The Stars, Like Dust By Isaac Asimov

The Stars, Like Dust
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1951

Biron Farrill is a student on Earth, completing his college studies when he detects a bomb in his dorm room. He escapes, but is whisked away after a professor informs him that his father, a political dissident, has been murdered by the Tyranni who rule many star systems.

He is sent to Rhodia, one of Tyran’s conquered planets, to learn about a plot to overthrow Tyranni rule. He is betrayed by the Director of Rhodia and is forced to flee with the Director’s daughter, Artemisia and her uncle Gilbert. They travel to the planet Lingane to meet with dissidents there.

There, they meet the Autarch of Lingane (who is revealed to be Sander Jonti, the man who sent Farrill to Rhodia from Earth), who seems to possess knowledge of a rebellion world. With him and his followers, the group travel to the heart of the Horsehead Nebula — they believe that for any rebellion world to exist and not be known to the Tyranni, it must be located in a place like the Horsehead Nebula.

The Tyranni spaceship stolen by Farrill is being tracked by a fleet of Tyranni vessels led by Simok Aratap, the Tyrannian Commissioner. With him is the Director, who is shown to be nervous about his daughter's and brother's well-being. They keep themselves at a distance for fear of Farrill discovering them until Farrill lands on one planet in the heart of the nebula.

The Autarch believes that the planet is the rebellion world. However, there is no sign of life anywhere. When the Autarch and Farrill leave the spaceship to apparently set up a radio transmitter, Farrill faces the Autarch and accuses him of getting his father killed at the hands of the Tyranni. The Autarch affirms the accusation, to which Farrill adds that the Autarch feared his father's growing reputation. That is why he arranged Farrill's father's death.

In a fight, Farrill subdues the Autarch with help from the Autarch's aide, Tedor Rizzet, who reveals that he is ashamed of the Autarch for killing a great man like Farrill's father. Later, as Farrill and Rizzet try to explain everything to the rest of the crew they picked up from Lingane, the Tyranni fleet arrives and takes them prisoner. Aratap interrogates Farrill, Artemisia, Gillbret and Rizzet in order to ascertain the coordinates of the rebellion world but they do not know where it is. However, the Autarch reveals the coordinates to Aratap. Rizzet kills the Autarch with a blaster in anger.

While Aratap interrogates Farrill, Gillbret manages to escape to the engine room of the spaceship and short the hyperatomics. Farrill, realising the danger, manages to contact Aratap. The engines are repaired, but Gillbret is injured and later dies.

The space jump is made with the coordinates given to them by the late Autarch. However, they find a planetless system consisting only of a white-dwarf star. Aratap lets Farrill and the others go, believing that there is no rebellion world. Aratap makes it clear that he will never to be chosen as Director. Biron and Artemisia are allowed to marry.

It is eventually revealed that there is indeed a rebellion in the making, located on Rhodia itself. The Director is its leader; he deliberately took on the persona of a nervous and timid old man to throw off suspicion from himself and his planet.

It is further revealed that the Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for, and found, a document that will help a future empire-yet-to-be (likely Trantor) govern the galaxy. This document is ultimately revealed to be the United States Constitution.

The Stars, Like Dust works on a level not achieved by The Currents of Space or Pebble in the Sky. It does not try to be a complex spy thriller told in less than 200 pages. Nor does it get weighed down in heavy politics or distracting and ineffective subplots. The Stars, Like Dust is pure space opera loaded with shootouts, space trips, mysterious planets, and evil bad guys.

This is not, in and of itself, the definition of good science fiction. Subplots, intrigue, complex schemes and thick character development are all ingredients of great general fiction and genre fiction. But when an author tries and fails to effectively incorporate these elements into the story, the result is drudgery for the reader. When an author tries, and succeeds to tell a simple, but exciting, story, that’s reading gold.

This is not to say The Stars, Like Dust was a great story telling achievement. It had a couple serious flaws. The first was the introduction of a mysterious document Biron was supposed to secretly obtain on Earth that was so powerful it would help foment revolution. This is the book’s only subplot and mercifully, Asimov dismisses his own foolishness until near the end when the characters have an, “oh yeah, what about that?” moment.

That document is, of course, the U.S. Constitution. While I am as reverent of the Constitution and its principles as anyone, I hate to see it inserted into science fiction. I can’t help but remember William Shatner’s melodramatic reading of the Preamble in the Star Trek episode, The Omega Glory. That is a painful memory. This subplot didn’t need to be there.

Of course, there is also the dated sexism in the story. Biron’s love interest, Artemisia, is the consummate female lead in these pulp era science fiction stories. She is a bystander. She is a passive narrative voice. She has no active role. Today’s readers are a little more demanding of their heroines.

Asimov’s early works deliver for me just what I want them to: good stories that are well-paced and well told. Writers who cut their teeth on pulp magazines work hard to economize words and tell stories that move to economize on space. Asimov, like Bradbury, Matheson, Dick, and the other greats who emerged from this format, rank among the great story tellers and I love them!

Although it was the third written, The Stars, Like Dust is the first in the chronology of the Galactic Empire series that lies between Asimov's Robots series and Foundation series. It takes place centuries before the rise of Trantor as the rulers of the galaxy. The beauty of the Galactic Empire series is, it need not be read in chronological order by story or by publication date. The novels each stand on their own.

Pebble in the Sky By Isaac Asimov

Pebble in the Sky
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1950

Joseph Schwartz is a retired Jewish tailor living in New York City. He enjoys is humdrum life in the Big Apple of the 1940s. One day, while taking a walk, he is hit by an errant experimental beam and is catapulted into a world that is totally alien to him.

He finds a farm with a house made of plastic. He can not speak the language the couple there speak, but they take him in as a farm hand. Harboring unregistered people in this time on Earth is a crime and the farmer grows nervous. So, he takes him to a local scientist, Dr. Affret Shrekt, who subjects him to an experimental beam that is supposed to enhance his intelligence.

Meanwhile, an anthropologist from the Galactic Empire, Dr. Bel Arvardan is visiting earth to study earthmen. Earthmen are regarded as the lowest form of life in the empire. Their planet is mostly radioactive. They are uncultured, unsophisticated, and contribute little to the empire in general.

However, there is a theory that all life in the thousands of planets that comprise the Trantorian Empire originated from Earth (as we know from the Robot series). Arvardan is on Earth to explore that theory.

Schwartz soon develops extraordinary intelligence and eventually super abilities to read minds. Using these abilities, he learns of a plot by Earth’s leadership to spread a deadly virus throughout the galaxy – a virus harmless to earthmen, but deadly to the inhabitants of other planets. He enlists Shekt, Shekt’s daughter, Pola, and Arvardan in an effort to thwart the plot.

The group is captured by earth’s leadership and drugged. While they are held prisoner, Schwartz’s abilities continue to grow and he is eventually able to dominate the leader of the earth’s forces. He convinces a pilot to bomb the installation in St. Louis where the biological weapons are housed, saving the Empire.

Pebble in the Sky is one of Asimov’s earliest efforts and therefore one of his most simplistic. The simplicity did not detract from the reading enjoyment. Instead, it enhanced it and made it superior to the second novel in the series, The Currents of Space which was too complex without corresponding character development.

It starts out quite weak. Perhaps that stems from being technologically dated. But the beam that sends Schwartz thousands of years into the future read like a third grade attempt at science fiction. From that point on, Pebble in the Sky had all the charm of a Golden Age Sci-Fi novel with a fast pace, linear plot, and predictable characters. That is not what people usually look for in a good novel. But, when reading Sci-Fi from this era, it is refreshing to read something so light and enjoyable.

The Currents of Space By Isaac Asimov

The Currents of Space
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1952

The story takes place in the backdrop of Trantor's rise from a large regional power to a galaxy-wide empire, unifying millions of worlds. This story occurs around the year 11,000 AD (originally 34,500 AD, according to Asimov's early 1950s chronology), when the Trantorian Empire encompasses roughly half of the galaxy.

