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I, robot
A Whole New Story.
"Innovative, fast-paced, and superbly written, this I,robot is honestly better than both of those stories [Isaac Asimov's book or Will Smith's movie] put together.” – ForeWord Magazine March/April 2008.
“I,robot is deftly written and will grab you from first page to last while holding links to Asimov’s tale.” – Midwest Book Review May 2008.
Technothriller. Japanese detective stumbles onto deployment of military robots. Cutting-edge technology. Fast read. September 20, 2008 release.
"Innovative, fast-paced, and superbly written, this I,robot is honestly better than both of those stories [Isaac Asimov's book or Will Smith's movie] put together.” – ForeWord Magazine March/April 2008.
“I,robot is deftly written and will grab you from first page to last while holding links to Asimov’s tale.” – Midwest Book Review May 2008.
Technothriller. Japanese detective stumbles onto deployment of military robots. Cutting-edge technology. Fast read. September 20, 2008 release.
- GenresScience Fiction
408 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
36 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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September 20, 2008This story is of course fiction. It was the story in Chicago in 2035. i,ROBOT must not harm a human being, they must obey human orders, and they must protect their own existence. That is the purpose for making i,ROBOT.
There are three kinds of laws for robot. Law 1 is a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Law 2 is a root must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first Law.
The main character is spoon who is a police. He doesn't think a robot do anybody good, so he expects a robot is going to harm human beings someday. One day, he got a call from Dr. Lanning, and when spoon gets there, he was dead; however, everyone thinks he commit a suicide. Spoon thought that it is no way to commit a suicide because he has no reason to kill by himself. Spoon thinks that he was killed by a robot. The robot maker proclaim to police because they think a robot never get harm people. And Spoon is going to prove that. But in thouse day, robots are so usual thing, so every people also think robots harm people. one of thous people is his grandmother. When he goes to her house, she always says she wants to have a brand-new robot; however, he doesn't like her idea.
Anyway, he need to prove Dr. Lanning was killed by a robot. At first, he goes to ask questions to Dr.Calvin who makes robots with Dr. Lanning. Spoon ask a couple questions, but Dr. Calvin feels so bad bacause she doesn't believe that robots get harm people, so she kick him out from her company.
The robots start to try to kill spoon because only he doesn't think it is good have robots in the society, and he dicides firmly to find out that robots are not harmless.
He goes to go the main system and try to break that. If he breaks that, all robots stops their functions, but robots show their real faces that are trying to conquer the human world where we live. While the robots are trying to kill him, it is discoverd that Spoon's left arm is mechanic. When he was drowning long time ago, the robot saves him, but the problem was that he is not only one drown person. One other girl was also drown; however, the robot decided to save him, because the percentage of saveing was calucutated by robot and his percentage was higher, so the robot decided to save him. The girl was still really young and she has a dream to be a doctor. He was screaming to save her, but the robot saved him because of the percentage. After that, he started hate the robots.
When he is trying to break the main system, he was saved by robots. After that, he trust the robots.
There are three kinds of laws for robot. Law 1 is a robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Law 2 is a root must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the first Law.
The main character is spoon who is a police. He doesn't think a robot do anybody good, so he expects a robot is going to harm human beings someday. One day, he got a call from Dr. Lanning, and when spoon gets there, he was dead; however, everyone thinks he commit a suicide. Spoon thought that it is no way to commit a suicide because he has no reason to kill by himself. Spoon thinks that he was killed by a robot. The robot maker proclaim to police because they think a robot never get harm people. And Spoon is going to prove that. But in thouse day, robots are so usual thing, so every people also think robots harm people. one of thous people is his grandmother. When he goes to her house, she always says she wants to have a brand-new robot; however, he doesn't like her idea.
Anyway, he need to prove Dr. Lanning was killed by a robot. At first, he goes to ask questions to Dr.Calvin who makes robots with Dr. Lanning. Spoon ask a couple questions, but Dr. Calvin feels so bad bacause she doesn't believe that robots get harm people, so she kick him out from her company.
The robots start to try to kill spoon because only he doesn't think it is good have robots in the society, and he dicides firmly to find out that robots are not harmless.
He goes to go the main system and try to break that. If he breaks that, all robots stops their functions, but robots show their real faces that are trying to conquer the human world where we live. While the robots are trying to kill him, it is discoverd that Spoon's left arm is mechanic. When he was drowning long time ago, the robot saves him, but the problem was that he is not only one drown person. One other girl was also drown; however, the robot decided to save him, because the percentage of saveing was calucutated by robot and his percentage was higher, so the robot decided to save him. The girl was still really young and she has a dream to be a doctor. He was screaming to save her, but the robot saved him because of the percentage. After that, he started hate the robots.
When he is trying to break the main system, he was saved by robots. After that, he trust the robots.
June 12, 2013
It took me a while to get into this book. It starts off interesting though, as it looks like something hit the fan and the world is going to doom. Although readers may tend to wonder what this all has to do with a Japanese police officer who has a terrible OCD issue, well you just have to read along to connect the dots. To simplify it, Haruto (the police officer) attempts to solve a case, but finds out it leads to a much bigger and badder fish that are out to cause a lot more chaos and havok than usual in the world.
