By: Isaac Asimov
9 Short stories that evolved into a book in 1950 and later into an audiobook, I, Robot is nothing like the movie. What a surprise. This story is narrated by Dr.Calvin as she tells her story through the long history of the rise of the robots; long before her birth, throughout her long career and the happenings there after. Dr. Calvin was the chief robot psychologist at US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc.
Dr.Calvin was born in 1982 and graduated college in 2003, so you can see that when the author wrote this, he never expected these dates to ever actually arrive. His imagination was pretty great for beginning the series in the late 1940’s, and he wasn’t too far off in many things. The book becomes somewhat based on the following principals and as humans error they must find ways to compensate: A robot may not injure a human being; nor, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law
I, Robot was an interesting listen when keeping in mind that this book was published in 1950. With the technology we have now and some of the amazing newer writers, this book would not appeal to a really wide modern audience. It has great classical value however. It is still considered one of the top 100 best Science Fiction audiobooks of all-time. This time period’s books seem to all have anti-Russian undertones, I find that pretty interesting as I listen to more classic audiobooks, because it was a major concern of that time. I have a little bit of a hard time relating. Maybe in the year 2040, western people will have no ill-feelings for Al-queda or the Middle East in general. Maybe by 2040 human’s will be deemed obsolete and robots will be in power as audiobook explores.
Audiobook Length: 8 hrs 25 minutes.
Ages 14 and Up.
★★★☆☆ 3/5 Stars
Genre:
Fiction, Fantasy, Short Story, Science Fiction, Children’s Literature, Speculative Fiction
Book to Movie Grade: B
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