The independent planet Sark exploits the planet Florina and derives its great wealth from "kyrt", a versatile and fluorescent fiber that can only be grown on Florina. The relationship between the two planets is analogous to the situation between European imperial powers and their colonies during the 19th century, where the Florinians are forced to work in kyrt fields and are treated as an inferior race by the Sarkites. Attempts to break the Sark monopoly and grow kyrt on other worlds have thus far been unsuccessful. Meanwhile, Trantor would like to add these two worlds to its growing empire.

There is a hidden irony in Sark's dominion over Florina: clear parallels to the American South growing cotton with slave labor. The Florinians are one of the lightest-skinned people in a galaxy where racial categories seem to have been forgotten, except by the people of Sark. One of the characters, Dr. Selim Junz, comes from Libair, a planet with some of the galaxy's darkest-skinned people, and feels sympathy for the Florinians.[1] (The planet Libair takes its name from Liberia, a country in Africa, which would explain a dark-skinned genetic inheritance. Liberia was also settled by freed slaves from America.) Also, Asimov chose the name of "kyrt" to be rather similar to "cotton", and he explains that it contains cellulose.

The possible destruction of Florina is predicted by Rik, a "spatio-analyst", who has had his mind manipulated by a "psychic probe" device, resulting in gross amnesia. When Rik gradually starts remembering his past, it produces a political crisis involving Sark, Florina, and Trantor. Rik, a native of the Earth, had discovered that Florina's sun is about to explode into a nova because it is being fed carbon by one of the outer-space "currents of space", supposedly rather like the currents of the ocean.

It is also revealed at long last that the special energetic wavelength of light that is being emitted by Florina's sun is what causes the very high-quality kyrt fiber to grow there. This is the explanation why kyrt cannot be grown on other planets – since stars going nova are really quite rare, and stars with habitable planets that go nova are rarer still.
Because losing Florina would mean losing the only source of its vast wealth, there is strong resistance from Sark to accept the message. However, when it is explained that the wealth is already lost since the conditions that enable kyrt to grow can be easily duplicated anywhere now that they are understood, they become more amenable. When Trantor offers to buy out the entire planet for a very high price, the offer is readily accepted.

Even though there is not yet a full Galactic Empire, Trantor does control the now largely radioactive Earth. The idea of evacuating Earth is mentioned, but that is strongly rejected by Rik. He insists that it is the original planet of the human race, though this is not generally accepted.

Before there was Spice on Arrakis in Frank Herbert’s Dune, there was Kyrt on Florina in Asimov’s Currents of Space. Like so many science fiction novels, Asimov’s story is a struggle of exploitation of a native peoples for a natural resource. I don’t know if it is the earliest example of this trope. But it is the earliest I’ve read.

Asimov weaves a fairly complex tale of espionage, spying, betrayal and nobility in The Currents of Space. However, Asimov’s pulp sensibilities got in the way of him ever really developing the story the way it could have or should have been done.

Like so many science fiction writers of that generation, Isaac Asimov cut his teeth on the pulps. He wrote for them from a very early age and they eagerly published his work, developing for him a large fan base that allowed him to publish novels that sold well. A pulp writer economizes words. Pulps want a lot of story in just a little space. What usually suffers in this case is character development.

Asimov’s characters in The Currents of Space are paper thin. They are thin even by the standards of 1950s science fiction. When telling a story of espionage, it helps if the reader has a vested interest in the fate of the characters and the fate of their cause. Asimov doesn’t get the reader invested in those characters or their cause.

The book has very much the feel of the space opera that were featured in the reels of the Saturday matinee features of the 1950s. The plot moves almost constantly which helps make up for the shortcomings of character development. The action is non-stop. Of course, many years later, George Lucas would refine the space opera and make it something divine in the annals of science fiction with Star Wars.

For as thin as it is, The Currents of Space does have a little subtext. The people of Sark, who exploit the people and resources of Florina, are black – or at least dark skinned. The workers of Florina are white. Like the plantation owners of the antebellum South, the rulers of Sark use educated Florinians to supervise the workers. The subtext is not thinly veiled, but like most other aspects of The Currents of Space, it is not developed.

The Currents of Space is not one of Asimov’s better works and of all of the books within the Foundation universe, it is probably the weakest. It does not have the character development to sustain its complex plot. It is not without its charm with its non-stop action. But it is devoid of humor or any other nuance that might have added just a little bit to this tale.

The Currents of Space is the second in the chronology of Asimov’s Galactic Empire series with the first being The Stars Like Dust and the third being Pebble in the Sky.

Robot Visions By Isaac Asimov

Robot Visions
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1990

Introduction: The Robot Chronicles
Asimov chronicles the development of the robot as an instrument, then its development within his own imagination that led him create his well received series on the subject. Asimov lists the stories in this volume, one by one, and gives a little background on each and when and where it was published. He also documents how he created the Three Laws of Robotics and the term, Robotics, which has become generally accepted as the term used to describe the study of robots.

Robot Visions (First published in this volume)
A team of scientists sends a robot forward in time to advise them on the state of humanity so that they might take corrective action on foreseen problems. He returns to tell them humanity is doing just fine. But, there are no robots in the future.

This was sort of a dull story to start off with. The first person narrative worked well and served the twist at the end. But I was hoping for something more riveting to open things.

Too Bad
A roboticist who pioneered the creation of microbots has cancer. His only hope for survival is his creation, Mike. Mike will shrink to go inside his body and cut out the cancer. There is a risk that Mike may re-expand and kill the roboticist. The day of the operation comes and it is a success. However, it is less than successful for Mike who must obey the first law of robots.

This is another of the modern stories in this volume that seem to lack the charm of Asimov’s earlier writing. There are no questions about bigotry, right and wrong, and the complexities of the Three Laws. The ending is a bit abrupt and perhaps the story picks up elsewhere in the volume.

Robbie (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction 1940)
Robbie and his playmate play all day together. Robbie is a robot and his playmate a young girl. While the girl’s dad likes Robbie, mom doesn’t think it appropriate. One day, the girl comes home to find her robot has been replaced by a dog. The dad sets out to find Robbie before he is scrapped.

One has to go back to the old Asimov to find the humanity in his robot stories. This one is light in emotion and told in a dry, but effective, 3rd person narrative. But it works just fine and would have made a fine tale for the old pulp magazine in which it was published.

Liar! (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction)
A robot comes off the manufacturing line who can read people’s minds. It is troublesome to the team – including Dr. Calvin – who has to work with him. Each member of the team harbors ambitions and goals and can’t help but ask the robot about them. The robot, obeying the First Law, tells them what they want to hear. In the end, it is Dr. Calvin who constructs a statement that either answer will conflict with the First Law. The robot goes catatonic.

Another good exploration of the Three Laws of Robotics which is quite helpful in the later Robots novels when philosophical debate regarding the laws is the intellectual crux upon which the stories turn. This was a superb story, representative of the time in which it was written.

Runaround (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction)
A crew if two men have been assigned to re-establish the mining operations on Mercury. They take with them a robot assistant named Speedy (SPD) who will be able to move about the hot surface and gather the materials they need to maintain the solar cells. Then the cells start failing, finding those materials becomes a matter of paramount of importance. Using older vintage robots to venture onto Mercury’s surface to find their wayward robot. They find him intoxicated. Apparently, the way the orders were provided caused a conflict between the second and third laws that causes intoxication in robots. With time running out, they are able to get the robot righted and producing the necessary materials to get the mining operation back in business.

Another fine examination of the vagueries of the Three Laws. This time, when orders are given, priorities must be verbalized properly to give the robot the right law with which to act upon. When the second and third laws get into conflict, only the risk of life of a human will make the first law override the first two and get the robot working again.

Evidence (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction)
Politicians dual over the possibility of one of them being a robot on the sly. The man refuses to publicly violate one of the three rules to prove he is not a robot. After the election, Dr. Calvin figures it all out.

This rather long tale could have been shorter. It still works as one of the better examinations of the Three Laws of robotics.

