Humanity

Isaac Asimov's Robot City: Robots and Aliens #6

by Jerry Oltion

Amnesiac Derec, on a galaxy-wide quest for his identity, stumbles upon Ariel Burgess and Dr. Avery, the same man who had obliterated his memory.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Robots

163 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 1990

About the author

Jerry Oltion (pronounced OL-tee-un) has been a gardener, stone mason, carpenter, oilfield worker, forester, land surveyor, rock 'n' roll deejay, printer, proofreader, editor, publisher, computer consultant, movie extra, corporate secretary, magazine columnist, and garbage truck driver. For the last 37 years he has also been a writer, with 15 novels and over 150 stories published so far.

Reviews

[John Loyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 12 of Robot City, book 6 of Robots and Aliens.

Derec, Ariel, Wolruf, Avery and the robots return to the original robot city to find the city gone replaced by a verdant ecosystem. Separately Janet Anastasi also makes her way to the planet. While the others are relaxing Avery grabs the three robots that are in a communication fugue, puts them in a lab ensuring they won't get loose again and proceeds to get enough material so he can study it. A limb will do. He cuts it off, triggering a third law response, but the magnetic field Avery created increases crushing them and frying their brains.

Derec rebuilds Adam, Eve and Lucius with spare parts and recordings. Later on he finally meets his mother. Just an introduction, not a reunion.

More delving into the three laws. The robots trying to come up with their own laws of humanics and trying to define humanity. Wolruf has to decide whether to bring robots back to her planet or it they'd be better off without them. Nice, easy read, constrained by the need to explore the three laws. A good job of that, but a little too much argument, counter argument for me. 3.5 stars rounded down.

[Cognatious Thunk · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I read the first few pages of this book, the names of the characters felt vaguely familiar. At first, I thought I had just read another knock-off, since Asimov was/is so influential. However, as soon as I read the name Avery my mind produced the phrase "Avery is an asshole" and it checked out, so it must have been this book or another in the series. Or maybe a short story that included the same characters (if there are any.) Anyways, the memories were very hazy, so I know that I would have two starred it back in high school and that is still my rating. As my little brother says, these books are more about philosophical questions than plot, and that's never been my thing. It may be yours.

[Paolo Benvenutto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un buen final para toda una serie...

[Logan Streondj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good, but I really dislike the whole obsoleting of robots in the end, is quite sad.

[Peter Morell · Rating 2 out of 5]

ANTI CLIMAX!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4★ are for the series, the book would be more of a 3★ one. The series does a good work of creating new and interesting situations to challenge the robot laws, and there are good arguments and discussions around these situations. It is sad however to see Ariel reduced in this book to a bored girl longing only for shopping and partying, when she has been a charismatic character for most of the series. Oh well.

[Philip Athans]

I can't believe it's over! I really enjoyed this series--both Robot City and Robots & Aliens. A great mix of fun space opera and some intriguing musings on the nature if intelligence and individuality.

[Jeremiah Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thankfully, this series is done. This was a decent story to a not very good series. Some of the stupidity of the series was addressed, but there were still questions brought up in the original Robot City series that weren't answered.