From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

I, Robot (Robot, #0.1)

Isaac Asimov

Start date: April 1, 2022

Finish date: May 31, 2022

Discussion: Science Fiction and Fantasy

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Science Fiction and Fantasy

* 2026 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Reading Schedule
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What Members Thought

Feb 07, 2017 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, novellas, american-fiction, read-2017, fiction-20th-century, audio-books, science-fiction

From BBc Radio 4 - 15 minute drama:
The rise of robotics in the 21st century, told through the poignant and mysterious story of enigmatic lawyer, Stevie Byerley. Starring Hermione Norris.

Episode One : ROBBIE
As a child, Stevie Byerley is raised by Robbie, a robotic childminder, because her parents are too busy working. The powerful bond she forms with the robot is unbreakable. Their relationship will change the course of Stevie's life.

Originally written over 60 years ago, Isaac Asimov's stories ar ...more

12 likes · Like · see review

Sep 02, 2015 Canavan rated it liked it

✭✭✭

The stories in I, Robot are probably among the earliest science fiction stories I ever read, so I was curious to see how the passage of time would affect my perception of them. The book is a fix-up — the individual stories were written over a period of about 10 years and subsequently collected in book form. The stories (some, I assume, revised slightly for the collection) are interconnected via a somewhat awkward framing device in which an unnamed reporter interviews Dr. Susan Calvin, a r ✭✭✭

The stories in I, Robot are probably among the earliest science fiction stories I ever read, so I was curious to see how the passage of time would affect my perception of them. The book is a fix-up — the individual stories were written over a period of about 10 years and subsequently collected in book form. The stories (some, I assume, revised slightly for the collection) are interconnected via a somewhat awkward framing device in which an unnamed reporter interviews Dr. Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist who features prominently in Asimov’s fictional history of the “postronic” robot. The stories are for the most part structured as quasi-mysteries; that is, the story protagonists are faced with some aberrant robot behavior and must decipher the origins of such behavior given the constraints of the (by now famous) three robotics laws.

Some of the stories here hold up rather well. But they do highlight Asimov’s limitations as a writer. Characters tend to be rather one dimensional and the writing itself is often a bit clunky; there’s an over-reliance, for example, on dialog tags (people are alway snarling, &c., &c.). By and large, I preferred those stories which featured Calvin as opposed to those with the Gregory/Donovan duo. The story I liked best is the one least like any of the others — “Robbie” was the first robot story written by Asimov, inspired, he said, by Eando Binder’s short story, “I, Robot”. Unlike the other stories, “Robbie” is less about hard-to-decipher robotic behavior than about human behavior vis-à-vis robots. It’s not perfect and it’s pretty mawkish, but I have a high tolerance for that kind of stuff.

“Robbie” (variant title: “Strange Bedfellow”) (1940) ✭✭✭✭½
“Runaround” (1942) ✭✭½
“Reason” (1941) ✭✭✭½
“Catch That Rabbit” (1944) ✭✭
“Liar!” (1941) ✭✭½
“Little Lost Robot” (1947) ✭✭✭½
“Escape!” (1945) ✭✭
“Evidence” (1946) ✭✭✭✭
“The Evitable Conflict” (1950) ✭✭✭½ ...more

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Jul 31, 2019 Kelly_Hunsaker_reads ... rated it liked it

Shelves: 1001-books, read-in-2019, classics, science-fiction, short-stories

Anyone who follows my reviews knows that I rarely like science fiction but am willing to try and can appreciate and admire that these stories were written far ahead of the knowledge of their day. These books are often prescient and this one is no exception. It was written in 1950 and felt as though it could have been written today.

3.5 stars!

I, Robot is a collection of short stories written by Isaac Asimov. The stories are tied together by the focus on robotics and the three rules that Asimov cre ...more

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Sep 17, 2020 Pamela(AllHoney) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: anthologies, classics, books-to-movies, sci-fiction

A collection of short stories with Robots as the main subject. I was watching the Will Smith movie I, Robot, the other day and decided to check out this classic Sci-Fi. While the movie doesn't really have anything to do with the book other than the concept of the 3 rules for robots and their evolution, I found the stories to be entertaining and creative. I feel like I have missed out on a lot of great literature by not reading Isaac Asimov in the past. I will read more in the future. ...more

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Mar 14, 2021 Natalie rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, classics

I, Robot was an interesting book in that it was a series of stories about robots and the laws that govern them. The robots must not harm a human or themselves. The best story was the nanny robot in the beginning. At times, there was slow dialogue that had little to do with robots and was quite boring to slog through. The robots are not too advanced in that there is no video feed from them. But the book had some interesting sections.

2 likes · Like · see review