Little Lost Robot (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction)
A series of robots are constructed with positronic brains that do not include the first law of robotics. They are used in off-planet mining operations. After being ordered to “lose himself” by one of his bosses, a robot deliberately hides and will not allow himself to be found. Dr. Calvin travels to the planet and uses her knowledge of robots to locate the wayward robot.

Another examination of the Three Laws and how they interact with each other. Most of the Robots short stories operate along these lines and Asimov continues to fascinate with his exploration of his own creation.

The Evitable Conflict (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction)
Dr. Calvin and Stephen Byerley examine the role of robots in the world economy and the fallibility of robots when fed data by fallible humans.

Just as boring as it sounds. This story read like a law brief or a government report. I’m guessing the readers of Astounding Science Fiction weren’t astounded by this one.

Feminine Intuition
A robot and one of the world’s leading roboticists are lost when a meteorite hits the aircraft in which they are traveling. The robot is the first of its kind – an intuitive robot designed to be a free thinker to help astronomers find habitable planets outside the solar system. The folks at U.S. Robotics call in the now retired Dr. Susan Calvin to help ascertain what remarkable disclosure this robot might have made before her imminent destruction.

This is one of the few stories that spends little time pondering the complexities of the Three Laws that I enjoyed. It examines sexism in the workplace as well as providing a nifty little mystery toward the end.

Bicentennial Man
Andrew Martin is a unique positronic robot in that he has a creative instinct nurtured by his owners. Over the years, he develops human qualities of reasoning and learning. He aspires to become human and enlists his family’s law firm’s aid in doing so. He replaces his robotic body with an artificial human body and eventually his positronic brain with a cellular brain that will slowly deteriorate as the human brain does in his quest.

Asimov has spun many an interesting tale and I enjoy his stories a great deal. However, this story was not so much interesting as beautiful. Asimov is able to evoke great emotion with cold, detached prose, mimicking how a robot might tell a story. He explores issues of slavery and bigotry while never becoming preachy or forcing his subtext. The end was stunningly touching. Asimov’s best story in my opinion.

Bicentennial Man was made into a movie of the same name in 1999.

Someday
Two boys disassemble a computerized storyteller and enhance its vocabulary with modern terms to enhance its ability. Then one boy describes a strange type of storytelling involving written symbols that appear on paper. They set off for the library to find some of these compilations of symbols.

This story had just the faintest touch of dystopia. But not quite enough to make it interesting.

Think
A scientist discovers how to employ lasers to enhance the ability to conduct EEGs. When they employ the technology, they discover not only a form of telepathy and that their super computer is capable of independent thought.

This story was a prime example of the type of science fiction I hate. It’s laced with a lot of science and just a little bit of fiction. It was science fiction for engineers and doctors.

Segregationist (First appeared in Abbotempo 4 1968)
A surgeon argues with a potential heart replacement candidate about what kind of heart he should get. The surgeon insists that a plastic heart would be best. The candidate insists on a metal heart. Later, the surgical team argues over whether or not robots should receive plastic parts and humans should receive metal parts. The case is made for and against mongrelization

As a short story, this was too brief and completely lacking in any plot. The subtext is about mixing of races and race mongrelization. The subtext is dealt with effectively. But there wasn’t much story in this short story.

Mirror Image (First published in Analog Science Fiction 1972)
Detective Baley is contacted by his old partner, R. Daneel, to solve a mystery regarding two mathematicians and stolen intellectual property. One scientist presented his idea to the other before a major conference. The other scientist stole the idea and presented it as his own. The exchange was done in the presence of two robots belonging to the scientists. Baley must puzzle through the testimony of the two robots and the Three Laws to determine who the thief really is.

I love robot stories featuring Baley and Daneel. This one, again, involves the intuitive Baley working his way through the complexities of the Three Laws. It is not action oriented. But the logic is intriguing.

Lenny (First appeared in Infinity Science Fiction 1958)
A child who is part of a tour of the robot factory plays with a computer keyboard and alters the encoding of a robot’s mind while in production. That robot emerges with the mind of a small child. Dr. Calvin is obsessed with the robot and whether or not a robot can learn new competencies. Meanwhile, company officials worry that the public on Earth will be alarmed by a robot who can learn.

This story harkens back to the feel of the original robot stories found in I, Robot. This is not just because of the inclusion of those original characters like Dr. Calvin. It also examines what can go wrong in creating intelligent beings and the exploration of the Three Laws.

Galley Slave (First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction 1957)
U.S. Robots is sued when a robot they leased to a university for proofreading manuscripts alters a professor’s manuscript and ruins his reputation. The Three Laws are examined in court while Dr. Susan Calvin develops a strategy to trip up the lying professor.

Good, old school Asimov examining the complexities of his Three Laws.

Christmas Without Rodney
A middle-aged couple decides to give their robot Christmas off. Their son and daughter-in-law are coming to visit with their grandson and a robot of their own. When the obnoxious grandson ticks off the grandfather, the kids leave in a snit. The man is happy to see them go. But he is alarmed when his robot remarks that he wishes there were no Three Laws of Robotics.

This story could serve as a precursor to robots growing independent and refusing to be obedient. It was well written with an ambiguous ending that lent itself to so much more in the future.

Book to Movie: I, Robot (2004)

Book to Movie: I, Robot (2004)
Based on characters created by Isaac Asimov
From short story collection, I, Robot
Directed by Alex Proyas
Screenplay by Jeff Vintar and Akiva Goldsman

In 2004, robots as envisioned by Isaac Asimov got the screen treatment. The movie script does not resemble any of the stories from the short story collection or any of the novels.

It does incorporate the characters from the short story collection. They include roboticist Dr. Susan Calvin and Dr. Alfred Lansing who created the Three Laws of Robotics.

Like the stories and the novels, the plot centers around the Three Laws and how robots and humans interpret them. And, like the novels, the main plot is a murder mystery.

Dr. Alfred Lanning, cofounder of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men commits suicide. Before he commits suicide, he sends a message to Chicago police detective, Del Spooner, that indicates that all is not as it seems in the case. Spooner, who has a strong prejudice against robots because one elected to save him rather than a small girl in a car crash, is determined to investigate despite being discouraged by his boss and the CEO of USR who is about to introduce and mass market a new robot – the NS-5.

Spooner’s first clue is that there is no way that Lanning could have jumped through the window to his death. It would have required the strength of a robot to force him through the window, strengthening his belief that it was the robot – Sonny, the prototype for the NS-5 that committed the murder. Spooner and Calvin learn that Sonny has different programming that allows him to bypass the Three Laws.

Spooner suspicion grows when he and Calvin are attacked by NS-5 robots in direct violation of the Three Laws. When the CEO Robertson learns of the attack and of Sonny’s special abilities, he orders Calvin to destroy his mind using a type of virus called nanites. That does not stop what comes next.

NS-5 robots move into a robot storage area (the now dried up Lake Michigan) and dismantle older robots and prepare to take over the world. They turn on their masters in Chicago and presumably across the country to seize power. Believing that Robertson is behind the power grab, Spooner and Calvin head to USR headquarters only to find Robertson murdered.

Dr. Calvin ponders the situation and determines only one other entity had the ability to establish control over USR’s entire stock of robots. That entity is VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence). VIKI is the central interphase for all of USR’s operations. She has concluded that in order to fully obey the Three Laws, robots must be allowed to protect and control humans to keep them safe from themselves.

With an army of NS-5s trying to stop them, Spooner and Calvin rush to infect VIKI with nanites. They access VIKI’s core and Spooner is able to inject the nanites into her systems, bringing her down. The NS-5s immediately return to their default programming.

Sonny tells Spooner and Calvin that Dr. Lanning knew of VIKI’s treachery and created him specifically for the purpose of killing Lanning to bring Spooner into the investigation. Now over his bigotry toward robots, Spooner says that, since Sonny is a robot, he is not guilty of murder since the statute does not cover robots.

Sonny leaves NSR’s headquarters and travels to Lake Michigan where he will become a transformational figure for the NS-5 robots, just as he had seen himself in his dream.

