I read this a long time ago, and I remember really enjoying many of the stories. By today's standards, these wouldn't be considered very sophisticated, but I read them in my late 30s and have an appreciation for the founding fathers of Science Fiction. I really liked the way he would have emotional connections between some of the human characters and some of the robots. This contained The Bicentennial Man and the stories that inspired I Robot. From a movie perspective, I could enjoy them, but they couldn't really capture what Asimov did with his words. ( )

Asimov's strength has always been his short stories, and this strength is best shown here, coupled with his interesting Laws of Robotics. Some would say many of the stories read like logic puzzles, but they are still a fun read. ( )

I actually read this collection of short stories over a period of about two months. While a few were vaguely familiar most were either new to me or read so long ago that I had no memory of them. A good collection of classic SF. The reading of this book was inspired by watching the movie 'I, Robot'.

science fiction ( )

This is another of Asimov's robot short story collections, and many of the stories appear in earlier works. In fact, I would recommend getting I, Robot and this book, and avoiding The Rest of the Robots if you're not interested in owning a complete collection of books, but do want to have all of the stories. I say you should get a copy of I, Robot mainly because it has linking matter between the stories that this book lacks.

The Complete Robot is as good as Asimov's other short story books I have read, which means I thought it was fantastic.

http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asi... ( )

A collection of Asimov's robot stories, including Robbie and Bicentennial Man, the story that was (losely) the inspiration for the movie of the same name. Several of the stories were also the background for the I, Robot movie. An excellent collection of robot stories. ( )

The Master at Work: Isaac Asimov is the master of the short story, revealing a whole new world in a paragraph. His robot stories are brilliant feats of imagination, and his Laws of Robotics have had a profound influence on the real world of Artificial Intelligence research. Do read these - they are wonderful.

These tales document the complete range of Isaac Asimov's robot stories right from the start through to late 60s stories. Unlike most collections of this nature, this collection is arranged in style of story rather than purely chronological, so we get all the stories relating to Multivac, or Susan Calvin in their section. Each section gets a commentary from the Good Doctor indicting his thoughts on the ideas behind the stories.

The collection ends with a couple of novellas, one of which, 'The Bicentennial Man', became a full length novel and a film. ( )

As well as the stories, the book is structured thus :

Introduction
Some Non-human Robots
Some Immobile Robots
Some Metallic Robots
Some Humanoid Robots
Powell and Donovan
Susan Calvin
Two Climaxes
A Last Word

Asimov explains he wanted to group the stories together by type, not by chronology, and these are the various sections he gives when doing so, as explained in the introduction, and he also contributes an afterword.

Of course this isn't actually complete now, as he has come up with more.

Complete Robot : A Boy's Best Friend - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Sally - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Someday - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Point of View - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Think! - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : True Love - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Robot AL-76 Goes Astray - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Victory Unintentional - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Stranger in Paradise - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Light Verse - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Segregationist - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Robbie - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Let's Get Together - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Mirror Image - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : The Tercentenary Incident - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : First Law - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Runaround - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Reason - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Catch That Rabbit - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Liar! - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Satisfaction Guaranteed - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Lenny - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Galley Slave - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Little Lost Robot - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Risk - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Escape! - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Evidence - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : The Evitable Conflict - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : Feminine Intuition - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : That Thou Art Mindful of Him - Isaac Asimov
Complete Robot : The Bicentennial Man - Isaac Asimov

Roborover fine by me.

3.5 out of 5

Roborover fine by me.

4 out of 5

Writing? You jest.

2.5 out of 5

Supercomputers need fun too.

3 out of 5

Computer brain power talk.

3 out of 5

Computer match.

3.5 out of 5

Disintegration confusion.

3.5 out of 5

Understanding Jovian psychology.

3.5 out of 5

Mercury Project problems.

2.5 out of 5

Busted robot art.

3.5 out of 5

Metallo wannabes.

3 out of 5

Robot chasey and other games.

3.5 out of 5

Robot detente.

3 out of 5

Jehosaphat! Deadly mathematical rivalry.

3 out of 5

Robot double talk.

3 out of 5

Rulebreaker story.

3 out of 5

Old robot mine retrieval squad.

4 out of 5

Robot curiosity of philosophy.

3.5 out of 5

New robot brains can be problematic.

3.5 out of 5

Telepathic robot advice is caught in logic loop.

3.5 out of 5

No robots in my house, even if cute.

3.5 out of 5

Robot teaching mummy.

3.5 out of 5

Proofreading plus.

3.5 out of 5

Monkeying with the Laws can have surprising results.

4 out of 5

Robot hypertravel test experiment proves limited.

3.5 out of 5

Big Brain interrogation and travel problems.

3.5 out of 5

Politics and impersonation.

3.5 out of 5

Politics of The Machine.

3 out of 5

Girlbot creativity communication.

3.5 out of 5

Advanced robot creation assignment.

3.5 out of 5

Robot evolution legal test case.

4 out of 5




http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/11... ( )

Isaac Asimov has always been one of those authors who has been on my "authors I want to read one day" list and a couple of months back, I got the chance to get a copy of "The Complete Robot". I like complete anthologies of stories because it gives you the chance to read them one after another and compare them to one another, so I got the book and started reading it slowly, in between other books. I also wanted to read Asimov's robot stories after the Hollywood debacle that was "I Robot". This Will Smith movie was based upon Asimov's work although Hollywood did their usual best to screw things up by twisting the story around. Same goes for the atrocious movie "Bicentennial Man" with Robin Williams. That too is an Asimov story.

This collection of stories is 688 pages long and covers the full length and breadth of Asimov's writing career, although the stories are not chronologically arranged. Instead, they are split up into categories such as the Susan Calvin series, robots as companions, robots seeking humanity, robots malfunctioning and so on. In each story, Asimov clearly shows his love and support for the subject of robotics (in fact he invented the word "robotics"). Each story is supposed to demonstrate that robots are harmless, that they can serve mankind instead of destroying it, that robots are a force for good and so on. In fact, in many ways, Asimov treats the robots as if they are pet puppies to be played with and admired, while in others (especially the Susan Calvin stories), Asimov clearly displays his dislike and distaste of human beings and he clearly shows his preference for robotic company instead.

Asimov also emphasises the Robotic "Three Laws" which says that a robot may not harm a human being, may not allow a human to come to harm through inaction and they must sacrifice themselves to protect a human. Again, this is Asimov's way of telling the world they have nothing to fear from robots.

There are however downsides to these stories (hence the 3 star rating). First, the stories are extremely dated. They were first written in the 1950's and 1960's and obviously a lot has changed in the past 40-50 years. Science and technology has changed & morphed in a way that Asimov could not have expected at the time and so these stories sound a little antiquated. Second, Asimov was very much a scientist and this is heavily reflected in his writing. Some of the stories were unreadable to me because they were so heavy with scientific facts. So there was a bit of page-flipping.

Nevertheless, the stories were enjoyable generally and helped to pass the time if I had 10 minutes or so to kill. It's a good book to have on your bedside table if you want a dose of quick fiction before bed. ( )

I'll admit that I took a very long time before I first tried Asimov; even after being given a book of his, it took me eight years or so to read the thing. This one hasn't been waiting around quite that long, but much like the first one, the reading of it raises the question of why it took so long to get here.

This book is, as the title suggests, pretty much all of the Robot stories that Asimov wrote (minus a couple of later ones, it seems). Considering that this is the man that invented the word "robotics," and expounded on it to a great degree, it means there's a lot of stuff in here; it has a few other compilations of his Robot stories enclosed in it, for example. It's pretty well rounded, as well; there are a number of stories focusing on non-humanoid robots, on computers, and then with his signature characters, as well.

The writing style is quite unvarnished, and a bit uneven in places, especially in the stories that were chronologically the earliest. The character development is pretty limited, and he seems largely to be content to have his speakers be at turns upset and inspired. However, if you're willing to do without extensive descriptions, then you get a bunch of very interesting puzzles, laid out in a variety of ways. Really, there's a lot of logic. The author's unifying belief in how a robotic system to work really shines through in a collection of this magnitude, as well.

I very much enjoyed this, and while I don't really think I see more of Asimov's work in my immediate future, I may pick up more of it in the long term. ( )

good compile of stoires ( )