Customer Reviews

Isaac Asimov's Have Robot, Will Travel: The New Isaac Asimov's Robot Mystery

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This book picks up where Tiedemann's series (Mirage, Chimera, Aurora) left off. Do not read this until you have read Tiedemann's or it will make no sense. That said, I liked this book more than Tiedemann's. It actually tells an interesting story. Yes there is one plot strand that should have been dispensed with completely... I refer to the "a Robot has killed a human!" plotline. How many times have we seen this same plot line? I've lost count. The other story line is about the cyborgs who want human rights, while the nefarious crew responsible for cyborgs have their own sick agenda. This deserved to be the sole plotline of the book. It actually evoked some pathos with its portrayal of an aptly-named cyborg village, "Gernika".

Anyway, I was prepared to be frustrated at the end of this book, because it showed all the signs of becoming a series. However I was very pleasantly surprised: the author actually killed off a bunch of bad guys and wrapped the whole storyline up in 10 or 15 pages! YAYY!!! These days it is hard to find an honest-to-god self-contained novel!

I am always glad to see new books in the asimovian universe. This is a continuation of Mark W. Tiedemann's trilogy featuring Derec Avery and Ariel Burgess from the Robot City series. This one adds a few new twists and turns that not only expands the robot conspiracy started by Daneel Olivaw, but also adds more to the cyborg aspect. This is book that needs to be in your Asmiov collection.

Pleasant addition to the series. Good use of known characters. Interesting situations. Ending too tidy and killed off too many characters if he was planning to broaden the series as the "Star Wars" crowd has done so well.