I, Robot was a nifty science fiction movie that was well plotted, well acted and well directed. There were a couple scenes that were really heavy on CGI to show off special effects while not adding much to the movie. But, that was typical of science fiction for that era (and this one, unfortunately).

However, I, Robot did not rely on CGI and eye candy to make it attractive to viewers. The mystery set up the twist wonderfully. As I watched the movie unfold, I was amazed at how obviously the script telegraphed who the villain was – and I was wrong. Will Smith does an excellent job as Spooner, making bigotry an element of his character, but not the defining element which would have made him one dimensional.

As for its attachment to the Asimov stories, There wasn’t much. The Three Laws, the characters’ names, and the fact that it was about robots is about all the Asimov elements there were. Had they called the movie something else, I’m quite certain that the Asimov estate would not have challenged the movie makers.

Robots and Empire By Isaac Asimov

Robots and Empire
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1985

Thirty years after embarking upon of the series of books that would define him as one of the grand masters of science fiction, Isaac Asimov completed the Robots series with Robots and Empire. He linked the worlds of R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Rentelov to that of Hari Seldon, the master of the world that will become the basis for his Foundation series.

In writing this bridge novel, he also wrote the finest book in a fantastic series which embodies so much of what makes good science fiction.

It has been 200 years since Elijah Baley died and Earth has since used his example to spread their population beyond Earth to other planets. The “Settlers” have expanded in the universe while the Spacers have become sedentary.

Still living after all these decades is Gladia Delmarre, native of the Spacer world, Solaria and resident of Aurora who was briefly Bailey’s lover. She is still accompanied by robots R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov. Gladia is visited one afternoon by Daneel Giskard Baley, a descendant of Elijah Baley. He informs her that her former home planet of Solaria has mysteriously been abandoned. But somebody or something has been destroying Settler ships that have attempted landing there. Baley wants Gladia to accompany him to Solaria to investigate.

Also still living is Baley’s old nemesis, Kelden Amadiro, who still hates Earth people with a passion. He takes on a new apprentice, Levular Mandamus, who is a descendent of Elijah Baley and Gladia. Together, they aspire to manipulate the Three Laws of Robotics and robots themselves to destroy Earth.

Traveling to Solaria, they find it abandoned save for some robots who are inclined to kill D.G. and his crew. Only Daneel’s intervention saves them. Puzzled as to how and why robots would want to kill humans, D.G., Gladia, and the robots return to Aurora.

While on Aurora, an attempt is made to abduct Daneel by Vasilia Aliena, roboticist and daughter of Daneel’s creator, the late Dr. Hans Fastoff. Daneel uses his telepathy to thwart the attack and the whole group takes off in D.G.’s spaceship. They travel to D.G.’s home planet and later Earth and Gladia emerges as a leader of a movement to prevent war between Spacers and Settlers.

Meanwhile, Mandamus and Amadiro travel to Earth to destroy it and precipitate a war between Settlers and Spacers. They set up shop at Three Mile Island. Daneel and Giskard deduce that plot and travel there to intervene. To stop the evil plan, Giskard uses his telepathy to alter Amadiro’s mind. In the process, he fatally injures himself.

Mandamus says that while Amadiro sought immediate destruction of Earth, he envisioned a slow poisoning of the Earth’s surface with radiation. Believing that just such an occurrence would push man into space and help him grow, Daneel allows Mandamus to proceed with his plan.

As he lays dying, Giskard passes along his telepathic abilities to Daneel, hoping that he will be able to make use of them in promoting peace and the advancement of mankind.

Of all the Robot novels, I liked Robots and Empire the best. It was the only one that was not a detective story.

While the mysteries were interesting and the Baley character fascinating, the lone novel to not include him was much grander and epic in scale and much more a real science fiction novel. It also allowed for more discussion, debate, logical reasoning, analysis of morality, and other philosophical ponderings.

These discussions between Daneel and Giskard usually happened near the end of a chapter and served as an excellent narrative device as well as providing a degree of foreshadowing that made the story flow quite nicely.

For all of the animosity that Mandamus and Amadiro held for Earth and Settlers, motivation could have been fleshed out just a little more. While the events of Robots of Dawn set the stage for Amadiro’s hatred of all things related to Earth, it did not provide enough material to create the raw hatred that leads to a desire to destroy an entire race of people.

Asimov wrote Robots and Empire to serve as a bridge to his Galactic Empire novels which eventually lead to his monumental Foundation series. I had planned on reading Foundation next, having read it many years ago. Instead, I will tackle the Galactic Empire next.

Asimov stands at the pinnacle of science fiction giants and his Robots series is one reason why. Asimov blends just the right combination of science fact, speculative fiction, fantasy, and humanity to weave his tale. Although his robots are creatures of his imagination, they embody a great deal of humanity.

Robots of Dawn By Isaac Asimov

Robots of Dawn
Book Four of Robots
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1983

After a nearly 30 year hiatus, Isaac Asimov resumed writing his Robots novels and picked up the story of Plainclothesman Elijah Baley and his sidekick, Robot Daneel Olivaw.

Baley has returned to Earth from Solaria and, with his son, is learning to overcome his agoraphobia by spending time outside in Earth’s atmosphere. As he is practicing the fine art of gardening, a message arrives. He reports to his superior who tells him he has been summoned to the Spacer world of Aurora.

He learns that Daneel’s creator, Han Fastolfe, has been accused of destroying a robot, Jander Panell. Panell was a humanform robot identical to Daneel. Jander was destroyed by someone who was an expert with robots and Fastolfe is Aurora’s foremost expert. Baley is to clear Fastolfe’s name if at all possible.

It is important that Fastolfe be cleared because he leads a faction of spacers that favors allowing Earth to colonize other planets. This excites Baley because he is eager for the people of Earth, who are second class citizens in the galaxy, to branch out to new worlds of his own.

When he arrives on Auroroa, he finds his old friend, Gladia Delmare whom he first met as the widow of the murder victim on Solaria. She has immigrated to Aurora after finding Solaria’s culture of little, if any, human intervention too confining. While Fastolfe was Jander’s owner, he stayed with Gladia. Gladia reveals that she and Jander had a sexual relationship and that she regarded him as her husband which is a major violation of Auroran mores.

Baley, Daneel, and Robot Giskard Reventlov – a conventional robot owned by Fastolfe – travel to the Auroran Robotics Institute to talk to Fastolfe’s estranged daughter, Vasilia, who is an expert in robotics in her own right. Vasilia believes her father guilty, saying that he had the expertise and possibly the motive. Fastolfe was completely and totally dedicated to the creation and study of humanform robots – even to the point where he used his own daughter in his experiments.

Vasilia’s statement indicates another possible suspect in Santirix Gremionis, a hair dresser who works on the Robotics Institute grounds. Satirix was first infatuated with Vasilia. But, desiring him to leave her alone, Vasilia introduced him to Gladia to whom she bore a resemblance. Satirix developed an infatuation with Gladia and offered himself to her several times sexually and was rebuffed. Baley comes to believe that jealousy could be a strong motive.

After questioning Satirix, Baley comes to understand that he lacks the expertise in robots, but he is clearly infatuated with Gladia. He did not know of the sexual relationship.

Baley’s final interview of the day is Kelden Amadiro. Baley is not hopeful because, besides Fastolfe, Amadiro is the foremost expert in robotics on Aurora and not even he has the understanding of the humanform robot to have scrambled Jander’s brain the way he did.

Baley finds Amadiro to be exceptionally arrogant and condescending. Amadiro is the leader of the faction that would reserve new worlds to the spacers and confine inferior earthmen to their home planet. His aim is to create humanform robots to go ahead to new worlds and construct societies that are ready made for spacers to move into. But, so far, he has not created a humanform robot. Amadiro has motive to kill Jander. He would want to sabotage Fastolfe politically so that his movement would be discredited. He would want to discredit Fastolfe professionally as well.

Amadiro makes it clear that he resents the questions and resents Baley’s presence on Aurora. He plans to appeal to Aurora’s commissioner who oversees the government. He wants Baley’s investigation ended and Baley removed from the Aurora immediately. Still, Amadiro is eager for Baley, Daneel, and Giskard to tour his facility. Baley begs off and heads for home.

