ’’The complete Robot’’ consists of 30 short stories, written from 1939 to 1977. There’s also my personal favourite, ’’The Bicentennial Man’’. I read the novelette as a young girl and fell in love with science fiction ever since. I couldn’t stop crying after finishing it. It’s about a creative robot named Andrew, who wishes to be declared human being above anything in the world. After everything he has contributed and numerous adjustments later, he might get that wish. But only if he lets himself die, as human beings are mortal.

As he says:
’’My own positronic pathways have lasted nearly two centuries without perceptible change and can last for centuries more. Isn’t that the fundamental barrier? Human beings can tolerate an immortal robot, for it doesn’t matter how long a machine lasts. They cannot tolerate an immortal human being, since their own mortality is endurable only so long as it is universal. And for that reason they won’t make me human being.’’

Another one:
’’After all your years,’’ said Li-Hsing sadly, ’’you are still trying to reason out the human being. Poor Andrew, don’t be angry, but it’s the robot in you that drives you in that direction.’’

I love how Asimov writes robots. They’re decent and idealistic, just like his best characters. Sometimes even more decent than the human characters. His stories usually have a twist or surprising ending that surprises the reader. He writes about human-robot relationships, class conflict, ’’the frankenstein complex’’, economy, sociology, psychology etc. As such, his stories have a broad scope. While he loves to play around with the 3 laws of robotics, Asimov certainly has a bigger message to tell with his stories.

My favourite stories were: ’’The Bicentennial Man’’, ’’Robbie’’, ’’Someday’’, ’’Segregationist’’, ’’Victory Unintentional’’, ’’Mirror Image’’, ’’Reason’’, ’’Liar!’’ and ’’Feminine Intuition’’. ...more

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Jul 14, 2016 Tim rated it it was amazing

Shelves: own, favorites, reviewed, science-fiction, short-stories-novellas

My first Asimov book and I loved it, from the first till the last story included. His Foundation Trilogy is still waiting to be read, but as I saw this collection of short stories, I decided to tackle these first.

'The Complete Robot' is said to contain all of his robot stories that were published previously in other compilations or magazines, and a few other ones that didn't make it into those earlier compilations. Everything is neatly explained in the foreword (and the different introductions t ...more

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May 10, 2020 Thom rated it it was amazing

Shelves: with-kids, anth-coll

Daughter loved the Robot stories from I, Robot and wanted more. On research, this book had all the stories (up to its publication) so we went to it, reading on odd evenings over the last several months. Even the non-robot stories were fun :)

My favorite was among the non-robot stories - "Sally" is about cars with positronic brains. More of a tale of robot rights than autonomous vehicles, it is a self-contained story. Another great one was "Robot AL-76 Goes Astray", where a robot designed to mine ...more

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Nov 11, 2011 Arnab rated it it was amazing

All stories grip you, and some of the stories are absolutely brilliant and leave a large amount of after thought.

Of the ones I enjoyed most are -

1. Victory Unintentional - Hilarious, hope he had written more such humorous stories!
2. Robbie - One of the masterpieces that get you acquainted with an Asimov robot.
3. Someday - Nice ending.
4. Galley Slave - One academic author, who due to his initial hatred and inability to understand robots, and ignorance, uses a robot incorrectly resulting in a vers ...more

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May 23, 2019 Seth rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi

The Bicentennial man is my second favorite Asimov story - (The Last Question is my favorite but that's in another book).

The rest of this book is still 4 stars though. These short stories form the basis of contemporary sci-fi dealing with robots. They invariably will reference Asimov in some way or another - or at least not have any ideas that Asimov himself hasn't come up with already in this book. Totally recommend.

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Dec 02, 2015 Joel rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, mystery, short-fiction, speculative-fiction

Some Nonhuman Robots

A Boys best friend - 3.5
Sally - 2.5
Someday - 3.5

Some Immobile Robots

Point of view - 2.5
Think! - 3
True Love - 4

Some Metallic Robots

Victory Unintentional - 3.5
Stranger In Paradise - 2.5
Light Verse - 3.5
Segregationist - 5
Robbie - 3 *

Some Humanoid Robots

Let's Get Together - 3
Mirror Image - 3
The Tercentenary Incident - 4

Powell and Donovan

First Law - 2
Runaround - 2.5 *
Reason - 4 *
Catch That Rabbit! - 3 *

Susan Calvin

Liar! - 4 *
Satisfaction Guaranteed - 4
Len ...more

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Aug 18, 2013 David Baird rated it really liked it

I read a lot of Asimov's robot short stories in my early teens, but never the novels and neither the Foundation books. Having discovered that the robot books are a prelude to Foundation I was intrigued to revisit.