It’s not easy to figure out. There’s lots of scientific terminology in the book and I did find it a bit hard to understand. (There are helpful illustrations though!) The concept of these robots being used as terrifying super soldiers is interesting, although the bloodbath they would create is naturally, horrible. There are a few subplots involved in this book, some that are related to the big storyline, a few aren’t. The plot might not entirely feel solid but the reading is tolerable and can be understood once everything is put into place and perspective.
Haruto as a character, is interesting, yet quirky because of his obsessive compulsive behavior, but his sense of honor and the strict adherence to the “rules” also show a side of naivete. He’s almost like an overgrown child in some sense. His OCD issue does get in the way of a lot of things, and it’s mentioned a lot throughout the book. It can get annoying - at least it did to me.
What I expected from this book, was more robots! there is only one scene where the robot talks to Haruto, but after that, there’s nothing else. I thought there was going to be more interaction between humans and robots besides just using them as soldiers.
There are quite a few characters in the novel, and although it’s easy to tell which ones are the main characters and which ones are supporting ones, some just seem to arrive at certain points of the novel, and then fall out of existence. It would have been nice to figure out what happens them in the long run. The ending of the book was alright, although a little cliche, but it was an alright book overall.
People look at the title, and think of the movie, it’s not about that at all, there is an author’s note about that as well. I’d rather wish he didn’t name it that title as the robots aren’t really what you think (as it was, in the movie for example). However, it was a good read overall, I’d say take it or leave it. The scientific lingo might scare some readers away, or bore them, but the action isn’t too bad.
It’s not easy to figure out. There’s lots of scientific terminology in the book and I did find it a bit hard to understand. (There are helpful illustrations though!) The concept of these robots being used as terrifying super soldiers is interesting, although the bloodbath they would create is naturally, horrible. There are a few subplots involved in this book, some that are related to the big storyline, a few aren’t. The plot might not entirely feel solid but the reading is tolerable and can be understood once everything is put into place and perspective.
Haruto as a character, is interesting, yet quirky because of his obsessive compulsive behavior, but his sense of honor and the strict adherence to the “rules” also show a side of naivete. He’s almost like an overgrown child in some sense. His OCD issue does get in the way of a lot of things, and it’s mentioned a lot throughout the book. It can get annoying - at least it did to me.
What I expected from this book, was more robots! there is only one scene where the robot talks to Haruto, but after that, there’s nothing else. I thought there was going to be more interaction between humans and robots besides just using them as soldiers.
There are quite a few characters in the novel, and although it’s easy to tell which ones are the main characters and which ones are supporting ones, some just seem to arrive at certain points of the novel, and then fall out of existence. It would have been nice to figure out what happens them in the long run. The ending of the book was alright, although a little cliche, but it was an alright book overall.
People look at the title, and think of the movie, it’s not about that at all, there is an author’s note about that as well. I’d rather wish he didn’t name it that title as the robots aren’t really what you think (as it was, in the movie for example). However, it was a good read overall, I’d say take it or leave it. The scientific lingo might scare some readers away, or bore them, but the action isn’t too bad.
February 22, 2009
With two exceptions, I enjoyed this book a great deal. The two exceptions are the title and the epilogue. The latter was cliched and unnecessary. The former was throwing down the gauntlet to the other books [and the film:] which had previously used the title, and I think that was a bad idea. While this story does turn the Asimov and Will Smith versions on their heads to some extent thematically, it also makes the reader compare the quality of the story. Howard S. Smith is no Isaac Asimov, although he probably is about as good as the Binder brothers [who wrote as Eando Binder:] of an earlier I, Robot story.
The book has a very extensive bibliography and list of disclaimers for a novel, due to its blend of real-world settings and science, but with fictional variations.
Overall, an enjoyable hard science fiction novel/police procedural. I might have given it a fourth star without the epilogue and with a different title, though...
The book has a very extensive bibliography and list of disclaimers for a novel, due to its blend of real-world settings and science, but with fictional variations.
Overall, an enjoyable hard science fiction novel/police procedural. I might have given it a fourth star without the epilogue and with a different title, though...
August 29, 2014
The cover says “better than both of these stories [Asimov’s books or the 2004 movie] put together”. This led me to believe there would be robot characters and they would be a good percentage of the story. That way not to be. Most of the story was about wars (or war planning) in Japan and Israel. There were some robots as Japan sold their robots to Israel. I did like that there were diagrams of the robots and a good bit of detail about how things work.
There was a glossary of the many technical and non-English words.
I did like reading it. I would have preferred a summary of the book on the cover rather than simple reuse of the name.
The epilogue was awesome! We find out that robots replaced humans and the book was one of their “origin stories”.
There was a glossary of the many technical and non-English words.
I did like reading it. I would have preferred a summary of the book on the cover rather than simple reuse of the name.
The epilogue was awesome! We find out that robots replaced humans and the book was one of their “origin stories”.
August 1, 2008
This starts out as a political thriller about a coming war between Iran and Lebanon versus Israel. Then there's a Japanese police inspector investigating a murder. I never understood the connection between the two storylines. Not my sort of book at all. This was an ARC, so I hate giving it a bad review, but I just couldn't force myself to read it.
October 2, 2008
I picked this book up at WorldCon 2008 as an advance copy, and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It is set in the not too distant future with advanced technology that is almost possible. A Japanese man who is a detective, but people call him a "robot"... well, it's almost possible! I'm not saying that there's a surprise twist near the end or anything, but I do highly recommend this book!
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January 22, 2009ARC,Japan,Robots,Gave Away
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews