isaac_asimov – Page 2 – Made by Mikal

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Maverick

Post author:mikal
Post published:September 13, 2009
Post category:Book

Bruce did an ok job with this book, although I think overall he was suffering from not having a lot to work with. The book is quite readable, which isn't true of some of the others, and has some nice details such as an attempt to sound technically feasible by the liberal sprinkling of unix jargon through the book. I'm not sure if the unix jargon is successful however. Its interesting that this is also the first of these books to not have an introduction from Asimov himself.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Alliance

Post author:mikal
Post published:June 12, 2009
Post category:Book

Given how disappointed I have been in other books in this series, I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The style is very readable, and the content is interesting. The plot seems more nuanced than some of the others in the series, and the characters aren't as one dimensional either. This isn't the best book I have ever read, but it was surprisingly solid, especially given some of the poor ground work it had to deal with.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Intruder

Post author:mikal
Post published:May 1, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the third book in the second Asimov tie in series. Its one of the better ones of the nine I have read so far, and I actually enjoyed reading it (some of the others felt like a bit of a chore). This one covers a return to Robot City, where an outside force has disrupted the operation of the city for its own nefarious purposes.

Nightfall (short stories)

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 28, 2009
Post category:Book

There are four Asimov books called Nightfall. There is a two volume collection of short stories (Nightfall One and Nightfall Two), a single volume version of this collection, and a novel length version of the short story "Nightfall", which headlines the short story collections. I've previously attempted to explain the list of short stories in the various versions of the collection at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Nightfall_Short_Stories.html. There is also a correlation with previously published Robot short stories at http://www.stillhq.com/book/Isaac_Asimov/Robot_Short_Stories.html. I just finished reading the short story collection (in this case in a single volume). I haven't read any Asimov short stories in a few months (since September last year to be exact), and I had forgotten how much I enjoy them. One of the advantages of these short story collections is that you get to cover a lot of ground, and there is a real sense of accomplishment in finishing a short story. I think also that the shorter form keeps the author honest -- there simply isn't room to waste space on long passages which don't progress the plot. This collection is excellent, much like the others I have read from Asimov. I will note that I particularly enjoyed "The Up-to-date Sorcerer",…

Isaac Asimov’s Robot Short Stories

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 28, 2009
Post category:Book

I was getting quite confused about which robot short stories I had already read (many appear in more than one collection), so I built this table to help. Note that ecrosses indicate stories which aren't about robots, and are really stow aways. I, Robot 1950 The Rest of the Robots 1964 The Complete Robot 1982 Robot Dreams 1986 Robot Visions 1990 Nightfall 1971 Robbie Runaround Reason Catch That Rabbit Liar! Little Lost Robot Escape! Evidence The Evitable Conflict Robot AL-76 Goes Astray Victory Unintentional First Law Let's Get Together Satisfaction Guaranteed Risk Lenny Galley Slave A Boy's Best Friend Sally Someday Point of View Think! True Love Stranger in Paradise Light Verse Segregationist Mirror Image …

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Renegade

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 8, 2009
Post category:Book

This book starts poorly, and isn't as interesting as the previous one in the series (Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling). The introduction uses an alien species with spending any time to describe them, and the process of trying to infer what they are and how they operate distracts from the overall plot. Its a little bit like a William Gibson book, but a more clumsy attempt at it which makes the first couple of chapters hard to comprehend. Worse than that, this book spends a lot of time dwelling on physics details (the author is a physicist), and Ariel seems obsessed with a desire for recognition and power that doesn't exist in the previous books. A lot of the book is also about her love affair for Derec and a robot, which is out of place with the rest of the series as well. In the other books the romantic relationship between Derec and Ariel is a minor plot element, not something which has many pages devoted to it, and I think that fitted better with the overall plot.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Robots and Aliens: Changeling

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 4, 2009
Post category:Book

Despite the rather unwieldy name, and being trapped as the seventh book in a share cropping series using Asimov's name, this is actually quite a good book. The plot explores something Asimov didn't do much of (what happens when Asimovian robots meet aliens and define them as human), while not being self righteous about it. The book is also more technically competent that some of the earlier ones in the series -- it doesn't feel like it was written for seven year olds. I think this one is the best in the series so far.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Perihelion

Post author:mikal
Post published:April 1, 2009
Post category:Book

I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I haven't previously been impressed with Wu's work, but this book is the best of the Robot City series. The other books suffer from feeling juvenile, whereas this book tells a story without being badly written and boring. Its a shame that you have to wade through the others in the series to get to this one. Interestingly, this book assures me that there another six in the series. They don't sound like the Robot and Aliens series, as these extra books are meant to more fully explain the origin of Robot City. However, as best as I can tell these additional books were never produced. Wikipedia, Amazon and LibraryThing all have no record of these books existing.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Refuge

Post author:mikal
Post published:February 2, 2009
Post category:Book

This is the fifth book in the Robot City series. I think its actually the best written of those that I have read so far. The story makes sense, isn't hard to believe like some of the others, and the dialog doesn't feel wooden.

Isaac Asimov’s Robot City: Prodigy

Post author:mikal
Post published:December 29, 2008
Post category:Book

This is the fourth book in the Robot City series, which is based in Asimov's Foundation universe. This one follows Odyssey, Suspicion and Cyborg. This book has quite a different style, the robot characters using quite convoluted sentences, which I found annoying. It is a little jarring in this series that each book is by a different author -- it takes me a little while to transition between the authors' various styles when I read them, especially when they're back to back. I think what Cover was trying to achieve is a more intellectual style of book than the others in the series, and it suffers the same fate as the Benford's Foundation's Fear -- the style is out of place with the rest of the books in the series, and that decreases from the enjoyment to be derived from this book. The actual plot line is fine though, if a little simplistic. Because of the very verbose style, it feels like less happened in this book than the others (which are of similar length). Overall, a bit of a disappointment.