Roger MacBride Allen

My sixth-month journey through random bits of Isaac Asimov that began with Foundation and Chaos finally comes to an end. Allen turns in another solid installment in the Caliban trilogy, even if it does entirely lack a murder mystery in what is ostensibly a series of them. But that's easy to overlook, as what we're left with is another thorough examination of Isaac Asimov's Three Laws and their implications. Inferno's better, but only by a hair. Unit Dee is the difficulties of the First Law show more taken to their radical conclusion, and Caliban finally gets to contribute to the plot in the series ostensibly named after him. And the terraforming feats in this novel are spectacularly audacious. It's a shame none of Allen's ideas were ever really followed up on, though given the quality of most Asimov tie-in fiction, that's probably for the best. show less

Ultimately a pretty disappointing series overall. I remember hearing good things about these, but they didn't really come through for me. There were some interesting hooks in here, both in terms of people and things, and they could have provided opportunities for really interesting and original developments in the SW universe. But I suppose that's not what the owners of this particular intellectual property are looking for. Instead, you get the same people, acting for the most part the same show more way you're used to seeing them act, and encountering phenomena which - no matter how intriguing they seem at first - turn out to be either ultimately trivial or unimportant, or remain unexplained.

Another problem with this series for me is that there's just no tension in any of the dangerous situations characters get into. You can safely apply a Star Trek analysis to the characters, and classify them into two categories: bridge crew and red shirts. It seems impossible for bridge crew to die, or even get seriously hurt, while red shirts are essentially disposable, nothing more than talking scenery. But this isn't a fault of the story, at least not entirely - I've read books that I knew had sequels featuring the same character, or read books more than once so I knew how they turned out, and when they're written by a good, solid author, the moments of tension and danger are so compelling that I forget all about how I _know_ things must turn out.

I could go on and point out additional things that are weak about these books, but why bother, really? I rate this series "for completeists only". show less

My Isaac Asimov kick starts to wind down with the first book of Allen's Caliban trilogy, a series that examines the Three Laws in a way Asimov himself hadn't done since Robots and Empire, and hadn't done with success since I, Robot. In addition, Allen creates a robot mystery better than any since The Naked Sun (possibly even The Caves of Steel). The planet of Inferno also manages to give us a good glimpse at both Spacer and Settler cultures; it's nice to see a bunch of Spacers who, while show more dependent on robots, aren't total nutjobs for once. Caliban himself is a compelling character, too, a type Asimov never did much with himself (aside from Andrew Martin, maybe)-- someone not quite a robot, not quite a human being. show less

We all knew who was probably innocent; add the complexity of everyone else being very suspect; and the true villain was not obvious until the middle of chapter 16. The story reads like a real Asimov detective thriller (only a hint of sex...and no one gets killed) and Allen deserves credit for inventing the gravitonic brain and explaining why the Spacer Worlds are doomed.