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Have Robot, Will Travel
Roboticist Derec Avery heads to Kopernik, a space station orbiting the Earth, when a robot becomes the lead suspect in a human murder, while former Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess travels to the Nova Levis colony to investigate the disappearance of several citizens, but as Derec searches for the killer, he learns that Ariel is walking into the center of a web of intrigues. Reprint.
257 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2002
6 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Alexander C. Irvine
190 books199 followersAlexander C. Irvine is an American fantasist and science fiction writer. He also writes under the pseudonym Alex Irvine. He first gained attention with his novel A Scattering of Jades and the stories that would form the collection Unintended Consequences. He has also published the Grail quest novel One King, One Soldier, and the World War II-era historical fantasy The Narrows.
In addition to his original works, Irvine has published Have Robot, Will Travel, a novel set in Isaac Asimov's positronic robot milieu; and Batman: Inferno, about the DC Comics superhero.
His academic background includes an M.A. in English from the University of Maine and a PhD from the University of Denver. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Maine. He also worked for a time as a reporter at the Portland Phoenix.
In addition to his original works, Irvine has published Have Robot, Will Travel, a novel set in Isaac Asimov's positronic robot milieu; and Batman: Inferno, about the DC Comics superhero.
His academic background includes an M.A. in English from the University of Maine and a PhD from the University of Denver. He is an assistant professor of English at the University of Maine. He also worked for a time as a reporter at the Portland Phoenix.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 8, 2023
Well, this was disappointing on several accounts. Prefacing that the book is well-written, so someone coming in cold may enjoy it much more that I did. But, subjectively and having read the precedent trilogy, I failed to enjoy it. The completionist in me forced me to finish it. Basically, this book is bolted on the ending of Tiedemann's previous trilogy, undoing its closure.
For starters, the title has nothing to do with the book. It's entirely arbitrary and puts you in the wrong frame of mind. Where you could expect some zany travel adventures by a human-robot couple, there's mostly no robots nor impact of Asimov's laws featuring in the story details at all. Yes, they appear in the backdrop and are an important plot point for the ending, but not in the page-to-page story. There's basically zero human-robot interaction for the most part.
[mild SPOILERS from now on]
As a continuation of the trilogy by Tiedemann, I didn't like where this story went. There's some retconning, a death that shouldn't be there but oh well, it's impossible nowadays to consume some fiction without "impactful" (no, they're irritating) semi-main-character deaths. At least the author could have come up with some character of their own to kill them. It's extra irritating when you bring back a beloved character for some minor subplot and end up killing them.
Giving Hofton/Bogard no role but being the puppetmasters on what accounts to genocide... Well, we should have been rotting for them, or at least they should've figured much more prominently to explain their thinking. As it is, to me it felt like a slap in the face. Furthermore, even Asimov delved in the redefining of what a human is to a robot that must protect their life, if superficially. There's so much that this book could have discussed in that regard to make its ending less adversarial to the reader.
Then, where Tiedemann's complex plots at least seemed organic in most of their development, and you could understand motivations, here the complexity seems arbitrary and character motivations inscrutable. The part in Kopernik I couldn't make head or tails about what the station security and Terran guys where thinking or why they were bitching to each other and to Derec. Derec makes some leaps of logic there that aren't even followed through, and where in Tiedemann's books I felt clever for getting the non-said things, here I just felt out of the loop and lost.
I guess I'm frustrated with the book because it took away from the previous conclusion, without giving something that I can appreciate in return.
For starters, the title has nothing to do with the book. It's entirely arbitrary and puts you in the wrong frame of mind. Where you could expect some zany travel adventures by a human-robot couple, there's mostly no robots nor impact of Asimov's laws featuring in the story details at all. Yes, they appear in the backdrop and are an important plot point for the ending, but not in the page-to-page story. There's basically zero human-robot interaction for the most part.
[mild SPOILERS from now on]
As a continuation of the trilogy by Tiedemann, I didn't like where this story went. There's some retconning, a death that shouldn't be there but oh well, it's impossible nowadays to consume some fiction without "impactful" (no, they're irritating) semi-main-character deaths. At least the author could have come up with some character of their own to kill them. It's extra irritating when you bring back a beloved character for some minor subplot and end up killing them.
Giving Hofton/Bogard no role but being the puppetmasters on what accounts to genocide... Well, we should have been rotting for them, or at least they should've figured much more prominently to explain their thinking. As it is, to me it felt like a slap in the face. Furthermore, even Asimov delved in the redefining of what a human is to a robot that must protect their life, if superficially. There's so much that this book could have discussed in that regard to make its ending less adversarial to the reader.
Then, where Tiedemann's complex plots at least seemed organic in most of their development, and you could understand motivations, here the complexity seems arbitrary and character motivations inscrutable. The part in Kopernik I couldn't make head or tails about what the station security and Terran guys where thinking or why they were bitching to each other and to Derec. Derec makes some leaps of logic there that aren't even followed through, and where in Tiedemann's books I felt clever for getting the non-said things, here I just felt out of the loop and lost.
I guess I'm frustrated with the book because it took away from the previous conclusion, without giving something that I can appreciate in return.
