Predator (Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time) [Paperback]

William F. Wu (Author)

Book Description

Series: Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time | Publication Date: April 1993

When the MC Governor breaks itself down into six component robots and launches its parts into the remote past, only an experimental robot named Hunter and a hastily assembled team of human experts have a chance to retrieve them.

Product Details

• Paperback: 244 pages
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380765101
• ISBN-13: 978-0380765102
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,790,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Worst Book I've Read with Isaac Asimov's Name on the Cover, July 5, 2004

By 

Michael D. Donovan (Springfield, Virginia United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Predator (Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time) (Paperback)

The Good Doctor's good name is used merely as a marketing device for Wu's series that reads like the description to a bad TV show and is far inferior to almost anything Asimov wrote.

First off, anyone familiar with any of Asimov's robot stories or novels will find this story inconsistant. The newly built city in the book seems to possibly be a precursor for the Cities in the Robot Novels, yet the MC Governor, able to divide into six robots, is far more advanced than anything that appears in Asimov's work. It does separate into six robots, which then are shrunken down to microscopic size and sent to different eras in the past. Surprize! This may have the effect turning each of the six into atomic bombs (gosh, didn't MC Governor know that already, I thought everyone did). So its up to another robot and two humans, a robotics expert and a survivalist, to find them all. For their first mission, described in this book, they have to go to the Cretacious Period, and they need a palaeontologist to come along.

We are never told why, but for some reason, the palaeontologist sees fit to criticize and argue with the survialist from the moment they meet. Apparently, palaeontologists hate people who go camping. The reader is denied the pleaure of his being eaten by a dinosaur.

It might have made sense for the roboticist to be the one to not get along with the survivalist, as these two characters continue in the series after the first book. They would then eventually have to learn to get along in the course of future books. Since the survivalist is a man and the roboticist is a woman, they probably become romatically involved in later books as well, and it would make their romance more interesting (at least to me) if they hated eachother first. But then, I saw no reason to read any of the later books. I have enough pain in my life.

At one point, the hero robot rides a triceratops. This is a dead end plot device. At another point, the group corralls another dinosaur with the intention of training it; which they apparently think will take less time then they have to stop the atomic explosion.

I am sorry I have to give as many as one star, it certainly doesn't deserve that many, but Amazon won't allow less. Five negative stars is my rating. It was a long time ago when I read this, but seeing that they are soon to publish a new edition renews my anger at being conned into reading this awful piece of hackwork, I don't want anyone else to get fooled the way I did. If you are determined to write a bad novel, Mr. Wu, that is your own business, but don't try to scam the rest of us into buying and reading it by exploiting Asimov's name and reputation after he is gone and can't defend himself.

With this so-called "I, Robot" movie now available on DVD, it now more important than ever that those of us who care protect the Good Doctor's good name.

1.0 out of 5 stars not worth the read, February 13, 2007

By 

Grant Reiner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Predator (Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time) (Paperback)

I read about half the book before calling it quits for good. I love the real Issaac Asimov stories, but this is not even a respectable imitator (if there are any at all).
First, we are expected to buy the idea of time travel into the past--a logical impossibility that has occasionally been gotten away with when there was great action or character development to compensate. Halfway through, I realized that this book would have neither of these. Instead, two of the main characters, an outdoorsman and paleantologist inexplicably bicker with each other about nothing at all, from the moment they meet.
Wu's hidden agenda seems to be to advocate environmentalism, a religion the daily tabloids and ivory tower politician/pseudo-scientists are doing enough to disseminate on their own.
This is not even good for children, as it is poorly written, is philosophically flawed, and is uselessly descriptive (e.g., the main female character is described as 'pretty'...so what?).
Fortunately, I've yet to read over half of the REAL Asimov stories, so I have something to look forward to.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very well written., January 22, 2005

By 

Stoneman "Sci-fi Reader" (Dayton, OH) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Predator (Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time) (Paperback)

This book was very well organized and had a good imagination behind the story. Some other people who have read this book, don't let themselves get absorbed into the book, instead they try to overanalyze the charaters, as if they were some psychologist. This is a book that could be read at any age and that can't be done with every sci-fi book, so I feel that the writer did a very good job.