Soul Of The Robot

Robot #1

by Barrington J. Bayley

Good Soft cover Condor Publications. Good. Soft cover. 1978.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Robots, Pulp, Novels, Artificial Intelligence

212 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

About the author

Barrington J. Bayley published work principally under his own name but also using the pseudonyms ofAlan Aumbry, Michael Barrington (with Michael Moorcock), John Diamond and P.F. Woods.

Bayley was born in Birmingham and educated in Newport, Shropshire. He worked in a number of jobs before joining the Royal Air Force in 1955; his first published story, "Combat's End", had seen print the year before in UK-only publication Vargo Statten Magazine.

During the 1960s, Bayley's short stories featured regularly in New Worlds magazine and later in its successor, the paperback anthologies of the same name. He became friends with New Worlds editor Michael Moorcock, who largely instigated science fiction's New Wave movement. Bayley himself was part of the movement.

Bayley's first book, Star Virus, was followed by more than a dozen other novels; his downbeat, gloomy approach to novel writing has been cited as influential on the works of M. John Harrison, Brian Stableford and Bruce Sterling.

Reviews

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

B. J. Bayley is one of the world's most overlooked SF writers. However, Michael Moorcock has called him "the most original SF writer of his generation."

So why isn't he more popular? His style is not exactly contemporary; it's a blend of 50s pulp writing and Golden Age ideas ... but always with a special twist. Characterization is virtually nil; it's the ideas that interest him.

Bayley's prose, while not particularly refined, is highly readable, brisk and efficient. There are echoes of Vance and Philip K. Dick in his straightforward narrative. It's good old fashioned adventure.

This is easily his best novel, an inversion of the Asimovian robot story that absorbs much of Asimov's idiom and turns it into something new and different. Jasperodus, the robot of the title, wanders through a far-future world, looking for a soul. A hackneyed theme? Not the way Bayley does it.

This is one of my favorite SF books. Highly recommended.

[Seon Ji (Dawn)]

dnf 10%

Terrible.

No sense of time period.

No logic to the science.

Author eludes to brutal rape of women being pleasurable and erotic.

Writing is crude and amatuer

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ending is a bit tepid but otherwise this is exceptional science fiction.

[iambehindu · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Soul of the Robot is Bayley writing a philosophical treatise disguised as a swashbuckling adventure. Imagine Descartes rewritten by Robert E. Howard, with steel fists instead of syllogisms.

Our hero Jasperodus awakens into consciousness like a metallic Adam, built by an elderly Gepetto-couple who gift him free will and send him careening into a world that insists he has no soul. What ensues is 200 pages of kinetic philosophy: Jasperodus crashes through kingdoms like a chrome-plated Candide, overthrowing empires out of boredom, enslaved by tyrants who can't decide if he's superior machinery or sophisticated furniture.

The genius here is how Bayley turns the exhausted "what is consciousness?" question into propulsive narrative fuel. Jasperodus doesn't contemplate his existence; he conquers, schemes, and abandons whole civilizations in his quest to understand why humans insist he's soulless. All the while trying to replicate the very impulses that he witnesses in social behavior. Only Bayley could outline something so clever: every philosopher who claimed the mind-body problem was abstract never met a robot who could stage a coup.

As always, Bayley’s narratives are digested with ease. Here you will find no throat-clearing, no descriptive setups, just immediate immersion in whatever baroque scenario Jasperodus has wandered into. Barbarian gangs who treat him like a jukebox with delusions of grandeur. The city of Tansiann rising from humanity's ashes at the hands of a robot. All while balanced along Bayley’s core premise: can consciousness be alchemically grafted onto circuits and servos?

This isn't Bayley at his most hallucinogenic, but it might be him at his most slyly profound. In fact, there is an argument to be made this is his best novel. Pure Bayley: sugar-coating existential dread in pulp adventure until you've swallowed the whole philosophical pill without realizing it.

"I am a testament to the advantage of stupidity. I never listened to discouragement but treated its sources to my favorite emotion, disdain. They never understood that I had no ambition to be a writer, because I already was a writer, had become a writer at the age of fourteen. So there.”
- Barrington Bayley

[Zantaeus Glom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was doubly keen to read this a I had never read anything by the much-lauded sf author Barrington J. Bayley, and i am a stone-cold freak for anything Robot. I can safely say that 'The Soul of The Robot' is a cracking good yarn, and, surprisingly, it had little in common with the mighty canon of Asimov; which made it all the more unique.

