Product Description

THE COMPLETE ROBOT is the definitive anthology of Asimov's stunning visions of a robotic future...

In these stories, Isaac Asimov creates the Three Laws of Robotics and ushers in the Robot Age: when Earth is ruled by master-machines and when robots are more human than mankind.

As well as TN-3 (Tony), AL-76 and other robots, the stories feature the staff of U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men Inc., and in particular the chief robot-psychologist, the steely Dr Susan Calvin who is in many ways more robot-like than her subjects.

THE COMPLETE ROBOT is the ultimate collection of timeless, amazing and amusing robot stories from the greatest science fiction writer of all time, offering golden insights into robot thought processes. Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics were programmed into real computers thirty years ago at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - with surprising results. Readers of today still have many surprises in store...

THE THREE LAWS OF ROBOTICS:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm

2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17550 in Books
• Published on: 1983-12-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 688 pages

From the Publisher
THE DEFINATIVE COLLECTION OF ROBOT STORIES.

About the Author
Isaac Asimov, world maestro of science fiction, was born in Russia near Smolensk in 1920 and brought to the United States by his parents three years later. He grew up in Brooklyn where he went to grammar school and at the age of eight lie gained his cifizen papers. A remarkable memory helped him finish high school before he was sixteen. He then went on to Columbia University and resolved to become a chemist rather than follow the medical career his father had in mind for him. He graduated in chemistry and after a short spell in the Army he gained his doctorate in 1949 and qualified as an instructor in biochemistry at Boston University School of Medicine where he became Associate Professor in 1955, doing research in nucleic acid. Increasingly, however, the pressures of chemical research conflicted with his aspirations in the literary field, and in 1958 lie retired to full-time authorship while retaining his connection with the University.

Asimov's fantastic career as a science fiction writer began in 1939 with the appearance of a short story, Marooned Off Vesta, in Amazing Stories. Thereafter he becarne a regular contributor to the leading SF magazines of the day including Astounding, Astonishing Stories, Super Science Stories and Galaxy. He won the Hugo Award four times and the Nebula Award once. With nearly five hundred books to his credit and several hundred articles, Asimov's output was prolific by any standards. Apart from his many world-famous science fiction works, Asimov also wrote highly successful detective mystery stories, a four-volume History of North America, a two-volume Guide to the Bible, a biographical dictionary, encyclopaedias, textbooks and an impressive list of books on many sapects of science, as well as two volumes of autobiography.

Isaac Asimov died in 1992 at the age of 72.

Customer Reviews

Includes all the I, Robot stories
Not so much review as info - I own this book, and was wondering if it had the I, Robot book's stories, to read before seeing the movie. The first review listed here said that it's not really complete, and you'd still need I, Robot (and two others). But a quick cross-check of I, Robot's contents with this book's reveals that all 9 of the I, Robot stories are indeed included in The Complete Robot.

Robot Visions has 7 of the 9 I, Robot stories, plus 2 stories from Bicentennial Man, plus 2 others. The Complete Robot includes the 2 from Bicentennial Man, but not the other two.

Robot Dreams is actually a more generic compendium and has only three robot stories, the title story being unique to Robot Dreams. The other three are included in The Complete Robot (one of those is from I, Robot as well).

So The Complete Robot has all the I, Robot stories, and all the robot stories of Robot Dreams and Robot Visions excepting their respective title stories, which were newly written for those books and together with the fantastic artwork of Ralph McQuarrie probably justifies the purchase for collectors, completists and fans.

Amazing, amusing intro to future history according to Asimov
This collection of classic science fiction short stories works on a number of levels.

First and foremost, this is darn good reading, filled with Asimov's good humor and ability to tell an entertaining story.

Secondly, it is mostly a prelude to his robot novels, Empire series, and Foundation series. Most of the stories are in a time period before CAVES OF STEEL. One obvious exception is an Elijah Bailey & R. Daneel Olivaw short which is a follow-up to the first two robot novels. One story, "Victory Unintentional", refers to the Terrestrian Empire, and others, especially some of the Susan Calvin stories, have to do with man's first expansion beyond our own Solar system.

Thirdly, we're given a variety of levels of science-fiction writing. We're told where the original stories were first published, and we see Asimov's versatility and ability to write for various markets. Many come from Astounding/Analog, the magazine which published the hardest core science fiction. A couple come from the Ziff-Davis magazines, AMAZING STORIES & FANTASTIC which were soft-core s-f magazines. A couple come from THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE-FICTION which had a more literary slant. Several other classic s-f magazines are represented. However, some stories come from non science-fiction magazines, such as SATURDAY EVENING POST and the Boy Scout magazine BOY'S LIFE, each carefully tailored for the market.

As noted by others, the Susan Calvin stories are especially good. They, along with a few other stories, appear to have been slightly revised for the sake of continuity. In fact, I question whether or not Susan Calvin was originally mentioned in "Robbie", Asimov's first robot story. Somehow, I doubt it.

At any rate, this is easily one of the best collections of classic science-fiction as well as being just plain darn good reading that you'll find.

It was worth the special order price!
I suppose I'm biased as an Asimov fan, but I really think it's a shame this book is out of print in the U.S. It was worth the $20.00+ price. If you want to read the robot stories of Asimov's which he did not include in _I, Robot_ ("Robot AL-76 Goes Astray" was great), this is a must.