A wonderful variety of short stories
I'm no diehard Asimov fan, but I could hardly put down this collection of short stories. Perhaps it was the variety that I liked most. Although they (almost) all revolved around the Laws of Robotics, there was tremendous variation in characters and plots. I'm sure I need hardly mention Asimov's engaging and clear writing style.Some of the technology that Asimov envisioned half a century ago may indeed seem absurd to us now, but it's not really about the technology anyway. It's about us humans, right here, right now. Asimov exposes our prejudices with cleverness, subtlety, and honesty.
Amazing, amusing intro to future history according to Asimov
This collection of classic science fiction short stories works on a number of levels.First and foremost, this is darn good reading, filled with Asimov's good humor and ability to tell an entertaining story.
Secondly, it is mostly a prelude to his robot novels, Empire series, and Foundation series. Most of the stories are in a time period before CAVES OF STEEL. One obvious exception is an Elijah Bailey & R. Daneel Olivaw short which is a follow-up to the first two robot novels. One story, "Victory Unintentional", refers to the Terrestrian Empire, and others, especially some of the Susan Calvin stories, have to do with man's first expansion beyond our own Solar system.
Thirdly, we're given a variety of levels of science-fiction writing. We're told where the original stories were first published, and we see Asimov's versatility and ability to write for various markets. Many come from Astounding/Analog, the magazine which published the hardest core science fiction. A couple come from the Ziff-Davis magazines, AMAZING STORIES & FANTASTIC which were soft-core s-f magazines. A couple come from THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE-FICTION which had a more literary slant. Several other classic s-f magazines are represented. However, some stories come from non science-fiction magazines, such as SATURDAY EVENING POST and the Boy Scout magazine BOY'S LIFE, each carefully tailored for the market.
As noted by others, the Susan Calvin stories are especially good. They, along with a few other stories, appear to have been slightly revised for the sake of continuity. In fact, I question whether or not Susan Calvin was originally mentioned in "Robbie", Asimov's first robot story. Somehow, I doubt it.
At any rate, this is easily one of the best collections of classic science-fiction as well as being just plain darn good reading that you'll find.
The dear dr. Susan Calvin
Among the thirty-one short stories, totalling some
200.000 words, included in "the complete robot", I
particular enjoyed the 10 stories featuring
chief Robopsychologist Susan Calvin.
Susan Calvin, the star of US Robots and Mechanical Men inc.
The woman with the acid charm and the steely character,
the women who loves robots a lot - and men, not that much.
Surely it is a must read. And surely no serious sci-fi
reader should be without this collection.
It was worth the special order price!
I suppose I'm biased as an Asimov fan, but I really think it's a shame this book is out of print in the U.S. It was worth the $20.00+ price. If you want to read the robot stories of Asimov's which he did not include in _I, Robot_ ("Robot AL-76 Goes Astray" was great), this is a must.
How times change...
I am new to Asimov, so going through The Complete Robot stories was a crash course. These stories give a perspective of the future and our relationship with technology that is different than the prevailing "trekkish" view, and one that may not be so optimistic. While sometimes the stories are nothing more than thinly veiled logic puzzles, they are always entertaining - and sometimes infuriating. And the differences between Asimov's vision and today's technologies (No PCs? No Printers? Huge Mainframes?)is amusing see in hindsight. A must read for any sci fi fans.
(13 reviews)