Like many of the greater, more literary sf novels, this is also crammed to the gunnels with analogy, allegory, mondo-metaphysics, philosophical conjecture and rampant derring do; but its greatest strength lies in Barrington's sure prose and breathless pacing, as his 'The Soul of The Robot' unfurls its ripping yarn with the greatest alacrity.

The deceptively simple tale of our enigmatic protagonist, the freshly-minted robot Jasperodus and his truly epic journey across this rumbustious, proto-steampunk planatoid, in order for him to discover whether or not, he is actually replete with comparable human consciousness is jolly well realized, and, in part, very, very moving.

I would have laid on the full five stars, but, I personally didn't groove on the ending; while certainly pat, it lacked both the risk, or giddy fortitude of the author's clearly vibrant imagination.

It must also be said that Jasperodus is a truly magnificent creation, and not one I shall be forgetting any time soon.

Barrington J. Bayley wherever you are, many, many thanks for the words; your writing talent was manifest in this glorious sf tome.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A scifi picaresque told with the tone of a fable or a fairy tale. I was reminded of Vance and Lem a lot. Jesperodus the titular robot is terrific existential hero, at times chilling, ruthless and sometimes quite tender and wise and always seeking answers and resolutions. The events of his journey are quite absurd but quite tragic. I have found many of Bayley’s novels too pulpy but this is constantly entertaining and thought provoking and while lightweight compared to his macabre and idea dense short fiction is still worth a read. This book reminds me of Iain M. Banks’s Against a Dark Background (train robberies, fractured ancient cultures with a mix of technologies, robots) and I wonder if it was an influence.

[Fantasy boy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Soul of the Robot by Barrington J. Hayley is a Robot Science fiction. The title explicitly says what is the story about. The robot, Jasperodus who has a soul after he was awaken but he didn’t know that, he alone went on the journey of discovering wether his self-consciousness exists or not, or just a self- Image of reflecting human’s mind. Is he a mimic creation of humans or he indeed has his own self- consciousness? The journey he went on further, the more questions about consciousness he got. Fortunately, for him the ending specifically gave Jasperodus an answer of what he was looking for. Whatever the answer is convincible or not, for Jasperodus, it is crucial for him; and is the question also for readers what is consciousness? What is the meaning of it for us humans? The ultimately existential meaning to the species which have intelligent. Are we capable to perfume Artificial consciousness? If so what is the responsibility to us and the creations?

I really like the Jasperodus’s story of seeking consciousness and on the way he has encountered numerous challenges, the ragtag of robot slums in the Tansiann, the uprising in Gordona, the conflicts Tansiann empire with Borgor empire, the Kroun’s flower barter with the aircraft etc. It’s more a robot’s journey rather than a usual Sci-Fi story. However, it isn’t less interesting to read, and you can feel what Jasperodus has been through in comprehending the possessive consciousness in the advanced robot like him. As a reader, I can see he doesn’t need any proves from other people or sciences to confirm that Jasperodus possesses a soul, what he has decided to do and lived in his life already prove that he is equal to human.

The story carry the powerful message of what is being a human and why we need to prove to ourself that we are existential being in the universe? It reminded me of Pinocchio’s story. The basic story structure is the same but Jasperodus is less naive than Pinocchio as a character. The plots might be a bit dated to the time that I am reading it, although it doesn’t reduce the enjoyment of reading it; having some interesting explanations of souls and consciousness even though it may be considered as pseudo science, but it is a Sci Fi book and not a hard Sci Fi book.

I think The Soul of the Robot has the emotional impact on reading it, and it has more emotional impact than average fantasy books for me. I have read numerous fantasy books so far and I definitely know what fantasy authors try to create emotional impact on their books. For me, many of those character-driven fantasy books are just fine, as I have read MANY characters in fantasy books and thus what are those redundant plots or dialogues in order to creat the tension or emotional effects on reading experience. A good emotional impact doesn’t need those redundant plots to convey emotions to readers, a simple premise of a story could develop the same or even more feelings to it.

It was a unique reading experience for me to read a totally unheard Sci Fi writer to me and had a wonderful time with it. The story is a bit dated and the sciences which have mentioned are considered pseudo sciences. Still I had a good time reading it and it reminded me of the song Walking disaster by Sum 41. So far A Case of Conscience by Jame Blish and this book remind me of the song. I remember the video of the song is a robot walking into the world where it wasn’t familiar with, eventually he went back to a shop, there it found its companions and its existence.

