Eight Stories from The Rest of the Robots

Robot #0.2.1

by Isaac Asimov

This is an anthology of eight of Asimov's short stories about robots:

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray
Victory Unintentional
First Law
Let's Get Together
Satisfaction Guaranteed
Risk
Lenny
Galley Slave

From the book's back cover:

ROBOTS

Mechanical servants, doing the jobs too hard - or too boring - for men to handle. They brought mankind into a new age of freedom and leisure. And every robot was completely incpable of harming a human being. So ... why did men hate and fear them?

In THE REST OF THE ROBOTS, Isaac Asimov - author of a whole library of science fiction and fact - explores the fascinating future of men and their metal slaves in dramatic detailed stories of high imagination and wonder.

This is a pre-ISBN book

Publisher's catalog number R-1783. 511-01783-050

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Collections, Science Fiction Fantasy, Anthologies, Robots

159 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1964

About the author

Works of prolific Russian-American writer Isaac Asimov include popular explanations of scientific principles, The Foundation Trilogy (1951-1953), and other volumes of fiction.

Isaac Asimov, a professor of biochemistry, wrote as a highly successful author, best known for his books.

Asimov, professor, generally considered of all time, edited more than five hundred books and ninety thousand letters and postcards. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey decimal classification but lacked only an entry in the category of philosophy (100).

People widely considered Asimov, a master of the genre alongside Robert Anson Heinlein and Arthur Charles Clarke as the "big three" during his lifetime. He later tied Galactic Empire and the Robot into the same universe as his most famous series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those that Heinlein pioneered and Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson previously produced. He penned "Nightfall," voted in 1964 as the best short story of all time; many persons still honor this title. He also produced well mysteries, fantasy, and a great quantity of nonfiction. Asimov used Paul French, the pen name, for the Lucky Starr, series of juvenile novels.

Most books of Asimov in a historical way go as far back to a time with possible question or concept at its simplest stage. He often provides and mentions well nationalities, birth, and death dates for persons and etymologies and pronunciation guides for technical terms. Guide to Science, the tripartite set Understanding Physics, and Chronology of Science and Discovery exemplify these books.

Asimov, a long-time member, reluctantly served as vice president of Mensa international and described some members of that organization as "brain-proud and aggressive about their IQs." He took more pleasure as president of the humanist association. The asteroid 5020 Asimov, the magazine Asimov's Science Fiction, an elementary school in Brooklyn in New York, and two different awards honor his name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_As...

Reviews

[Aiyana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of Robot short stories from various times in Asimov's career. His introductions alone are worth picking up the book for. Solid science fiction with a good sense of humor and often a powerful political punch.

[Roberta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like Isaac Asimov's robots... and their humans!

[Steven Peterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov created a number of great series--the Foundation series is one. Another was the Robot series. And, later in life, he actually wed the two.

This volume includes two of his robot novels (The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun) as well as a series of his short stories (some Susan Calvin pieces, some on the Law of Robotics, and a couple on the origins of robots).

The two novels are classics and it is nice to see them in this volume. One can get a sense of the development of Asimov's fictional history of robots here, from early on, to the development of the famed laws of robotics (can readers of this recall them all?), to the work of Susan Calvin, to the culminating novels. In that sense, this volume provides an arc of Asimov's works, providing context for the novels.

Asimov begins the book with his view on robots (Page xiii): ". . .I began, in 1940, to write robot stories of my own--but robot stories of a new variety. Never, never, was one of my robots to turn stupidly on his creator for no purpose but to demonstrate, for one more weary time, the crime and punishment of Faust."

A nice volume, even long after its publication. It reminds us of Asimov's skills. He still couldn't create real human characters when he wrote these pieces, but his ideas were provocative and still resonate.

[Austin Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did you know I, Robot has (as close as possible) a direct sequel? Well this is it. The stories are more fun to think about in retrospect, rather than the slightly dry read they are.

Four Stars just cause.

[Alger Smythe-Hopkins · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.