I have to say that as stories they're a mixed bag. The early ones are not very well written,but do introduce important concepts into the robots' evolutions - rather fable like in many ways. I found the prose forced and the characters shallow, added to that the early robots were treated ...more

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Mar 25, 2011 Sesana rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction

Almost one-stop shopping for all your robots-by-Asimov needs. Most, but not all, of Asimov's robot and robot-like stories are included here, including all of the stories from I, Robot. I wouldn't suggest reading this instead, of course, because you're missing all of the wonderful bridging narration. Even having already read I, Robot, Robot Dreams, and Robot Visions, I still found plenty of stories that were new to me. Exciting, for me, and it made reading the book more than worthwhile. I loved i ...more

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Jan 15, 2019 B.J. Richardson rated it really liked it

This is a collection of Asimov's robot based short stories. I have previously read I Robot and all of those stories are also here/ This collection, however, also includes many other stories that were not found there and so they were new to me. What seemed unique to me was that, besides a couple stories very early on, each story here is placed in a sort of loose chronology. As you move further into the book you are also moving further forward in fictional time. In this way the book, while still m ...more

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Aug 30, 2009 Cathy rated it really liked it

Shelves: ebook-owned, science-fiction, short-stories, ebook-read, read-in-2009

My dad just discovered Prelude To Foundation, and was excited to discover that Asimov had written books in the series beyond the original trilogy. I had recently become aware of this as well, but also found many books in the series written by other authors. Because publication date does no correspond with storyline date, I felt overwhelmed. But the into to Prelude includes Asimov's list of the order in which he feels his 14 robot, Empire and Foundation books should be read. The list only lacks F ...more

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Feb 15, 2019 Crimson Stigmata rated it it was amazing

If only I could read about Susan Calvin's legendary robot. But the ending novella 'The Bicentennial Man' has actually made me silently weep. The guy is a legend 💖

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Aug 15, 2018 Vinay Bhajantri rated it really liked it

Asimov's stories lead up to the three laws of robotics, each story questioning human logic, morality, regarding technology. All the stories are compiled by Asimov himself which lead to a good reading flow. Each story takes time to digest, would encourage readers to debate and reflect as user and/or creator of technology.

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Mar 04, 2015 Dimitri rated it really liked it

Shelves: sf-fantasy

The robot stories were my first Asimov. Like Susan Calvin, my brain has remained slightly positronic ever since. Yes, The world could benefit from altruïstic AI, even with a measure of omnipotent Multimac. Yes, ithin the next decade, a popular social science book entitled "the Frankenstein Complex" should appear on the shelves, once sex dolls reach android perfection.

In my nostalgic opinion, they are one of the best introductions to his work. The Three Laws of Robotics are, together with the epi ...more

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Dec 02, 2018 Amy rated it really liked it

Shelves: classics, sci-fi, short-stories

Like all short story collections, there are some hit and misses in here.

The misses were what you would expect. Some of the stories are a little repetitive, and some lack any real depth. And like you would expect from a collection of stories from the mid-twentieth century, the female characters were sometimes a bit shit. However, none of the stories were boring or a slog to get through.

As far as the hits, they really were hits. They were clever, they were creative, they were funny, they were si ...more

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Sep 08, 2017 Aurélien Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

First published in 1982 and Asimov having written other robots stories after that, 'The Complete Robot' is, well, not so complete after all! A few short stories are indeed missing (e.g. 'Robot Dream'), a disappointing fact I for one wish the publisher would have addressed by now!
Well, misleading title aside, here's nevertheless a remarkable anthology which is definitely a must-read. Indeed it will please both those curious enough to have a glimpse at Asimov's work (SF master who came up with th ...more

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Jun 03, 2019 Becky rated it liked it

A chance conversation with a stranger in a Panera while we each ate our lunches and procrastinated returning to our final Christmas shopping led me to realize that I had never read anything written by Isaac Asimov. I resolved to fix that in 2019 and this book is my first. It’s odd to finally experience directly something I’ve taken for granted. I knew the three laws going in. And Asimov’s influence is awfully broad. It’s hard to evaluate any book I come to with so many preconceptions as I had he ...more

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Aug 18, 2019 Tahmidul Islam rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I wish I could give it more stars. Holy shit this book was awesome! Isaac Asimov has once again exceeded my expectations. The first stories started as good but not great. From Part IV, stuff started getting exciting. Part VI, Susan Calvin, blew my mind, I have splattered brain everywhere. By the time I started reading The Bicentennial Man, I had my brain back inside, but I just finished, and my mind is blown again.
I said that the stories at the beginning were good but not great to emphasize the ...more

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About Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov

19,047 followers

Isaac Asimov was a Russian-born, American author, a professor of biochemistry, and a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.

Professor Asimov is generally considered one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. He has works published in nine o Isaac Asimov was a Russian-born, American author, a professor of biochemistry, and a highly successful writer, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books.

Professor Asimov is generally considered one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. He has works published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (lacking only an entry in the 100s category of Philosophy).

Asimov is widely considered a master of the science-fiction genre and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, was considered one of the "Big Three" science-fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time, a title many still honor. He also wrote mysteries and fantasy, as well as a great amount of nonfiction. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

Most of Asimov's popularized science books explain scientific concepts in a historical way, going as far back as possible to a time when the science in question was at its simplest stage. He often provides nationalities, birth dates, and death dates for the scientists he mentions, as well as etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Examples include his Guide to Science, the three volume set Understanding Physics, and Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery.

Asimov was a long-time member and Vice President of Mensa International, albeit reluctantly; he described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs" He took more joy in being president of the American Humanist Association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, a Brooklyn, NY elementary school, and two different Isaac Asimov Awards are named in his honor.

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Isaac Asimov. (2007, November 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:50, November 29, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As... ...more

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Quotes from The Complete Robot

“I have the shape of a human being and organs equivalent to those of a human being. My organs, in fact, are identical to some of those in a prosthetized human being. I have contributed artistically, literally, and scientifically to human culture as much as any human being now alive. What more can one ask?” — 6 likes

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