Customer Reviews

Isaac Asimov's Inferno

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This book reads like a middle ground book, which it is. It is the connector between Cailban and Utopia. It's a good book and expands a little more on the Spacer/Settler interaction on the planet Inferno through the vehicle of Chanto Grieg's murder. Lot's of interesting touches like the forced conscription of robotic labor that help define the society and dress the stage for Utopia. A very good book if not as good as the first.

This middle book of the Caliban series was a classic 'Who-Done-It' murder mystery along the lines of 'Caves of Steel'. Elijah Bailey could've been in there instead of Alvar Kresh. This book served more as a segway between Caliban and Utopia. It essentially moved Kresh into the Governorship of Inferno and that's about it. Its not the strongest book I've ever read. Although I'd suggest reading all three, if you had to skip any book in the series, it would be this one.

'Caliban', the first in this trilogy, is a good book and well worth seeking out, so is the third one, 'Utopia'. This is easily the least of the three. Although Allen tries to expand his examination of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics by introducing New Law robots the concept is not done with any verve, pace or excitement. As noted by another reviewer it has an Agatha Christie feel to it but without the charm or style of her mysteries. It's not even a particularly interesting puzzle. There's nothing in this middle book that can't easily be caught up with in the third. And the concept of Three Law/No Law and New Law is better examined there as well. You really don't need to spend the time on this one.

While the murder mystery was well set up, the ending was more of Agatha Christie ending, with a parlor room scene and a head shaker of a perpetrator. The political intrigue which should have been the height of this story was not focused on well enough. This is a society in the grips of an awful set of diriving forces that should have rocked the foundations of the planet. But you didn't feel that pain from the governor. The 4 law Robot introduced isn't given the same exploration that Caliban was in the first book. You do not get behind his head. The pain of transition should have been brought to bear hear as their are real world examples all around us. This missed the boat.

2nd is a trilogy set in the asimov universe between the robot novel series and the foundation series. If you are an Asimov fan you will enjoy this series.

If he were alive to see what Allen did to his Robot Universe, he would strangle the guy. This is a perfect example of why Allen should've stuck to those Little House On The Prairie sequels. The basic idea of Inferno (Just like it's predecessor, Caliban) is the creation of two new kinds of robots: The New Law robots and the No Law robot, and their effect on the society of the planet Inferno. The New Law Robots are freer than the original Three Law robots in Asimov's books, but have their own share of problems; Caliban, the only robot created with no laws, is of course the most free, but is far from human. This is all well and good, and in a more capable writer's hands would have been interesting, but Allen takes his one or two good ideas and throws them in a turbine. I'm sorry, Mr. Allen, but I don't really care about the intimate details of Tierlaw Verick's body, or anyone else's, for that matter. Whatever happened to "don't tell, show"?

I read this novel quite a while ago, but I had a good impression of it. It's a good sequel.