Brent Maxwell
An interesting take on the space opera. It spans interesting social narrative, predictions and ideas. The style is very unique, in that it is kind of lighthearted in style, but extremely brutal and dark in content. It actually works very well.
I just didn't enjoy it all that much as the protagonist is an absolute PoS, and it's hard to make sense of their motivations. It HAS to be more than idealism, but the character development never really goes deeper than “he hates machines”. No rationale, no allusions to reasoning.
The same thing goes for the “followers”. Sure, it all falls apart in the end, but the idea of these strangers following the protagonist seems unrealistic.
So TL;DR: great ideas, great plot, poor character motivations and no development.
Well that kinda sucked. I was inspired to check out Heinlein after reading Asimov's Robot series, but oh my are they different. I'm uninterested in continuing with Heinlein.
There're some interesting ideas in there, but the best the book has to offer is witty banter, almost exclusively from one character. It just doesn't compensate for the weird, meandering lack of a consistent narrative arc.
Loads of misogyny in there, making it hard to focus on the narrative because it's so horrific. The whole story is pretty much just a story about Jesus in America forming a cult.
A fantastic book, almost 5 stars except that most characters speak like robots. Everyone is very clear, articulate and expository.
The story is fantastic though, and the character development of the protagonists - two robots - is so well done. This is one of my favourites in the series along with the Caves of Steel.
A fascinating take on the events driving the future topography of human colonization of the galaxy.
A beautiful story. It's an extension of the short story, The Bicentennial Man, and the extension absolutely expands on the story in a manner that makes it a joy to read.
There's deep empathy in the narrative for the yearning to be treated as equal to what you desire. I can see a likening to the gender identity challenges some people face, as well as the abolition of slavery in some ways.
It's a testament to humanity's striving to be better, to be accepted and to be treated as equal.
Another great instalment. I can't quite give it 4 stars because it's just not as good as the two predecessors. The writing is far more... robotic, in that all the character's writing is far more unrealistically formal and expository than warranted. The writing in the previous two books is less formal and more in line with the character's characters.
BUT! This is where the real groundwork for psychohistory and the concept of a galactic empire was laid... and we all know where that took us: Foundation!
The Foundation series is one of my favourites, and it's so far zoomed out that it makes these predecessor series so much more intimate and fantastic segues into the Foundation future.
Another fantastic sci-fi detective novel. Fantastic iteration from the last novel, which it leaves out as almost irrelevant to this story, so they could be read happily in isolation.
Lacks some of the noir influence of its predecessor, but is much more interested in the sociology of humanity becoming interplanetary.
A fantastic sci-fi noir detective novel! After I, Robot and The Complete Robot, I did not expect Asimov to dive head first into noir! It's got such a classic feel to it too, reminiscent of Chandler or Ellroy.
A bit lighter though as it's more focused on the robot/human interactions, psychology and sociology than on the crime itself, but that doesn't take away from how surprisingly excellent the story and storytelling are, along with the character development.
I guess this is why Asimov got so damn famous...
This is similar to I, Robot, in that it's a set of Asimov's short stories. Although I, Robot wove them together through Susan, the protagonist, I actually liked these stories more.
Don't get me wrong, Susan has become one of my heroes. And I, Robot is excellent, it's just that all the stories happen in her lifetime, so the time scale is compressed. The Complete Robot includes 4-5 of Susan's stories, but stretches across a longer time arc, and you can see how it fed into his Foundation work, particularly with The Bicentennial Man.
Fantastic social commentary, particularly with relation to man's fears around AI. It's incredibly relevant today as LLMs are becoming ubiquitous.
Pretty fun adventure with rogue AGIs doing their thing. A great explainer at the end of all the shenanigans that takes place.
It's just a bit hard to attach to the characters when they're mostly just passengers that things happen to. They are a bit light on agency, and it's unclear and unbelievable quite a lot of the time why they're doing things, and how it could come to pass.
An incredibly fun and hilarious journey through the basics of the human immune system. There are so many great lessons in here, for example: the whole concept of a “strong immune system” are misguided. What we need is a balanced immune system. A “strong” immune system is just one with an autoimmune disease.
Anyway I'd recommend this to anyone curious about how we humans work.