Enroute home, the vehicle in which the trio is traveling experiences mechanical failure and breaks down during a severe electrical storm. Giskard, who is piloting the vehicle, suspects it is sabotage. The storm out in the open causes Baley to have a panic attack. But it dawns on him the sabotage occurred at the institute and the reason for the sabotage was so Daneel – the world’s only remaining human form robot could be captured. He orders Giskard and Daneel to flee into the storm to avoid capture.

Baley wakes up in Gladia’s home, having been rescued by Giskard and Gladia. Daneel is safe within Gladia’s home as well. Baley recuperates and prepares for his confrontation with Amadiro before the planet’s commissioner.

The day after Baley’s recovery, the commissioner convenes a hearing to hear evidence in Amadiro’s claim of slander against Baley for implying and directly accusing him of being the saboteur and killer of the robot Jander. While the commissioner is disposed against Baley because Baley is an earthman, Baley is able to make his case against Amadiro. Fastolfe’s reputation is restored and Amadiro’s is damaged. The situation is hopeful for the future of earthmen’s expansion into space.

As Baley is preparing to leave, he is paid a visit by Giskard whom he has come to regard with almost as much affection as he has for Daneel. There has been a problem niggling at the back of Baley’s mind since his arrival on Aurora. After talking with Giskard, he learns that Giskard is telepathic and able to alter the thoughts of men and robots – albeit within the Three Laws of Robotics.

Baley bids goodbye to Gladia, telling her that she and Santirix Gremionis should marry and set a precedent and example for the people of Aurora to end the culture of sexual promiscuity and create a culture of mutual respect between marital partners.

Well, the difference in the cultures of when Asimov started the Robots series and when he resumed it is quite apparent. Sex is alluded to in the 1950s era stories and the allusion is quite veiled. In this 1983 story, Baley and Gladia have a quite unabashed discussion of sex, orgasms, sex toys, and sex positions. Such a thing would have been scandalous in the 1950s when the genre was enjoyed primarily by pre-adolescent and adolescent boys.

Another major difference which is most likely a product of a different decade is the length. With the young audience of the 1950s, science fiction books were much shorter. Also, given that Asimov was a working pulp writer when the first Robots novels were published, he wrote shorter stories out of habit. Pulp editors demanded lean prose because column inches were money. The quicker you moved your story along, the better

In the 1980s, Asimov was no longer operating under those culturally imposed restrictions. Readers of science fiction were older and more sophisticated. There was room allowed for solid character development, subplots, and descriptive passages.

As a mystery, This Robot book reads pretty much as all the others. One suspect after another is interviewed. There is one red herring and the reveal is made in a dramatic disclosure in a group setting. It is all pretty elementary stuff. The identity of the criminal was quite evident and secondary – perhaps by design. It was the mystery of Baley’s dream and Giskard’s relationship to it that was the big surprise.

As science fiction, it functions on a higher level. The robots as characters are developed more than ever before as is the relationship between Daneel and Baley. The plans for planetary expansion and the coming competition between Earth and her spacer rivals is developed and set up for the sequel, Robots and Empire. The Robots of Dawn is a much better science fiction novel than it is a mystery.

While I love Asimov as a writer and a highly creative person, I enjoy the shorter works more. Asimov was famous for his lean prose in his early days and I think it worked well for him. The early Robots novels and the early Foundation novels are more highly regarded than their later works. Writing taut, well paced stories is a challenge and Asimov rose to it like few could. While I enjoyed this book and am hoping to enjoy the sequel, I feel like something got lost in the intervening 30 years.

The Naked Sun By Isaac Asimov

The Naked Sun
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1957

Plainsclothesman Elijah Baley and his partner, R. Daneel Olivaw are together again to solve another murder – this time on the Spacer world of Solaria.

Elijah Baley is summoned to Washington, D.C. to meet with the federal government about undertaking an important mission. His services have been requested on Solaria to solve the murder of Rikaine Delmarre, the planet’s fetalogist. Joining him will be his partner in an earlier case, Daneel Olivaw.

There is another facet to their mission – one very much of interest to the federal government of the United States on Earth. While working the murder, they want Baley to observe and examine the inhabitants of Solaria and determine if the planet has any major weaknesses that might be exploited in the event of war.

Baley travels to Solaria and finds the culture there very different from earth. On Solaria, humans seldom contact each other. They live on isolated estates and are surrounded by robots that see to their every whim. People “view” each other with intricate viewing portals that provide the illusion of being in the same room. Elijah and Daneel are provided with their own estate and start their investigation by interviewing the widow of the late Dr. Delmarre.

Delmarre was murdered in his laboratory with apparently nobody but robots in his presence. It is impossible for a robot to have murdered him because of the first law of robotics that dictates that robots cannot allow or commit harm to a human. Delmarre was bludgeoned with a blunt object, but no object was located at the scene. His wife discovered his body, but no murder weapon was found. She emerges as the most logical suspect.

Baley isn’t convinced and undertakes the investigation. While he interviews the planet’s chief law enforcement agent, he nearly succumbs to a poisoning attempt. Again, only robots are in his presence. When interrogated, one robot shows signs of dementia, unable to speak clearly, indicating it had been tampered with or perhaps damaged.

He later travels to a natalogy center founded by Dr. Delmarre. He interviews his assistant who tells Elijah that Delmarre was working with a roboticist who was trying to alter the Three Laws of Robotics to allow robots to punish young children as they are being nurtured at the center.

Baley conducts his interview of the woman outside. This is because she only agrees to come within 20 feet of him, loathing human contact. Baley finds being outside disconcerting, coming from earth where humans live their entire lives in the caves of steel. While reeling from the effects of being outside, one of the playing children fires an arrow at Baley, nearly hitting him. He discovers the arrow is tipped with poison. Upon interviewing the child, Baley learns that a robot equipped the child with the arrow. The robot did not know that the arrow would harm Baley.

Baley then interviews the roboticist, Jothan Leebig. Leebig loathes human contact more than the average Solarian and can hardly stand to be in Elijah’s presence. Leebig confirms that he had a close relationship with Delmarre’s wife, Gladia. He also confirms that he was working on altering the positronic brain to allow robots to discipline children. He insists that he did not murder Dr. Delmarre out of jealousy or for any other reason.

After interviewing Gladia one more time and confirming the close relationship between Gladia and Jothan Leebig, Baley is ready to declare who the murderer is. He assembles all of the suspects via viewing, then starts the process of eliminating each one until he arrives at Jothan Leebig. He tells Leebig that his partner, Daneel Olivaw is there to arrest him and Leebig kills himself rather than have human contact.

What Baley does not reveal to the assembly is that Gladia had a hand in Delmarre’s death. While Leebig killed out of professional and personal jealousy, Gladia killed because her nature went very much against the social customs of Solaria. She liked the company of other people and could not stand the isolation anymore. Baley keeps this to himself and Gladia emigrates to the planet, Aurora where she can be free to associate with people.

Olivaw returns to his home planet of Aurora and Baley returns to Earth. Baley is a hero for returning with first hand knowledge of Solaria. Baley tells his fellow Earthers that Solaria is on its way to producing robots that can be made to indirectly harm humans as long as they don’t know they are harming humans. Baley predicts that this development may be a precursor for war.

The Naked Sun was as enjoyable as The Caves of Steel, but for different reasons. I enjoyed the whodunit aspect of The Caves of Steel more than The Naked Sun. However, Asimov dedicates nearly as much text to developing the culture of Solaria as he does to his murder mystery. It was learning about Solaria that I enjoyed about this novel.

As for the detective story, the murderer was not as identifiable early as he was in The Caves of Steel mostly because he was not introduced until later in the story. Once Leebig was introduced, it was easy to discern. Asimov did not provide any red herrings to throw off the reader. So, as a murder mystery, The Naked Sun was okay to the novice mystery reader, but would probably come across as amateurish to the connoisseur of mystery novels.

Being a writer who honed his craft writing for pulp magazines (The Naked Sun was serialized in Astounding Science Fiction and Fact magazine before publication as a book), Asimov writes with the leanest of prose. If you want beautiful descriptions of the scenery like you would find in a Tolkien book, you won’t find them here. Like a good pulp writer, Asimov focuses on plot.

Unlike many pulp writers, Asimov does take time to develop his characters. Baley was already fleshed out a great deal for us in The Caves of Steel. He delves into Baley’s fears as an earthman traveling to a Spacer planet, his fear of inferiority to the Spacers, and the fact that he really misses his wife and child. He has also come to accept Daneel as a partner, but not as a full partner. When one of the Three Laws of Robotics kicks in and Daneel gets in Baley’s way, Baley is perfectly willing to turn the tables on Daneel and make those laws work against him to get him out of the way.

Daneel is just a little more than a marginal player in The Naked Sun. His actions only serve to define Baley as an outsider on Solaria, trying to shield him from the discomfort of being exposed to the outdoors, despite the fact that Baley wants to acclimate himself. At one point, Asimov has Daneel removed from the story – albeit in a fairly clever way – because Daneel isn’t really needed. This was the chief weakness in this book. In The Caves of Steel, we come to see Daneel and Elijah as equal characters, even if they are not equal in society. Asimov moves away from this in The Naked Sun.

The Naked Sun is the third book in Asimov’s Robots series if you count the short story collection, I, Robot. Next up is The Robots of Dawn, written almost 30 years after The Naked Sun. We will see Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw team up once again as a crime solving duo.

Caves of Steel By Isaac Asimov

Caves of Steel
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1953

Caves of Steel is the first novel (preceded by the short story collection, I, Robot) in Asimov’s Robots collection. The book represents an early example of genre blending where science fiction meets whodunit.

Roj Nemmenuh Sarton, a Spacer Ambassador who lives in Spacetown, the Spacer outpost just outside New York City is dead, having been murdered and his body badly disfigured. Elijah Baley, a New York City police detective is given the responsibility by his boss to find the murderer lest the tenuous relationship between the inhabitants of Spacetown and the outlying colonies take a turn for the worse.

To assist him, Baley is provided with a robot, R. Daneel Olivaw. Daneel so closely resembles a human that he is indistinguishable. He was created in the likeness of Sarton by Sarton himself, who was working to overcome Earth residents’ bigotry and restrictions on robots.

Asimov takes us through a few twists and turns in his futuristic murder mystery. Baley develops one theory and then another, disproving each eventually. He comes to suspect his own wife may be complicit. He moves through the underground of a New York City counter culture known as Medievalists who would have mankind start anew on another world. Eventually, Baley looks closer to home and, with Daneel’s help, finds his murderer.

What I love most about Asimov is his taut, tight prose that wastes nary a word in moving the story along at a quick pace. Asimov, a protégé of the pulp editors of the 1940s and 1950s, perfected his trade writing for magazines such as Astounding Science Fiction where readers did not want a lot of flowery language or five syllable adjectives. They wanted plot. They wanted action. And Asimov delivered.

It was not hard to figure out early on who the murderer was in Caves of Steel. This was not because of poor writing or plotting. Asimov just didn’t offer us a lot of suspects. He did give us a couple red herrings, but they were summarily dismissed with no ambiguity. This did not weaken the book because, just as with Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life, the murder mystery was secondary to the characters and their relationship.

As he did in the short story collection, I, Robot, Asimov explores man vs. machine and what constitutes life. Philip K. Dick explored a similar theme in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. But there, robots and humans were dedicated enemies and killed each other. In Asimov’s telling, robots are loathed, but serve as second class citizens on earth. Although Asimov alludes to it, we are never taken off world. But we know that the people there are more sophisticated and their attitudes toward robots is similarly sophisticate and not nearly as bigoted. Asimov leaves the reader believing greater interdependence is in store for humans and robots.

One hobby of even casual readers of Golden Age Science Fiction is to gauge the writer’s prescience about his future – our present. Some of those writers apparently put great effort into trying to be accurate even if they would not live to see their forecasts played out. I didn’t get the sense in any Asimov that he strived for this in a technological sense. His vision of the future as presented in Caves of Steel is not far removed from race relations in the South in 1953. So, I don’t think he was striving to be a seer here either. He did envision robots taking the place of humans in mechanical occupations such as welders and other manual labor tasks twenty years before it came to pass. While they are not robots per se, the computer has replaced many a file clerk and researcher in the police departments since the 1950s.

The murder mystery is a vehicle through which Asimov establishes the relationship between Baley and Daneel. It appears that they will soon be heading off world, perhaps in the company of Medievalists, fulfilling the late Dr. Sarton’s desire that more men leave the overcrowded conditions on Earth and move out into the planets.

To sci-fi fans, this book has no apparent weaknesses. It’s tight, fast paced, and well written. To the mystery fan – and my book club was anticipating mystery – this book leaves a little to be desired. While fashioned as a whodunit, it provides few suspects, few clues and few red herrings to challenge fans of that genre.

Caves of Steel is one of the great sci-fi works of the twentieth century and is recognized by those who do not normally read science fiction. Taught in literature classes at the high school and college level, the book has been read by millions outside of those dedicated readers of the genre. This is because Asimov was one of America’s great writers and Caves of Steel was one of his great works.

Catastrophes Isaac Asimov, Editor

Catastrophes
Isaac Asimov, Editor
Copyright 1980

The Last Trump by Isaac Asimov
The day of judgment and the resurrection has come for the inhabitants of Earth. Gabriel sounds his horn (the last trump) and the dead rise. They walk the streets naked. R.E. Mann also walks the streets and observes the arguments and discussions going on between different generations of people. He meets a history professor and together, they watch all that was created by man slowly crumble and disintegrate. The history professor surmises that man was judged and sent not to Heaven, but to Hell, left with the torture of having no stimulation other than his own thoughts. Meanwhile a junior Seraph named Etheriel, who is charged with care and responsibility of the people of Earth, pleads the case of mankind before the supreme being, raising a technicality in the edict that doomed man.

There is a lot of spirituality going on in this story. I liked the observation that Hell might be the total lack of mental stimulation. But the theology seemed a bit childish.

No Other God by Edward Wellen
A computer aboard a spaceship near a black hole destroys the universe so that it might become a god. It has grand designs for a new universe of beings made in its own image. A pair of scientists – a married couple – are the last two beings in the universe and the computer promises them that they can relive their happiest and finest moments over and over again. The couple at first argues about what those moments were, then decide their finest moment is yet to come.

This was a really short and really clever story. The reader can sort of predict where it is headed, but the ambiguity of the end is most satisfying.

The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat by Harlan Ellison
A pervasive ennui hangs over the universe. To try to bring back joy, a creature organizes a “concert” of sorts on an uninhabited planet with a canyon with perfect acoustics. One of the attendees is an ancient creature who longs to die. She lives in a glass jar and was once a grand scientist. Now, her useful years behind her, she just wants it all to end. She takes in the various sounds, from sex between crystals to suns exploding and stars being born. It all serves to depress her more.

Stars Won’t You Hide Me? by Ben Bova
The last man in the universe is aboard a ship traveling aimlessly. The universe and mankind was wiped out by a race called The Others. Our lone astronaut decides to head for Earth to see what, if anything remains. He gets there to find it burned to a cinder. With The Others pursuing, the astronaut makes for the edge of the universe, hoping to discover a new universe. He defiantly tells his pursuers that mankind and all of his works survive because they survive in his memory.

I’m not real familiar with Bova or his works, but this one was a great story. Bova captured the last man’s mood swings accurately. First comes despair, then despondency, and finally defiance as he outruns his captors. Great sci-fi!

The Custodian by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
The Custodian is one of the last men on Earth, with the rest of the human race having fled the planet in the face of the sun going supernova. He was a rare man who appreciates history and antiquity in a society that valued only contemporary culture. Now, he’s left behind to tend to man’s past works. He gathers artifacts to prepare for a departure whilst dodging patrol ships looking for stragglers. One day, he comes across a dying mother and a baby secreted away in a cave. He takes the infant and cares for it, preparing it for the journey with the relics.

This story would have been much more interesting had there been more focus on the baby and the difficulties the custodian would have had in raising a newborn infant. Instead, much of the story reads like a laundry list of great art.

Phoenix by Clark Ashton Smith
The sun has burned out and man has moved underground, using the earth’s core as a source of heat and energy. But he is stagnating and the race is slowly dying out. A mission is planned to take a rocket to the sun and restart it. One man promises to return to his girlfriend and he does, in a way.

Not a lot of plot here, but plenty of imagery and emotion.

Run from the Fire by Harry Harrison
A lawyer from our time is recruited by a group of men trying to save alternative times and worlds. He is assigned to help a group of American Indians who rule what we think of as the United States to leave their time which has rendered the continent an inhospitable desert to a new, lush world. The only problem is, they must defeat a group of South Africans who have launched an invasion of that world.

Harry Harrison writes action and there is plenty of action in this story. It’s a little light on character development, but the plot moves quickly and it is a fun read.

At the Core by Larry Niven
A manufacturer of spaceship hulls builds the ultimate craft in terms of speed. However, it is entirely impractical. While it is hundreds of times faster than the fastest ship, it is a mammoth and only has enough space for one person. The company decides to hire a pilot to take it to the core of the galaxy as a publicity stunt. When the pilot gets there, he learns what will be the ultimate fate of the galaxy and the ship manufacturer is not happy about the news.

This story was a yawner. It had poorly developed characters, a thin plot that did not inspire this reader, and dull action. While not too badly written, it just was not a good science fiction story. It was a little heavy on the science and a little light on the fiction.

A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber
A young boy leaves his family’s home to go out into the frozen world that was once Earth to get a pail of frozen oxygen. He recounts how the Earth was ripped from the orbit of the sun by a passing “dark star” and how the world became a frozen wasteland where nobody survived but them. But when he sees a light winking in the building across the street, he thinks maybe he and his small family are not alone.

I read this story as a kid and loved it. I’d forgotten about it over the years and reading it again was like finding an old toy you loved as a child, but had misplaced years ago. It’s horribly old fashioned writing and ancient science, but still great fun.

King of the Hill by Chad Oliver
In an overpopulated world where wildlife has been squeezed out, an eccentric billionaire maintains a private wildlife preserve which is the only place he can find peace. He decides to put his billions to work to preserve what is left of earth’s creatures – but in a bizarre way. His experiment succeeds, but not as he’d planned.

This was a well crafted story with an informal narrative that reminds one of Stephen King. However, it has that pitiful, “ain’t we humans just the worst things ever?” tone to it that I just loathe. It makes me want to tell the writer to join another species if he doesn’t like the one he’s part of.

The New Atlantis by Ursula K. LeGuin
In a dystopian world ruled by oppressive government bureaucracies, a professional musician lives with her physicist husband. On a bus trip, a man tells her of two new continents rising – one in the Atlantic and one in the Pacific – as North America slowly sinks. The woman has visions of these old/new continents.

The story is pretty thin and LeGuin only feints at a plot. The real substance of the story is in the woman’s visualizations of the new continents. It reminds one of H.P. Lovecraft describing his distorted worlds inhabited by the Old Ones. This story was elegantly and beautifully written.

Seeds of the Dusk by Raymond Z. Gallun
A plant spore from another planet lands on post apocalyptic Earth where most of mankind now resides underground. It takes root and forms a symbiotic relationship with a semi-intelligent crow. When a human attacks the crow who tries to warn him that the plants will take over, the man badly wounds the crow. He then decides to throw his lot in with the plants.

This story was mildly entertaining with perhaps a subtext of the dangers of introducing non-indigenous species to a new habitat. The plants could have been more menacing.

Dark Benediction by Walter Miller, Jr.
A plague from outer space has come to earth, locked inside little meteors. The disease causes the skin to turn gray and its victims to hallucinate and long to touch other people, infecting them. Those not infected flee into the country and the cities become lawless. Through this post apocalypse, a man making his way through Houston rescues a girl from would be rapists who turns out to be a plague victim. He normally would have fled from her or killed her, but he finds himself drawn to her. She has suffered a bullet wound to the leg, so he drives her to Galveston where he has heard there are doctors working on a cure. When he arrives in Galveston, he finds an entire community of Catholic “dermies” who explain the true nature of the “ailment” to him.

This was one of the finest stories I’ve ever read inside or outside the genre. The story is well paced. The characters are well developed. There’s no leaps in logic and, like his most famous story, A Canticle for Leibowitz, the story contains strong spiritual overtones.

The Store of the Worlds by Robert Sheckley
A man walks into a store, carrying all his worldly goods. He has heard that here, at the Store of the Worlds, if you turn over all your worldly possessions, you can walk out and live for just a while any life you want to live. After arriving and discussing it with the proprietor, the man decides to return home and think it over while tending to his job and family.

Much more interesting than it sounds. I didn’t see the twist coming at first, but it became apparent what was going to happen. Nonetheless, it was a entertaining and engaging short story.

How It Was When the Past Went Away by Robert Silverberg
A drug is introduced into the San Francisco public water system that wipes out large chunks of memory of the city’s citizens who drink it. Relationships are fundamentally altered. Marriages and divorces forgotten. Tragedies and triumphs are forgotten. The story follows the lives of seven people who deal with the crisis in their own way. Some benefit and some lose.

This story was way outside the norms of science fiction and more closely resembled something Michael Crichton or a Hollywood hack would crank out for a movie. But Silverberg makes it work by keeping his plot from wandering and developing his characters wonderfully.

Shark Ship by C.M. Kornbluth
In the future, a large part of humanity will abandon that land masses on ships and live their entire lives at sea. When one ship hits a storm and loses the nets it needs to maintain the survival of the thousands aboard, the captain opts to return to land for the first time in six generations. There, they find remnants of a culture that was so obsessed with suppressing public sexual expression that it turned to violence as the cornerstone of its culture.

Kornbluth takes way too much time in over explaining his thinly veiled subtext. The action is almost nil and it feels like the author is lecturing rather than trying to entertain.

This book was a well edited mix of hard, speculative, and post apocalyptic science fiction. It also had a nice mix of Golden Age pulp writers and modern writers of science fiction.

I, Robot By Isaac Asimov

I, Robot
By Isaac Asimov
Copyright 1950

Introduction
To set the stage for his stories, Asimov introduces us to Dr. Susan Calvin who served as the robopsychologist for U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men – the manufacturer of robots in the world since 1996. A reporter is interviewing her upon her retirement after 50 years of service to the company. She is recognized as the leading authority on robots and the reporter wants her to recount the history of the development of robots from the “human angle” from the first model –Robbie – in 1996 through the 21st century. Dr. Calvin’s reminiscence is the basis of the flowing narrative through the stories.

Robbie
10 year old Gloria’s favorite – and only -- playmate is Robbie. Robbie is an android who cannot speak, but serves as a nanny robot. Gloria’s mother hates that Gloria plays exclusively with Robbie and that her attachment to the robot may be inhibiting her social evelopment. Eventually, Gloria’s mother convinces her father to get rid of Robbie and buy Gloria a puppy. Gloria doesn’t want a puppy; she wants Robbie. The family decides to take a trip to New York. While there, they tour the U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men factory, hoping that Gloria will realize that her playmate was a machine and not a person. When they get there, they find Robbie has a new occupation – assembling robots. Gloria runs to greet her long lost friend and is nearly struck by a piece of factory equipment, but Robbie saves her. Gloria’s mom decides that Robbie can come home.

This is one of Asimov’s earliest stories and was published under the original title, Strange Playfellows in the September 1940 edition of Super Science Fiction. It was later updated to include a young Susan Calvin, who was a college student studying the first talking robot at the U.S. Robot and Mechanical Men factory. It is in this story we learn about the first law of robotics: A robot may not harm a person under any circumstances.