-- 1 Corinthians 13:11

As time has passed, my admiration for some authors has grown considerably. I recently reread the major novels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. for example, and found his gentle humanism and experiments with the form to be even more affecting than in earlier reads years ago. Sadly, others (Asimov is one) fall rapidly in my estimation with each read.
Much of this I understand is because I now read with a wider experience of the world and the writing craft. I first read Asimov avidly, as a boy, inhaling his popular science writings and The Foundation Trilogy. With it I uncritically accepted the rigid logical positivism and the all-cis and male, all-white world of his imagination. Asimov was a very much a product of his time and wrote most of his sci-fi for the horrible John W. Campbell Jr.. It took far too long after Campbell's death for misogyny and racism to stop being the essential motif of science fiction and a barrier to better authors than Robert A. Heinlein and ideas other than Mankind Wins!
So with that preamble complete, be aware that racism and sexual stereotypes are the actual plots of these eight short robot stories, and Asimov's handling of these topics is uncritical, ham-handed, and lazy. Even the chapter introductions include Asimov dragging the Ol' Ball-n-Chain while doing his best Henny Youngman impression (Take my wife, PLEASE!).
It's hard to describe just how unimaginative Asimov's writing is here, and how little effort went into his invention of a world with robots. It's the old sci-fi standard of take-the-present-add-one-new-technology formula, except Asimov went the extra step of utterly excluding robots from the world so that he could tell a story in isolation while imagining the world of 2035 as being 1955 with space travel. Computers are 'glorified adding machines' that take up an entire room. People still ride in trains to cross the country and ships to cross oceans. Housewives dress in taffeta and moon lonely about the house while their husbands are off changing the world, and lustfully chasing exciting stylish women not their wives. Only would Asimov first create a character like Susan Calvin, and then hinge a story on her 'maternal instinct' as a punchline.
Then there is the reflexive and universal xenophobia these humans have towards robots, which is portrayed as something, if not rational, reasonable. Off the top of my head, I can think of four of these stories that simply don't work without the characters being reflexive yet rational racists, their rationality being how Susan Calvin outsmarts them in the end. Then there are the stories where they only work if nominal experts behave like complete incompetents. Take Galley Slave a very dumb story that was clearly written because Asimov couldn't resist the title pun as an example, where the lawyer for the defense is convinced to forego the obvious defense of negligence on the part of the professor and have the case dismissed out of hand, because Susan wants to take a chance on a Perry Mason-esque courtroom trick to save the day. Or Risk, where we have to believe that the engineers on that project, who had thought of everything else, failed to specify how far to pull the bar.
Quite frankly, these stories annoyed me with their bottom of the barrel quality. That Asimov had some good ideas, including the 3-Laws of Robotics I don't dispute. What annoys me is how few ideas went into these insipidly told stories that were collected outside the I, Robot cycle for a reason, and whose sole purpose is to make a fast buck.

[Brandie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read. All solid stories...even though for First Law, I have to ask: How? Plus they name the robots of that line Emma so it is the only way it makes this possible? Only because that is the first of Asimov's robots (that I've encountered and no haven't read all of them so it may not be) that is given the pronoun 'she'.

My favorites:
The first 2 stories Robot AL-76 Goes Astray and Victory Unintentional are just so much fun and funny! All the stories show how humans try to humanize the robots (in that they are fallible and prone to emotions and irrational moments) and thus, like Frankenstein's monster, they are out to destroy their creator, man. But Asimov's robots are only machines (at least most of them) and they will act and react in predictable ways. And so with the first 2 stories, the people and intelligent aliens are running around thinking the end is near, the robots are going to kill us all! and the robot just continues to go about its job almost in a child-like innocent manner. Hilarious!

I also enjoyed Satisfaction Guaranteed (and after the ending...that title has more than one meaning!) where US Robotics sends a test robot to the home of a stay-at-home-wife and her husband goes out-of-town. The robot is there to attend to any household chores or other requests by Mrs. Belmont. And Tony, the robot, fulfills those requests to such a degree that even Mrs. Belmont herself didn't know that she was asking them and that Tony was only performing in accordance with the First Law of Robotics. :/ Interesting.

[robyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminiscent of a time when it was hard to get hold of short stories, even by a well-known author, and a little anthology like this was a boon.

These stories aren't universally great, BUT. Asimov's robots were a true game-changer, and they still make for solid story-telling. That hint of Uncanny Valley, and anthropomorphism; you can't help believing that Pinocchio can, truly, become a real boy, even taking the robots' side. Humanity is rather often cast as the bully or the mob in these.

[Jo Anne · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm a fan of Isaac Asimov and always happy when I happen upon an old book of his. I just finished reading "Eight Stories" and just didn't find these stories up to his usual standards. I got a laugh out of Robot AL-76 Goes Astray and Lenny was properly creepy, but I had to struggle to get through the others. Oh well, nobody scored 100% every time.

[Peggy Zeigler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always liked Asimov's books and stories, and having collected a lot of the books over the years and now having to downsize, its fun to read and reread some of them again before passing them on to someone else. These are pretty good stories on the robots, I had not realized he had written so many with Susan Calvin as a character.

[Noah · Rating 3 out of 5]

While the stories may seem simple or superficial and out dated scientifically; they do include rather intriguing philosophical conundrums regarding the interaction of humans and robots and how the the three laws of of robots function. The last story in particular hits hard on the truth of today and how AI is affecting creative works.

[Jessica Shubert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably would've been 2 stars if not for the sheer magnificence of Susan Calvin. I do appreciate these stories as ones in which the robots are not terrifying human-killers. Each story gets increasingly more thoughtful, if only about robotics.

[Prakash · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

The story "Risk" was a bit irritating.

[Jon Zuckerman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Isaac Asimov is a genius and I am having an absolute blast with his stories. Very excited to move on to the novels!

[Dhananjay Kulkarni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fabulous set of stories by Asimov.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asimov's intro and commentary between stories is very interesting. Otherwise, another good mix of fun and thought provoking stories.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must have read this book before, since I remember at least half of the stories! They have great staying power.

[Volkan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ana dünya ile bağlantılı bağlantısız hikayeler var. Özellikle Susan Calvin in dahil oldukları muhteşem.

[Brian Grouhel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Robot stories by Asimov never get old. Reading these ones again after several decades was just as or maybe even more enjoyable than the first time.

[Bülent Ö. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daha önce hiçbir Asimov eseri okumamış biri olarak çok şey kaçırdığımı fark ettim. Özellikle robot öyküleri öyle güzelmiş ki…

Bu antolojiyi, her öyküye hayran kalarak, bir solukta okudum. Hatta öykülerden birinin “Ben, Robot”daki öykülerden biriyle ilintisi olduğunu öğrenince o öyküyü de bulup okudum bir çırpıda.

Bu güzel kitap Us Kitapları Yayınevi’nden Bilimkurgu Dizisi’nin ilk kitabı olarak çıkmış. İçindeki öykülerin biri hariç hepsi “Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots” adlı derlemeden çevrilmiş.

Her öyküden önce Asimov kısa bir açıklama yazmış. Bu yazılar bazen öyküye dair olabildiği gibi bazen de yazıldığı zamanki anıları içeriyor. Sırf bu açıklamalar için bile kitap okunmaya değer.

“Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots”daki öykülerden yalnızca “Galley Slave” adlı öykü bu Türkçe antolojiye eklenmemiş. Keşke eklenseymiş, çünkü Asimov, bu öykünün, içinde robopsikolog Susan Calvin’in yer aldığı öykülerin en uzunu olduğunu söylüyor ve en sevdiği Susan Calvin öyküsü buymuş.

Türkçe baskıda “Galley Slave” yerine “The Complete Robot” adlı derlemeden kısa bir bilgisayar öyküsü seçilip çevrilmiş: “Bakış Açısı”.

Çeviriyi Özlem Kurdoğlu Alpin yapmış, Özlem hanım bilimkurguya gönül vermiş bir doktor, Türkiye’de bu türün gelişip serpilmesinde katkıda bulunmuş biri. Kitabı da güzel çevirmiş. Tabi bazı ifadelerde sorun vardı. “Heaven help us” ifadesini “Cennet yardımcımız olsun” şeklinde çevirmesi ve bazı sözcükleri neredeyse olduğu gibi bırakması (Total Konversiyon bombası) beni rahatsız etti. Tabi bunun yanında şu ifadeyi çevirişine de hayran kaldım:

“Just possibly, Alfred,” said Bogert. “Just possibly. Enough for us to bring the matter up at the directors' meeting and see what they say. After all, the fat is in the fire. A robot has harmed a human being and knowledge of it is public. As Susan says, we might as well try to turn the matter to our advantage. Of course, I distrust her motives in all this.”

“Belki de, Alfred,” dedi Bogert. “Belki de olabilir. Konuyu müdürler toplantısında dile getirmeye ve onların ne diyeceğini görmeye yetecek kadarı var. Sonuçta yumurta kapıya gerçekten dayandı artık. Bir robot bir insana zarar verdi ve bu halk tarafından biliniyor. Susan’ın dediği gibi, durumu kendi avantajımıza çevirmeyi pekâlâ deneyebiliriz. Tabii onun bunu önermekteki nedenlerine pek güvenmiyorum.” (Lenny adlı öyküden)

Gelelim öykülere.

Robot AL-76 Başıboş Kalıyor:

Ay görevi için üretilen bir robot bir hata sonucu Ay’a gidemeden kaybolur ve kendini bir ormanda bulur. Orayı ay zanneden robotun ve onu gören adamın şaşkınlığını tahmin edebilirsiniz. Çok eğlenceli bir öyküydü.

İstem Dışı Zafer:

Jüpiter’e üç robot gönderilir. ZZ Bir, ZZ iki, ve ZZ Üç’ün görevleri Jüpiteri’i incelemek ve Jüpiterlilerle barışçıl bir temasa geçmektir. İstemeden güzel bir şey yaparlar. Ne yaptıklarını söylemeyeceğim ama üçü arasındaki konuşmalar ve Jüpiterlilerle temasa geçme çabaları çok keyif vericiydi.

Birinci Yasa:

Bir bozukluk sebebiyle “Bir robot bir insana zarar veremez veya hareketsiz kalmak suretiyle bir insanın zarar görmesine izin veremez.”yasasını çiğneyen bir robottan bahsediyor öykü. Daha doğrusu böyle bir robotla ilgili bir anısını anlatıyor Mike Donovan. Öykünün sonunda robotun yasayı niye çiğnediğini öğrenince gülümsüyoruz.

Bir Araya Gelelim:

Soğuk Savaş zamanlarındaki Uzay Yarışı yerini Robot Yarışı’na bırakmıştır. İstihbaratın çok büyük önem arz ettiği bu savaşta Amerika, uzun süredir sessiz kalan ve Robotik araştırmalarda ilerleme göstermeyen Rusya’nın önüne geçtiğini sanırken bir anda Rusya’nın ülkeye patlayıcı taşıyan robotlar soktuğuna dair bir bilgiyle şok yaşar. Sonu kolayca tahmin edilse de öyküdeki bu siyasi bakış onu harika bir öykü yapıyor.

Memnuniyetiniz Garantilidir:

Bir deneme için ev hanımı Claire Belmont’un emrine verilen Robot TN-3, yani Tony’nin olağanüstü hizmetini okuyoruz bu öyküde. Robopsikoloğumuz Susan Calvin’in de küçük bir rolü var hikayede.

Risk:

“Ben, Robot”taki öykülerden biri olan “Küçük Kayıp Robot”la aynı yerde, aynı kişiler arasında geçiyor “Risk”. Tabi konu olarak çok farklı.Calvin’in zorlama ve tehditleriyle hayati risk taşıyan bir görev verilen Gerald Black’i merkeze alıyor öykü. Okurken Susan Calvin’e çok kızacaksınız.

Lenny:

Kitabın en sevdiğim öyküsü. Yine Susan Calvin. Bir ihmal sonucu pozitronik beyninde sorun çıkan Robot LNE, garip davranışlar sergilemeye başlar. Bunun nedenini araştırmak tabi ki Calvin’e düşer. Aslında Calvin bu görev için fazla isteklidir. Nedenini söylemeyeceğim ama öykünün sonunda Susan’ı çok seveceksiniz.

Bakış Açısı:

Bir robotla değil devasa bir bilgisayarla ilgili bu öykü. Multivac tüm Dünya’nın sorunlarını çözmekle yükümlü ve bu işi layıkıyla yapan müthiş bir bilgisayar. Lakin bir sorun çıkıyor. Öyküde, bilgisayarı tamir etmeye çalışan mühendislerden birinin oğlu olan Roger’ın yaşanılan soruna bakış açısını görüyoruz. Kısacık, güzel, naif bir öykü.

[Alain del Risco]

Cover-building tower with elevated box, gives the impression of a robot. T-2565, .75 cents. Reddish cover.

[Rola G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

*If you don't like robots, these stories will not be enough to change your mind.

While reading these short stories, I was very content. And the fact that they were short stories as opposed to full on novels did not give the reader a chance to get bored, which I thought was very considerate of the author.

The plots were interesting enough and the writing, although to some may be dry, suited my taste; it had lots of dry humor, but it was not so explicit that one would laugh out loud. With that being said, there was something about the writing that kept the reader engaged. I don't know what it was exactly, but I could not for the life of me put down the book in the middle of a story.

1. Robot AL-76 Goes Astray: I might have a bias because this was the first story I read by Asimov, but I really enjoyed this story. I don't really have much else to say about it. Nothing about it was particularly noteworthy aside from the fact that it was one of the more humorous works in the compilation.

2. Victory Unintentional: This story was interesting because it was mainly written from the point of view of the robots whereas the others were written in the points of view of the roboticists. However, this story told a lot more than it showed. In terms of television, this would be a filler episode.

3. First Law: This was the shortest story (about four pages). It was mainly dialogue and to people who are not familiar with Asmiov's works, this helps clear up certain aspects that are present if most of his works. The ending was a bit confusing (I still don't understand it), but aside from that and the fact that it was mostly dialogue, there was not much else to it.

4. Let's Get Together: To me, this was more of a mystery story than a robot story. There was more of a 'whodunnit' (or whose about to do it to be more accurate) atmosphere to it. It wasn't mind blowing as most mystery stories tend to be, but it gave me a sense of satisfaction.

5. Satisfaction Guaranteed: I really liked the concept of this; it was mostly about a relationship forming between a person afraid of robots and a robot. But that relationship went a little...too far. It made me extremely uncomfortable, vaguely confused, and very disappointed. If the relationship hadn't taken a wrong turn, this would have been one of my favorite stories.

6. Risk: This one was hands down my favorite story in the compilation. It may have been because there was an emotion other than fear or impassiveness, and that emotion was anger. Anger and tension to be more precise. With that, a female roboticist was finally the star (or costar) of the story. The story had me on the edge of my seat and it was one that I was actually invested in.

7. Lenny: This was another filler episode type story. It was interesting enough to read the first time, but I'm not sure I would be so content the second time around.

8. Galley Slave: Another one of my favorites which also happened to be the longest story. It was a court case story, but I was surprisingly hooked to the story.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The Rest of the Robots" is a book that gathered a number of Asimov short stories that were not collected in his more well-known "I, Robot" and anthologized them along with the first two robot detective novels, "The Caves of Steel" and "The Naked Sun." For those who have already read the two full-length novels, this slim volume contains the eight short stories from the larger book.

A few of these stories deal with the Laws of Robotics ("First Law," "Satisfaction Guaranteed") but more often they deal with the irrationality of humans as juxtaposed to the logical and methodical nature of machines ("Robot AL-76 Goes Astray," "Risk," "Galley Slave"). They are sometimes humorous and sometimes grim, but they are all generally entertaining.

The stories here are not terribly cohesive as compared to "I, Robot" and only a few rise to the strength of the classics from the previous book. Nonetheless, as the literary equivalent of a collection of B-sides and outtakes, this is worth the (quick) read for fans of Asimov or robots.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I respect it in the sense that this author was the first of his kind to break the mould of sci-fi horror stories, but I don't know if it is because of the age of the book, but a lot of the ideas seem very cliche to me.
The version I read was one with the author's own commentaries on each story, and I really enjoyed reading those comments before each short story of the robot.
All in all, I liked it, and I would recommend it based on the historical significance, but I would not say that it would be my favourite science fiction novel.

[Read Ng · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are some good stories further illustrating the three laws of robotics, but there is a reason that they come in a book entitled 'eight other stories'. They simply don't stand up as well against the first selection of robot tales presented in 'I, Robot!'. Please read, but have realistic expectations.

[Skeldof · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm new to Asimov so was expecting the usual dry style Sci-fi however the first two shorts here are really quite amusing. I hope this is something he repeats in later works and wasn't just early experimentation. His annotations between stories were also quite interesting.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Here is a logic puzzle cleverly designed as a story."

"Susan Calvin is probably autistic, but Asimov might not have even known what that was back then."

"Nonhuman thinking creatures teach us what it is to be human."

[SciFiOne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grade A. Also read 1978, grade A+. Short stories. Book Rs2.

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I believe the technical term for stories such as these is "quaint".

[Paul · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to re-read.

[Kevin Hull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly outstanding collection of lesser known Robot short stories. Classic Asimov on display here, a couple of cheesy entries notwithstanding.