Hello bookies!
Well, after a crazy two months, I finally finished one of my books! Woo! I'm going to have to step it up if I'm going to read all 10 of them! Anyway, I'm not going to tell you the gory details of my new job, the fact that I have worked there for two months and have put in over three months time and that I moved - getting the stomach flu that night. It's been a rough two months.
But here I am, nearly done with unpacking and settling into the new job. Which means?? Books!
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov was a fabulous read!
First, forget Will Smith and his hot body. How that movie was made based off this book is still a mystery to be solved...
I’ve never been a huge fan of science fiction novels. Or rather, I should say that I’ve never been fond of sci-fi books that contained intricate details about space travel - so much so that I could probably build my own Delorian or whatever in my invisible garage. However, I have to admit that I do enjoy sci-fi books that are about the people more than their machines. One of my all time favorite books is Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I know little to nothing about sci-fi, but I understand that apparently this book belongs into that genre but the feel to me is more like a mystery novel. While I was reading it, I felt like there was something that needed to be solved - somehow I had to piece together the information that was being provided to me, interpret it and figure out what was going on.
I, Robot seemed to me to be a "mystery" novel. It isn’t one of those sci-fi novels that involves gadgetry or warp speed or any of that other stuff I know nothing about and care nothing about. Yes, the novel, or shall I say, collection of short stories, is presented to us as if a young journalist were interviewing a robopsychologist named Dr. Susan Calvin. Dr. Calvin worked for US Robots and Mechanical Men, Inc. for her entire career. She is initially introduced to the reader as a formidable and humorless woman. We learn otherwise throughout the stories. Like the robots she studies, her emotions are hidden or hard to interpret - repressed would be a good word.
As Dr. Calvin describes to the journalist her career and its ups and downs, we learn that the cleverness of the robots increases as the technology increases. Each story holds its own, just as we expect a short story to do. Each story is like a mystery. We are presented a new robot with each story. In the story, something goes wrong with the robot. Our "heroines" in each story must then come up with a way to save the day.
The most fascinating part of these stories, save the human element that I love, is the techonology. Computers had hardly even been invented in 1950, when the book was published. The interest in robots goes back to before Da Vinci’s time. But Asimov’s inventiveness in the technology of robots, space travel and even energy production is highly interesting. And I’m not even into that kind of thing.
I, Robot rocks. Read it - plus it's relatively short!
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