The Positronic Man

For such a quick and easy read, at least on the technical level; intellectually, it will blow your mind.

There is so much more to this story than that of an individual's struggle to evolve to an autonomous entity in a society that considers him to be nothing more than a appliance. Is he any less human or sentient simply because he was manufactured not developed? The story will have you thinking quite a bit about subjugation, slavery, autonomy, humanity, prejudice, and more.

Readers who have seen "Bicentennial Man" and "I, Robot" will recognize names and situations and will enjoy seeing where the ideas for these movies was born.

This is a book I would recommend to those who've been hesitant to read science fiction, or want to introduce it show more to a younger or reluctant reader. It is definitely one I will keep multiple copies of because I plan on giving away/loaning them when I have enough on hand. show less

Like Nightfall and The Ugly Little Boy, this is Silverberg expanding an Asimov short story into a novel, and this is the most successful of the lot. Unlike Nightfall, where the extra bits felt extraneous, Silverberg's expansions onto the already-excellent "The Bicentennial Man" just make a good story even better, providing detail where Asimov skimped-- it is, after all, a story that has to cover two centuries! One of my favorite Asimov stories, and it was even made into a decent Asimov movie. (originally written January 2008)

It's amazing sometimes to see the differences between books and the movies they inspire. There are definite similarities to both and there are major discrepancies between them. Thankfully the book is not nearly as schmuckish (not sure that is even a word) as the movie was. I am so glad that there was so much artistic licensing in the second half of the movie, since it turns out to be more or less a Robin Williams vehicle. As is usually the case, the book is much better than the movie.
This is Asimov at his best I think, with the help Silverberg fleshing out the characters more than Asimov did in the Bicentennial Man short story. You can see the difference in styles when comparing this to the Foundation Series that Asimov wrote alone. show more This really gives the Three Laws a thorough going over legally as the story progresses. Highly recommended. show less

This is a fantastic sci-fi story examining the nature of humanity and culture. I quite liked it. Very refreshing to read real sci-fi every now and then when there's so much "Conan in space" type stuff

This book is really excellent. We follow the struggles of the robot Andrew Martin, who strives to become human. He faces a very long opposition and undergoes dramatic changes to accomplish his goal. The writing style is rather descriptive, with which I don't mean there are loads of descriptions, but that the book is not very emotional. It simply describes what happens and lets the events carry the emotions, instead of the language. As a result, the book is not highly exciting, as some others are, but it is very appealing nonetheless, the kind of book you keep picking up almost involuntarily.

This book is really excellent. We follow the struggles of the robot Andrew Martin, who strives to become human. He faces a very long opposition and undergoes dramatic changes to accomplish his goal. The writing style is rather descriptive, with which I don't mean there are loads of descriptions, but that the book is not very emotional. It simply describes what happens and lets the events carry the emotions, instead of the language. As a result, the book is not highly exciting, as some others are, but it is very appealing nonetheless, the kind of book you keep picking up almost involuntarily.

This is an excellent story of robots and men in its own right, but, at first, I thought there appeared to be some inconsistency with some of Asimov's other books. It is obviously set in the same fictional universe, but the previous advancement of robotic science and creating lifelike androids on planets other than Earth (e.g. Aurora) seems to be unknown. Then, I realized this is actually a prequel to the events told in the other robot books (The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn).