About

I read all of Isaac Asimov's Robot and Foundation stories, many years ago and totally enjoyed them.

Recently i watched the film "I, Robot", which was based upon Isaac's stories, and it has inspired me to read the whole lot again. This time i have the added advantage of the internet and Johnny Pez's Chronological List to follow.

The early stories that we encounter are basically exploring different situations caused by the 3 Laws. It's fairly important to read these before moving onto the later stories as they give the necessary background for everything that follows.

 

A Boy's Best Friend
(The Complete Robot)

A very short story about a child living on the moon with his robot dog.

Robbie
(The Complete Robot)

A mother begins to get worried when her young daughter begins to shun humans and spends nearly all of her time with her robot, Robbie.

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
(The Complete Robot)

A lunar robot somehow ends up loose on Earth.

Insert Knob A in Hold B
(Nightfall 20 SF Stories)

The shortest story Issac ever wrote. Written during a chat show on TV as a challenge to see if he could write a story anywhere at any time.

Runaround
(The Complete Robot)

The first of the Powell and Donovan stories. Our duo works as a team field testing new robots.

Powell and Donovan have been sent to Mercury with a new type of robot who develops a malfunction caused by the three laws when sent out to fetch some selenium. The Selenium is important because the station where they're based relies on it for cooling and without it they will cook to death.

So off they go to try to resolve the robot's problems and get the selenium back to base.

Reason
(The Complete Robot)

Our intrepid pair find themselves on their next mission on a space station.

The space station gathers solar energy and beams it back to earth. However, one of the robots has created its own religion, converted all the other robots to it and decided to cut our two humans out of the loop and run the whole thing themselves.

Catch That Rabbit
(The Complete Robot)

After a six month holiday, Powell and Donovan find themselves sent to an asteroid mine with a new multi-robot. There are seven robots in all, one main one and six subsidiaries, although they are all essentially one single unit.

The robots work perfectly when they're being watched, but as soon as Powell or Donovan aren't there the robots don't do any work.

Why?

Safety First
(Asimov Fan Fiction Blog)

Another Powell and Donovan story, although it's written by Johnny Pez, not Isaac Asimov.

Our pair are on a satelite station above Venus when one of the robots freaks out because of the possibity that the satelite could crash therefore causing harm to humans thereby breaking the first law if it doesn't do something about it.

Liar
(The Complete Robot)

Our next character in the saga is Susan Calvin. A robot psychologist who specialises in three law problems.

In this story, a new robot is able to read people's thoughts. The management team at US Robots and Mechanical Men Corporation (USRMMC) have to figure out what happened in the manufacturing process to cause this.

In the meantime, the robot starts telling people things that other people are thinking - or are they?

Satisfaction Guaranteed
(The Complete Robot)

The first of the domestic robots needs to be tested, so a USRMMC manager's wife gets a butler for a couple of weeks.

The robot soon senses that his new mistress has low self esteem and determines that he has to do something about it as this is causing her harm.

Balance
(Foundation's Friends)

More in the "get to know Susan Calvin" saga and our first story from the Foundation's Friends anthology.

Susan catches the eye of a young man whilst giving one of her lectures...

Lenny
(The Complete Robot)

Susan Calvin has a baby...

Blot
(Foundation's Friends)

A not too enthralling short story.

Little Lost Robot
(The Complete Robot)

A look at what can happen when the first law is tampered with.

Escape
(The Complete Robot)

Powell and Donovan are back and soon gone again as Susan Calvin tries to coax The Brain through a first law hitch and get them back.

Cal
(Gold)

A robot learns to write stories.

Evidence
(The Complete Robot)

A politician accuses an opponent of being a robot.

Is he or isn't he?

PAPPI
(Foundation's Friends)

The Stephen Byerley saga continues...

...but how do you convince someone that it's ok to kill a person because they're just a robot when that someone was brought up by a robot father substitute (PAPPI)?

Risk
(The Complete Robot)

A prototype hyper drive space ship sit on an asteroid waiting for take off. At its controls is a robot because the risk to a human is too great to take, but it seems sometimes the risk to a robot is also too great and humans are to be thrown into the deep end also.

Galley Slave
(The Complete Robot)

A University Lecturer has tampered with a proof reading robot and is trying to sue US Robots for ruining his career.

The only one who can prove the robot didn't mess up is the robot, but the robot has been ordered not to talk with the order backed up with 1st Law reinforcement.

First Law
(The Complete Robot)

Apparently it is possible for a robot to break the first law...

Plato's Cave
(Foundation's Friends)

A mining robot on one of Jupiter's moons begins having a first law problem due to instructions received from Napolean.

Powell and Donovan are sent to the scene to sort it all out.

The Evitable Conflict
(The Complete Robot)

The Earth's economy and all means of production are now controlled by positronic computers governed by the three laws. The computers should never make mistakes yet errors are becoming increasingly evident; Susan Calvin and Stephen Byerley try to get to the bottom of the cause.

Robot Dreams
(Robot Dreams )

A newly designed prototype robot claims that it is having dreams. Susan Calvin is soon brought in to discover whether this is true or not and what it means.