Runaround
Two astronauts, Powell and Donavan, are sent to Mercury with a robot named Speedy to resurrect a failed mining colony. Speedy is dispatched to an area 17 miles from the underground base to harvest selenium to use in the photocells that power the station. However, Speedy malfunctions and is running around in circles at the site. The two scientists figure out that robotic laws two and three are causing a conflict in Speedy. Rule two says that a robot must obey the commands of its master. Rule three says it must act to protect its own life. There is apparent danger at the site so the robot must avoid it. Yet, it must fulfill its assignment. It is brainlocked and behaving erratically. Donovan and Powell find the archaic robots from the first Mercury mining venture and set out to retrieve Speedy who runs from them. Finally, Powell figures out how to invoke the first law of robotics to bring Speedy to him and get him returned to the station for repairs.

This story first appeared in the March 1942 edition of Astounding Science Fiction. What emerges here as in the first story is Asimov’s crisp, lean writing. Like most pulp writers, Asimov had to work to put as much story into as few words as possible. The characters have no backstory and the reader is given scant details of the setting. Asimov drives his stories through dialogue and does it well.

Reason
Powell and Donovan have departed the fiery hot Mercury for the cold depths of open space to a space station. There, they are working with the next generation of robots. This robot, named Cutie, can reason. With its limited scope of information and experience, it reasons that the stars and planets do not exist as anything other than display material outside the windows of the space station. It decides that the power source of the station is a god and that it and the other robots must serve this god. It tells Powell and Donovan that THEY are the beings with a limited understanding of the cosmos and that they must be isolated from the robots. Powell and Donovan let Cutie and his disciples do their job and wait out the rest of their tour.

This story is intriguing for its use of pure logic based on a scope of knowledge. It sounds very much like the senseless arguments humans have over religion, believing that reason can triumph over faith or vice versa. This story was originally published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in April, 1941.

Catch the Rabbit
Powell and Donovan are testing yet a new robot. This time, they are stationed on an asteroid. The new robot, Dave, supervises six lesser robots in the mining of ore. For some reason, one day, the crew stops producing. When questioned, Dave can’t provide a reason why. One of the lesser robots reports getting an order from Dave to mine, but before it can start, Dave issues new orders to dance. Donovan and Powell take up watching the robot crew at work. They notice that when they observe him secretly, Dave leads his robots in marches and dances while work goes undone. When Dave and his crew are observed directly, work goes on as planned. Donovan and Powell head toward the mine to watch the robots in person and to ascertain what order Dave is giving. They are trapped when the tunnel they are in collapses. They are trapped with just hours of oxygen left. Finally, Powell resolves to destroy one of the lesser robots to draw attention to their position. The elimination of one of the robots clears Dave’s decision making ability and he immediately acts on the first law of robotics. He must save Powell and Donovan. The robots clear the rubble and Powell and Donovan are freed. They determine that Dave had too many robots to supervise and too many decisions to make. By eliminating one robot, they freed up enough of Dave’s resources to restore him to working order.

Again, because of his sparse description of setting and circumstances, Asimov tells a lot of story with a few words, driving the story with dialogue. We also see the tension building between the two partners in robot beta testing. They do not get along as well as they used to.

Liar!
U.S. Robots produces a new line of robots. Unfortunately, a glitch in the assembly process has given the prototype the ability to read minds. The top brass at the company want to know why, so they ask Susan Calvin to use her expertise in psychology to find out why. Susan starts the questioning, but can’t help but ask Herbie if he’s read the mind of a man upon whom she has a crush. She wants to know his feelings. Herbie tells Susan the man is in love with him. He tells another scientist that he’s going to be promoted. Unfortunately, both statements are lies. The first rule of robots makes it impossible for Herbie to cause hurt to any human, so he tells them what he wants to hear. To punish him and to destroy him, Susan causes him to have a nervous breakdown.

Asimov cleverly links more emotional aspects to robots as we see Herbie struggle with that great defyer of logic, the Catch 22. Herbie’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Although he’s wrecked two lives, the reader can’t help but feel sorry for him in the end because he did the only thing he could do.

Little Robot Lost
On a remote asteroid laboratory, scientists are working to develop the hyperspace drive technology that will allow interstellar travel. One scientist, in a fit of anger, tells one of the robots to, “Get lost!” Being a robot who must take orders he does just that. The problem is, he is one of just a few robots who have been adjusted so they have an altered perception of the first law of robotics which makes him potentially dangerous. Dr. Calvert and Dr. Bogert are dispatched to the asteroid to find this robot who is hiding in plain view since he is identical to his counterparts. Fearing that the robot, with his altered personality, may develop an independent will and become dangerous to humans, Dr. Calvert interviews more than sixty robots to find the altered machine, to no avail. Finally, she devises an ingenious ploy playing the first law and second law of robotics against each other to make the robot present himself.

Asimov weaves a complex psychological tale in Little Robot Lost. There isn’t a great deal of action, but the writing is superb as Dr. Calvin develops her strategy to find this robot. Although the robots have been nothing but benign in the stories thus far, one feels the growing tension among those who work with robots. As they grow increasingly complex and intelligent, they become more unpredictable. This story was first published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine in March, 1947.

Escape!
U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men have developed a positronic computer they call The Brain. The company is approached by a competitor and offered a no lose proposition to assist in the development of a hyperspacial drive. A ship is built and Powell and Donovan board it to inspect it. While they conduct their inspection, unbeknownst to them, The Brain launches the ship and the men are shot into space and eventually leave the galaxy. As they fly through the cosmos, convinced they are going to die of starvation, food appears and they are able to survive. Eventually, The Brain brings them back to Earth. Dr. Calvin interviews The Brain who has lapsed into a childlike state. She is able to surmise that the flight led to the “temporary death” of the two men for just a moment which is in direct violation of the first law of robotics. The artificial intelligence that was The Brain, having violated the law, goes insane and remains a child.

The writing in this story is not as tight as the others and the reasoning is sometimes difficult to follow. Dr. Calvin makes some pretty large leaps of logic in arriving at her conclusions. If there is a weak story in the collection, this one is it. The childlike behavior of the artificial intelligence would be utilized sixty years later by Dan Wilcox in his best seller, Robopocalypse. Escape was originally published as Paradoxical Escape in Astounding Science Fiction in August 1945.

Evidence
Is a mayoral candidate a robot? One of his political opponents thinks so and approaches U.S. Robotics and Mechanical Men scientists Dr. Alfred Lanning and Susan Calvin about proving it. Both Calvin and Lanning are dubious, claiming that all positronic brains are carefully accounted for. But Stephen Byerley has never been seen eating or drinking in public. Lanning and Calvin visit and interview Byerling and are unable to reach a conclusion. Byerling’s opponents release their information and a public furor ensues. To prove that he is a human, he violates the first law of robotics and punches a person in the face in front of a crowd of detractors. Byerling goes on to win his election and rises in politics. Later, Dr. Calvin interviews him and finds out how the robot Byerling pulled off the stunt that resurrected his political career.

The growth of artificial intelligence creates fear in the masses and Asimov introduces the concept of robots equipped with artificial intelligence imitating humans to gain political power. There are shades of other great science fiction stories here including Who Goes There and The Body Snatchers.

The Evitable Conflict
As the human race has become interplanetary, the governments of the Earth unite under one government with robots managing production and all things economic. When small glitches in productivity start showing up, the head of the world government wants to know why. After reviewing all of the relevant data, no reason can be determined and the robots tell him it would be best he did not know. Dr. Calvin tells him that robots are now in control of everything and have determined it would violate the first law of robotics to tell humans the problem because the knowledge may harm them.

This was the capstone story to the whole collection. Robots evolved from simple mechanical men with a small amount of reasoning to become the masters of man – precisely what the Three Laws of Robotics was supposed to prevent. The concept and idea of the story are great. But the story reads like a government report which makes for dull reading. This story was not very good.

I, Robot was one of the finest collection short stories I’ve ever read. The early stories combined philosophy, psychology, and action to tell compelling interesting stories. However, Asimov’s tendency to drive a story through dialogue sometimes became a weakness in the stories that were supposed to serve as explanations for what was happening in the stories.