Eight Stories From the Rest of the Robots [Paperback]

Isaac Asimov (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1971

Mechanical servants, doing the work too hard - or too boring - for men to handle They brought mankind a new era of freedom and leisure. Or so they thought...

Product Details

• Paperback: 159 pages
• Publisher: Pyramid (1971)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000FDXOYQ
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,015,331 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars short and fun, but one problem, February 1, 2006

By 

M. Eichenlaub - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots (Mass Market Paperback)

Here are titles of the stories:
Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
First Law
Victory Unintentional
Let's Get Together
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Risk
Lenny
Galley Slave

The first few stories are just kind of cutesy, and can be read quickly.
My favorite was "Risk" which is about what happens when a robot is valued more highly than a man's life.
The stories are all well-written and engaging. My complaint is that I always feel let down at the end. Asimov seems to think that every story must end in a little psychological twist that is explained in the final paragraph. It's like he's saying - this is where the story was going the whole time, but rather than show it to you throughout the story, I'm going to bang you in the head with it right at the very end!

Take "Victory Unintentional" for example. It's a story about a delegation of human-made robots that travels to the surface of Jupiter to inspect the way of life of the Jovian citizens, who are hostile towards humans but not yet technologically capable of conducting a war against them.
It's pretty clear throughout the story what's going on - the robots repeatedly and unintentionally perform amazing physical acts that impress the Jovians. But still, on the last page Asimov has to explain in detail what was going on inside the Jovians' heads and how intimidated they were. He goes over a similar sort of process again in five more of the eight robot stories. It's also the same thing he does in the original four "Foundation" short stories. So if you loved the "Foundation" stories, you'll probably like this book, too. Otherwise, the stories are still good, but prepare to be a little frustrated at times.