so-distant future where man and machine , struggle to redefine life, love, and consciousness—and where the stakes are nothing less than survival. Filled with unforgettable characters, mind-bending speculation, and nonstop action, I, Robot is a powerful reading experience from one of the master storytellers of our time."An undeniable classic in the Sci-fi genre, written by an incredibly famous and influential author. Written during the 50's the story does show it's age occasionally. It is quite amusing for a modern reader to read about people in spaceships all acting like they are in the 50's with constant smoking and outdated dialogue. However, this does not detract from the book. It merely serves to highlight how ahead of his time Asimov was.
This is actually a collection of robot-centred short stories that eventually are shown to be connected in a large world building arc. I personally enjoyed this structure as it gave Asimov the scope to explore many different possibilities and themes. Asimov's delightful wit pokes through in unexpected places, with some really laugh out loud moments interspersed between all of the philosophy. Robots spout Gilbert and Sullivan, one believes it is a Prophet and refuse to believe it was made by inferior humans, one takes literally the directive to "Get lost!" And then there the ones who use logic to avoid following the first rule about not harming, or allowing harm to come to any human.
The narrative flows so effortlessly and every story adds new depth to the question of humanity. I do think it is as much about humans as about robots. What makes us human is a common question in Asimov's work....Moreover, I have a feeling that he puts forward a rather bold question: is humanity an answer to everything? Should it be?
There is much room for debate and intellectual musings within this book. How much do we control ourselves outside of biology, society and psychology? Are we really superior because we are organic? Is being ruled by something you mentally cannot comprehend a good idea or a bad one? Is emotion necessary to govern?
However I must say, while still being incredibly interesting, quite a bit of the conundrums that Asimov brought up have been further explored in popular media. I am not saying that the book is no longer worth a read, merely that some of the material wont feel and inventive or groundbreaking to modern audiences then I am sure it did to the original readers.
Age rating 13+. Nothing untoward and could be an interesting conversation starter.
No comments:
Post a Comment