[asunder_doom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can’t recommend this enough. Barrington Bayley is truly something special.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Barrington Bayley is perhaps the truest science fiction writer I have ever come across. His stories are filled with all the swashbuckling action and adventure SF is supposed to have while taking the ideas raised by imagined science very seriously indeed. Bayely does this by blending history, philosophy, and classic fiction with a dash of mysticism.

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2007...

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one's got some cool stuff in it. It's definitely pretty basic sci-fi, but is mostly solid. I found it to be a bit more repetitive than I had hoped, the second half of the book being very similar to the first. The dialogue is nearly completely innocuous. Not sure if Bayley had much of a sense of humor, but if he did, he sure did a great job of keeping it out of this book. That being said, one of the merits of the book is that it is consistently direct and to the point. The pace is mostly quick, with Bayley only occasionally entertaining his more (boring and) hard-sf notions/ faux scientific metaphysical tangents.

I have to say this is probably only BARELY worth the 3-star rating, if I'm being completely objective. I probably would never recommend that someone read it. Haha... I know that's weird. But, having just finished the book I think I am still coming to grips with just how disappointed I was by the second half. Also, I think a lot of the pleasure I got out of the first half was from imagining what might be coming in the second half, and being inspired by some of the ideas it offers early on, and not necessarily by the writing itself. The book itself is really aching for an edge, or for a jolt of whimsy, or creativity, or silliness or something. It just feels like the ghost of a good novel. I don't know. It needs a kick in the ass.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story of a robot made by husband-wife roboticists in hopes it will be their child. But it was designed with some attributes selected at random, and for it to have choice. When activated, it leaves its "parents." The robot is very capable and the story tells of his rises and falls from power. Some will find this better than I did on the basis of being an adventure.

Throughout the book the robot is plagued by the belief he's a conscious, self-directed being, just as humans are. But he's continually faced with humans (including great roboticists) who insist a robot is incapable of such. Regardless of whether true AI consciousness is possible, I found the reasons given in the book flawed - sometimes admitting humans could not meet the criteria on which robots were "proved" unable to be conscious.



At the end, the robot is told he has true consciousness because his "parents" each contributed a half portion of the "soul" or "life energy" given to the robot. This is said to be immaterial stuff that can survive the body's death. That's internally consistent - giving reason why one can't prove that humans meet the criteria. Yet, it doesn't really make sense. What's it mean to give part of your "soul" to something else? What's "life energy," if it's not a "soul?" How can physical injuries make a human cease being conscious if the basis of consciousness is immaterial? Etc.

The book presents this as the story's resolution - it's not just an error on a secondary point.

[Robert Whelan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A study of consciousness and what it means to be human. This hugely enjoyable story details one robots search for consciousness

[Benjamin Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel offers a thought provoking insight into what it means to be conscious. The narrative follows Jasperodus as he awakens into a futuristic yet medieval world, a setting that Bayley is able to pull off quite believably through his realistic human characters. The author suspends disbelief by placing these people in a technologically advanced world with a feudal government. These characters are nowhere near as fascinating as Jasperodus himself who learn about this place at the same pace as the reader. There is an intriguing imagery at work in the novel too, as the masterfully crafted android is seen as human by people in a very lushly detailed setting.

[Marsha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book reads much like a steampunk reworking of Collodi’s Pinocchio. Given life by human parents, the robot Jasperodus shows his immediate ingratitude by sneering at them and walking out moments after he is activated. His life then reads like a pilgrim’s progress as he attempts to assert and affirm his consciousness and equality to human beings in a world that sees robots as inferior beings.

The book suffers from the fact that Jasperodus, in spite of his inner dialogue, erudite speech and attempts at philosophy, basically allows himself to be shunted from one situation to another. He does instigate certain actions, like when he commits treason and crowns himself king or foments a revolution. But he quickly grows bored or restless with his victories and uproots himself to go wandering elsewhere.

In time, his conviction about whether he is a conscious being or simply dead like all the robots around him (an arrogant notion on his part since many of these other robots possess distinct personalities, mannerisms and speech as complex as his own) comes not from his own cogitations but by answers provided to him by others. One man tells him he’s simply a machine, albeit a very sophisticated one, and he despairs. Another weaves him a fantastical tale of having been infused with a soul and Jasperodus is immediately gratified that his long-held belief has been validated: he IS conscious and as deserving of autonomous freedom and respect as any human around him.

But neither of these beliefs comes from Jasperodus but merely from outside sources. He isn’t good, decent, moral or kind. He’s given to sullenness, moodiness, vindictiveness, pride, vanity and indifference to most of the people and machines around him. He learns to compose music and paint pictures but he does this to prove to himself that he is as good as or better than humans.

Why did humans learn to construct flying machines? It would enable them to travel farther and faster than mere cars and, ultimately, soar to the stars; we didn’t do so in order to pretend to be swans, crows or eagles. This is the mistake that Jasperodus makes, along with searching for confirmation for his vanity outside himself rather than within.

Also, the book shows a decided misogyny. Women make sporadic appearances but have almost no importance. His nameless mother is dismissed within moments of his “birth”; she doesn’t appear again in the book because she dies before he can return home. A bunch of women from a train are kidnapped and brutally raped. Other women find Jasperodus’s obvious masculine frame enticing so he has circuitry implanted to make himself sexual. That’s it. The women are mothers, whores, sex slaves or nameless sexual partners. There are no women of agency like himself, no significant women with names and none who provide any impetus to the story.

This is a chaotic, action-adventure story that cheapens its main character and provides almost nothing about women. Stick to the original Collodi tale; at least we get a powerful female character in the Fairy with the Blue Hair.

[Angus Mcfarlane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I indulged into from a recent purchase of classic scifi omnibi (omnibuses?). It's a relatively simple story - the prodigal son Jasperodus travels a dystopic future earth seeking fame and fortune. But entwined into the story is a musing on the various explanations of consciousness and whether it can be artificially created. And alongside this, there seems to be an undercurrent concerning human rights, particularly the tendency for humans to paint others as somehow sub-human as a way to protect our mob and justify the actions required to do so. The consciousness question is eventually solved by a resort to 'magic' - not something that tends to satisfy amidst a considered review of scientific options, but also realistic somehow. Thought provoking at a number of levels, I found the story engaging but not compelling and something of a mechanism for allegory. If this was the intent it works well, but not for those wanting a big story.

[Robert (NurseBob) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story of Jasperodus, an advanced robot struggling to determine whether or not he is "conscious" serves as a springboard for philosophical conjecture, political theory, psychological observation, and social experiment. But as his journey comes full circle the ultimate solution to the central question---can a machine be aware?---is a bit of a stretch. Good storytelling however, especially in this age of ChatGPT, and a fine companion piece to Asimov's Robot series. I look forward to reading the sequel.

[Keroro · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read this book, cuz somebody mentioned here that it is better than Vonnegut ...
Really, I was not able to find any points to compare these two authors, however Soul of the Robot left very hard feeling that author of that masterpiece is trying to pull two incompatible things simultaneously: to tug hard and not to fart.

[Donald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well-paced, picaresque adventure, in the classic form of a tale of the rise of our protagonist from humble beginnings to world conquering greatness. The fact that hero is a robot, who seeks both to take control of his circumstances and to understand his own being adds philosophical interest. This is a superior adventure story, well written, witty and politically astute.

[Santiago · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.larealidadestupefaciente.c...

[Sophie Wiles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but ended abruptly, wouldn’t read again but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Would recommend if you like a classic sci fi.

[Bill Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific book with some scary parallels with our world today...
Highly recommended...

[SERGI LAPEIRA · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it very much, and it is a precedent in putting the spotlight on the enormous problems with which AI is plaguing the human race. Absolutely recommended.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently I have been reading alot of books about robots. Specifically, I have been trying to read books that are on the best of lists. The Soul of the Robot is on many of the lists, but many times it is further down the list after more of the classic robot books. Rightfully so.

This book really doesn't have a story arc and was kinda hard to finish. While Jasperodus looks for his soul- consciousness - purpose throughout the book, the book feels more like a collection of his experiences tied together for his search for his soul. Don't get me wrong, there were a lot of fun nuggets, but overall the book was weak.

PS- About halfway through I figured out where the book was going without knowing it! Ha!

[Andy]

AMERICAN 1ST EDITION PBACK. (C) 1974 BARRINGTON J. BAYLEY.