Customer Reviews

I, robot

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Let me preface this review by stating that I have not read the book by Isaac Asimov with the same title, nor have I see the movie starring Will Smith, but thanks to our modern pop culture I am well aware of the Three Laws of Robotics. I'm sure you're wondering, so I'll answer the question now: Yes, Howard S. Smith intentionally made the name of his novel "I, robot" similar to Asimov's "I, Robot" but wishes to emphasize to the reading public that in his title robot is not capitalized and is thus different.

Smith's novel is a globetrotting adventure starring Haruto Suzuki, a Japanese police inspector investigating the mysterious death of a businessman staying in a Tokyo hotel. As he begins to piece together the events leading the victim's death, he discovers a huge secret: Japan is trading fully functional, artificially intelligent robot soldiers to Israel in exchange for powerful nuclear weapons the strength of which have never been seen before. Haruto is horrified by the Japanese government's secrecy as he recalls the parallels between Japan's current actions and those that led to World War II. He decides he must bring the truth to the Japanese people, and follows the robots to Israel and Lebanon so that he can document every detail.

Haruto is a man haunted by rules. An undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive, he always tries to maintain a strictly regimented life both at home and at work. As a result, he's unpopular among his colleagues after turning in half of his police station for petty bribery, and his marriage is falling apart because he cannot sacrifice, or even relax, his rules in order to please his wife. While the AI of the mechanical robots allows them to learn and grow throughout the novel, Haruto's freeze him into rigid routines and earn him the nickname of "jinzouningen" - artificial human - from his associates.

Author Smith is clearly an intelligent guy with a story he's very eager to tell. At times his extremely technical descriptions can be tiring, especially if you are not well versed in electronics and technical jargon. Based on your aptitude the many diagrams will be quite helpful or a hindrance. (Unfortunately for me, many of the complex graphs couldn't help a bit.) Smith's fondness of exclamation points is rather overenthusiastic and his preference for short, choppy chapters (each averages between one and four pages) can leave scenes feeling incomplete and stilted, but at other times there is so much going on, often very quickly, that the quick changes are well suited to the format. This is a tale with a very large cast, and it is unfortunate that many of them are never revisited after their initial scene, so the reader is left wondering "Whatever happened to...?" The story takes a while to get moving while the end feels hasty and disconnected from the rest of the plot.

Yet this action-packed technothriller is highly entertaining and a worthwhile read for any robot fan. I'm not a huge science fiction fan - I read it, but not exclusively or even all that often - but Smith's vision for the origin of robotkind sucked me in. It is set in a very nearby future, and the delicate truces between the world's governments strikes disturbingly close to home. An unexpected delight was Kathy Hanes' accompanying images, a rare but pleasant find in any adult novel; it really is a pity that illustrations so rarely found in books now. A thick reference guide is available at the back of the book for unfamiliar terminology and unless you're a scientific mastermind, a karate champion or a connoisseur of Japanese culture, you're going to need it.

Smith clearly poured a lot of thought and love into "I, robot", and this fast read should find its way onto shelves of sci-fi fans everywhere. Perhaps they'll even place it right next to that `other' robot book.

Ignore the recycled title and unfortunate cover art; this techno-thriller has nothing to do with Isaac Asimov's book or Will Smith's movie of the same name. Innovative, fast-paced, and extraordinarily well-written, it's honestly better than both of those stories put together.

The premise could easily have been pulled from tomorrow's headlines. Japan is threatened by an increasingly hostile North Korean regime that sinks its ships, captures its sailors, and even fires missiles through its airspace, yet finds itself constitutionally prohibited from developing offensive weapons that many in the military feel it needs to properly defend itself. Besieged by terrorists and disdained by most of the rest of the world, Israel is also in desperate straits. Losing a slow war of attrition with their numerous enemies, the Israelis make a secret deal to trade tactical nuclear weapons and technology to the Japanese in exchange for a horde of artificially intelligent, combat-trained robots. Assigned to investigate the death of the owner of an electronics company that makes parts for the androids, police inspector Haruto Suzuki stumbles across the intrigue and gets caught up in the action.

Suzuki is fascinating. Obsessive-compulsive, he possesses the drive necessary to accomplish almost anything, yet this single-mindedness encumbers his life. He is overly conscientious and obsessed with rules. When officers in his unit accept free meals from local merchants, for instance, he turns them in, ruining their careers while unintentionally accelerating his own. He makes keibhu, full inspector, by age thirty five, an extraordinary achievement. He ruthlessly hones his body, excelling in karate as well. This trait saves his life more than once throughout his globe-spanning adventures. When he meets Mara, a beautiful Israeli woman, he discovers the one thing he'd been missing all his life--true happiness. The challenge is that he is torn between his obsession to follow the "rules" and the consequences such actions would bring upon his new-found love. This relationship is convincingly written, truly romantic, and not contrived in the least.

Smith, an MIT-trained engineer, really did his homework. Cutting edge technology is explained in ways that make it readily accessible to the lay-person. Harestad's charts and illustrations help clarify things even further. Everything from nuclear technology to advanced robotics and artificial intelligence is artfully described, believable, and surprisingly exciting. The author even describes how a nuclear test detonation could realistically be hidden from satellite surveillance. There's a thirteen-page bibliography at the end for readers more interested in the technology.

There are few faults in this spectacular tome, yet there is a bit of undefined terminology. While there is a short glossary, it contains roughly a quarter of the Japanese words actually used in the text so readers can get a little lost at times. The only other drawback is that some of the martial arts sequences are described using incorrect Japanese terminology; nothing that non-practitioners would even notice, but a minor glitch nevertheless. Overall, however, I, robot is a mesmerizing read with memorable characters, great dialogue, believable technology, and wonderful action.

Lawrence Kane
Author of Blinded by the Night, among other titles

Note: This review originally appeared in ForeWord Magazine

"Howard S. Smith's I, robot" wasn't what I was expecting. Initially I thought it was going to be some kind of poor imitation of what Tom Clancy might do to "Battletech", but I couldn't have been further from the truth. At it's core is the story of a Japanese police inspector who's obsessive compulsive disorder drives him to solve a murder case with very serious international implications that ultimately affect every man woman and child on Earth. It is the best kind of Science Fiction, where the characters must deal with very real (and imminently possible in the real world) scientific developments, and their consequences. Once I started reading it I found it quite compelling, and some of it's predictions were simply staggering. I was happy to add it to my library and look forward to further works from Mr. Smith.

There are three things I really don't like in a review - a statement of the reviewer's philosophy, giving away the plot of a book or movie, and reviews that only state "good" or "bad" without why. I hope to only break one of those guidelines. (Obviously, the first one.)

I received a copy of I, robot by Howard S. Smith as an Advance Reading Copy by requesting it from an ad in Shelf Awareness. I was intrigued by the title and the idea of updating the Isaac Asimov books. It came with some advertising material.

I'm sorry to say that I believe Dr. Smith made a strategical error by setting himself up to be compared with Dr. Asimov. Whether or not he is a better scientist is I don't know, but he is not as good a writer.

I would like to say that the book would have seemed better if he had not set up the comparison, but in truth I cannot. I'm sorry to say I couldn't finish it. As a new reviewer, I really wanted to do the best possible job. But I could not force my way through it.

I find it's generally a bad sign when a book is made up mostly a lot of short chapters. This book has 369 pages and 160 chapters. That is not a good ratio. I know that deciding where to break chapters is much like deciding where to begin and end paragraphs. A lot of it is according to the taste of the writer. The problem I have with short chapters is not just the waste of paper, but the fact that very little thought or work seems to go into short chapters. I'm having this problem with Robert B. Parker's new books. I love his characters, but he almost never gives me the details that I used to love. That's true in this book. The first 11 chapters, covering 29 pages, are devoid of interest and of animation. There was no explaining what was going on - yes, I picked up a lot of it in context, but there are good ways of giving background details without distracting the reader from the plot. I can make all kinds of guesses as to how the world got into the straits depicted, but I need to know what the author says lead up to what he's writing about. If I don't know where he's coming from, how can I truly appreciate where he's going?

This is not to say that there is no merit in the book. With better editing and some instruction, it might have been a much better fiction book. In fact, the book comes alive when details and minutia of the science is being described. Clearly Dr. Smith is interested in the science and technology that go and will go into making robots. One chapter, in which one of the robots is turned on and put to work and interacts with the protagonist, is especially good and well-written. It kept me reading for a good bit, hoping for more. But the characters went back to being cardboard and the writing went flat again.

One other mostly good thing that I noticed was that it became clear gradually that the protagonist has Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. At first it was not subtle. In what seemed like three consecutive chapters the protagonist was called by a nickname we're told is Japanese for "artificial human". We're told that in Japanese science fiction it is used to refer to androids and robots. When that's just about the only thing you're told about a character, it begins to feel like you're being hit over the head with it.

But later in the book the protagonist displays OCD ritual behavior. It's subtle at first; I wondered what that behavior was about. Eventually it became clear that this was his way of dealing with anxiety and helped explain his anxiety about everyone following the rules. He believes that when rules are followed, bad things won't happen, even if the rule is nonsensical. That was well done.

There's been a discussion in my house about what science fiction should be about. It's my contention that all literature should be about people. Science fiction is especially good at illuminating the human condition by creating characters who are not human - robots, aliens, Vulcans, Time Lords, Cylons, and the like, help us understand ourselves. (Mysteries are also good at this, by showing up people placed in extreme circumstances and how they behave in those situations.) My husband, on the other hand, thinks science fiction should be about the science, not the people. If you agree with me, I don't think you'll appreciate I, robot. If you are more interested in the science than plot and characters and good writing, then you might enjoy it very much. Dr. Smith does make the science interesting. There are charts and graphs (as well as maps) to help him explain the technology behind his robots. Like most of us, he is more interesting when he is interested.

A friend of a friend at our lab told me about this book. At first I thought this was going be like a James Bond type of book (which are good and bad -- I just saw the latest 'Q of Solace' -- ugghhh) -- indeed the book opens with a nuclear explosion over a Japanese warship. And there's a car chase and there's lots of karate. But hidden among all this is incredible robot technology, albeit made super simple to understand. (Which maybe should have been part of a PhD thesis or presented at an AI conference. But it has not (well, not yet) -- I should know.) As I think someone else wrote here, Wow!! Wow!! The religious-like ending was good. I think this is how robots will emerge, not from the sane scientists (which somehow are always portrayed in books and movies as crazy) but from our chaotic, complex world that has biology that evolved in the jungle coupled with ever more powerful technology, and is hurtling towards, well possibly, the scenario portrayed here. My recommendation: It takes valuable time to read a book. This one is worth it.

I am writing the review based on the Advanced Reading Copy which I note has the same page count and cover as the version here. I received this copy at Book Expo America in LA where I was vacationing and got to go to the show with a friend.
I,robot is a wonderful read. It's Asimov updated to 2012 technology and it's Asimov's rules (and the problems with these rules) but it's a totally different (and modern) story. I read it in one sitting. The ending makes you think a bit.
At then end of the book, a full glossary and discussion questions. Apparently the technology in the book is all real. (Well, that's the impression I get. I dunno... scary if it is...) The setting is our world, albeit in the near future.
The book has since made its way among our students, especially the guys. I think a much better read for them than much of the female-oriented fiction that tends to be on the market.

Thumbs up. One of the better ARCs I picked up at the show.

L.

A really fun book to read. Good story. Events take you all around the world. Technology is awesome, ending even better - I wasn't expecting it.

Length:: 1:53 Mins

This is the book trailer for this book from YouTube. It is quite faithful to the book although the nuclear explosion is not over Tokyo but further offshore. I think more books should have these quick trailers so you can decide if you want to read the book

Dr. Howard S. Smith is an MIT-trained engineer and clearly an intelligent and learned man. Unfortunately, as an author, the man is a complete buffoon. Hence the title -- which Dr. Smith actually tried to justify by pointing out that his title uses a small "r" in "robot." Thereby proving that he doesn't understand grammar, or the purpose and value of a title on a work of fiction, and also resurrecting the memory of Vanilla Ice claiming he didn't steal the melody from the Bowie/Queen song "Under Pressure" because "Ice, Ice, Baby" used an extra beat instead of a rest in the drum track.

The robots described are, I'm sure, well-designed; not being a roboticist myself, I did not try to decipher the technical descriptions nor the diagrams, of which there are several. I didn't have any desire to analyze the technical diagrams, as they have nothing to do with the story, and I took this book up as a novel, not as a textbook on robotics with a sidebar in nuclear weapons technology. What I cared about was the storyline, where the book showed about as much style and grace as did the aforementioned rap "song."

So what's wrong with the fiction elements? First, at the beginning of the book, North Korea successfully tests an ICBM with a nuclear warhead, threatening Japan, and terrorists in Lebanon fire rockets at Israel. And somehow, despite the US and China and all the other nuclear powers having a very serious interest in any country becoming nuclear and developing attack capabilities, somehow Japan is left to deal with a nuclear North Korea all by itself. And despite the fact that terrorists have been attacking Israel since its creation half a century ago, when these rockets are fired, the Israeli military lets them land because their countermeasures are expensive and "they [the terrorists] never hit anything anyway." Then when the terrorists do hit their target, and the military are finished standing and staring like slack-jawed yokels, Israel counterattacks in the dumbest possible way, an airstrike without gathering any intelligence -- despite Israel's preeminent intelligence-gathering ability -- and when they bomb innocent civilians in Lebanon (something that has happened repeatedly over the course of Israel's struggles), all the other nations of the world immediately turn on Israel. Despite the fact that Israel has never been sanctioned for defending itself against terrorists. Maybe it was because the Israelis turned so stupid overnight -- a problem that is compounded when the Israelis send their tanks into Lebanon to deal with the terrorists directly, and all of them are wiped out by terrorists with anti-tank weapons. Because the Israeli army has no idea how to deal with anti-tank weapons. Not like they won a war in six days, or anything. But because these two nations have these suddenly insurmountable problems, they strike a deal: Israel will give Japan several working nuclear weapons, and Japan will give Israel robot foot soldiers.

But wait, there's more. The main character is a Japanese police inspector named Haruto. Haruto has obsessive compulsive disorder, and is thus a stickler for the rules. Fortunately for Haruto, his obsession with following the rules only rises when it is convenient: when he is falsely accused of murder, he says that sometimes you have to break the rules, and he refuses to turn himself in. Whenever he gets into trouble, he makes up new rules to get himself out of trouble -- when he falls overboard into the Pacific Ocean, for instance, he makes this new rule for himself: "Find the lifebuoy and conserve energy until a passing ship comes by and picks him up." That's a good rule. Good thing he has such wonderful control over his obsessive compulsive disorder, which is usually characterized by the need to perform actions that obstruct a normal life, rather than preserve it.

The story doesn't get better. The love story is ridiculous -- she is an Israeli kibbutznik, whom Haruto impresses when he beats up her former (now abusive and threatening) boyfriend, impregnates almost immediately thereafter, and declares his undying love for. The war scenes are described with mathematic precision but little else, as we are given repeated instances of Dr. Smith's multiplication ability -- the Israeli robotic units are made up of one human soldier, 22 biped scout robots called Alphas (who are depicted on the front cover and look just like the robots in the film "I, Robot," but I'm sure that's a coincidence), and eight multi-legged carrier robots called Betas, and Dr. Smith repeatedly used lines like, "Lieutenant Chaim Dayan, 32 soldiers, 704 Alphas and 256 Betas -- nine hundred and ninety-three men and machines, were in Lebanon now." But when they attack, it's more along the lines of, "Then the robots ran up and set off the explosives, which killed all the terrorists. The end." (Not a direct quote.) When Dr. Smith cannot turn to mathematics or technical jargon, he falls back into the sci-fi fan's obsession with trivia: he uses the word "amaranth" to describe a character's red shirt, he has a Japanese character pause in the middle of a serious argument to give a small dissertation on seppuku, and Haruto's karate is described in loving detail, with the Japanese names for the specific blows and a running tally of the duration and time elapsed between strikes -- he lashed out with an oi-tsuki strike that shattered the man's nose in one-eleventh of a second, that sort of thing.

The story ends badly, with Haruto coming to an epiphany too late and ending in tears -- albeit totally cured of his OCD -- and the nations of the world falling into a new and deadly arms race. After that is an extensive glossary, with lengthy explanations of all technical terms used throughout the book, and an annotated bibliography that would fit better at the end of a scholarly article. Which is probably what Dr. Smith should have written, instead of inflicting this bunk on the science fiction world.

Nuclear North Korea extorts Japan, terrorist rockets rain down on Israel. "I, Robot" is not a retelling of Isaac Asimov's science fiction classic, but a different metaphor entirely, as Tokyo Police Inspector Suzuki Haruto rigidly follows his own internal rules - much like Asimov's own robots. Haruto stumbles upon a massive arms deal and ultimately falls into a situation, clouded by his love, where he will either save our world or destroy it. "I, Robot" is deftly written and will grab you from first page to last while holding links to Asimov's tale. "I, Robot" is highly recommended for science fiction fans and community library collections for the genre.