April 19, 2025
This book is listed as being part of an "Isaac Asimov Robot Mysteries" series (and has connections with Mark Tiedemann's trilogy.) It's not like Asimov's books in which robots are central in the mystery investigation. As in Asimov's books, the concept is that robots were designed with "positronic brains" and Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. However, in this book the authority's prime suspect in the murder (and later crimes) is a robot. Derec was a roboticist until there were problems with a new prototype and an anti-robot conspiracy on Earth. Derec won't believe a robot could have killed a human, so he goes to investigate. But there's a lot going on politically. There's the general fact he's held in disfavor by the authorities, the murder victim was an advocate for the superiority of humans, things are also being stirred up about the rights of cyborgs... And there's divisions between humans (those on Earth, those on other settled worlds and "spacers.") Meanwhile, Ariel is being manipulated to raise the question of cyborg rights - placing her in danger from the authorities and anti-cyborg forces, then eventually from others.
The authorities make the robot accused of the murder unavailable to Derec for examination. And his efforts are otherwise hampered. Then he learns that Ariel is facing danger back on their world.
The story neither includes a robot as a central investigator nor seems (in most ways) as good as Asimov's (at least early) robot books. But keep in mind, it's been many years since I read the Asimov books.
*
Cyborgs end up having significance in certain ways. The prejudice against and limited rights of cyborgs surprised me (at least at first.) Of course, the existence of prejudice doesn't need a well-founded basis. And I began to question what actually defines a "cyborg." Many people already have (some degree of) artificial body parts, implants, automatic drug pumps, etc. So, where are the dividing lines between "average person," "person with a medical device(s)," "augmented person" and "cyborg?" The book certainly (eventually) indicates that the "cyborgs" have a variety of modifications and there are plans for more. Generally, the "cyborgs" readers encounter are distinguishable as altered, but it is indicated that even if it's not obvious, the individual can be considered a "cyborg."
The authorities make the robot accused of the murder unavailable to Derec for examination. And his efforts are otherwise hampered. Then he learns that Ariel is facing danger back on their world.
The story neither includes a robot as a central investigator nor seems (in most ways) as good as Asimov's (at least early) robot books. But keep in mind, it's been many years since I read the Asimov books.
*
Cyborgs end up having significance in certain ways. The prejudice against and limited rights of cyborgs surprised me (at least at first.) Of course, the existence of prejudice doesn't need a well-founded basis. And I began to question what actually defines a "cyborg." Many people already have (some degree of) artificial body parts, implants, automatic drug pumps, etc. So, where are the dividing lines between "average person," "person with a medical device(s)," "augmented person" and "cyborg?" The book certainly (eventually) indicates that the "cyborgs" have a variety of modifications and there are plans for more. Generally, the "cyborgs" readers encounter are distinguishable as altered, but it is indicated that even if it's not obvious, the individual can be considered a "cyborg."
February 15, 2022
Five years after the events of Mark Tiedemann's Aurora, a new author picks up the threads of the Robot Mystery series and we find that roboticist Derec Avery and Auroran ambassador Ariel Burgess—now demoted to glorified bureaucrat—have been essentially exiled to Nova Levis, the bio-disaster world that was the source of horror in the series' preceding books. Although the underground laboratory that had been manufacturing deadly cyborgs from terminally ill human children has been destroyed, something similar is still occurring. Derec is called back to Kopernik Station at Earth to help investigate a murder, leaving Ariel to use her contacts and her own sense of inquisitiveness to determine why so many sick natives of Nova Levis seem to be disappearing.
Despite the HIGHLY disturbing and misleading cover art, this is probably the most tightly written and fast-paced of all the Robot Mystery books; not coincidentally it's also the shortest, lacking the complex web of corporate and political machinations that are a feature of Tiedemann's works. It's a quick fun read but you really need to have read all the prequels to appreciate the story.
A couple of things bugged me about Irvine's outing with the characters, however. Arial seems a little less dignified or sophisticated than she did on Tiedemann's watch; I felt she was somehow reduced to "standard sci-fi heroine" and not her old self. Likewise I didn't care for Irvine's portrayal of Ariel's erstwhile assistant Hofton. The way he speaks to Derec at times shows none of the usual deference and diplomatic politeness he has always shown to others, and it was jarring.
One of the characters also makes a reference to the Zeroth Law of Robotics, which while perhaps technically not an anachronism (I think R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov were formulating just such a concept around this time) is certainly a spoiler if you are reading these books in the order in which they occur in Asimov's future universe.
Despite the HIGHLY disturbing and misleading cover art, this is probably the most tightly written and fast-paced of all the Robot Mystery books; not coincidentally it's also the shortest, lacking the complex web of corporate and political machinations that are a feature of Tiedemann's works. It's a quick fun read but you really need to have read all the prequels to appreciate the story.
A couple of things bugged me about Irvine's outing with the characters, however. Arial seems a little less dignified or sophisticated than she did on Tiedemann's watch; I felt she was somehow reduced to "standard sci-fi heroine" and not her old self. Likewise I didn't care for Irvine's portrayal of Ariel's erstwhile assistant Hofton. The way he speaks to Derec at times shows none of the usual deference and diplomatic politeness he has always shown to others, and it was jarring.
One of the characters also makes a reference to the Zeroth Law of Robotics, which while perhaps technically not an anachronism (I think R. Daneel Olivaw and R. Giskard Reventlov were formulating just such a concept around this time) is certainly a spoiler if you are reading these books in the order in which they occur in Asimov's future universe.
April 29, 2022
Irvine, Alexander C. