Book Review – I, Robot

My first experience with Asimov was reading Robot Dreams, a collection of short stories centered around the topic of robot development, intelligence, and incorporation into the human world.  When I picked up I, Robot I was expecting something more akin to the movie.  I was very wrong, but thankfully so.  It was much more a collection than I expected, and had very little to do with the film, but this classic sci-fi masterpiece turned out to be a wonderful read.

The story of I, Robot is one of time.  It is a series of short stories, all interconnected, and chronologically placed to show the history of robot production, improvement, and integration.  The narrator and main character, Susan Calvin, works for U.S. Robotics, a company than ultimately runs the robot world.  As these man-made creations become more and more sophisticated, problems arise that must be faced, solved, and dealt with in a surprisingly human way.  The lines begin to blur between robots as slaves and robots as peers in this scientifically interesting work.

You have got to enjoy science to enjoy this book, even more so than other sc-fi novels.  There is a technical side that is very interesting, but also very in depth.  However, beyond the science is a very human element; the attempt to understand the robot brain leads to some intriguing conversations on religion, thought processes, morals, etc.  It sounds cheesy to say, but the study of robotics leads to some fascinating insights on humans.  I, Robot is part story but mostly idea, as it poses a possible future and leads us in a discussion of the various topics related to it.  A very interesting read, one of sci-fi’s groundbreaking stories.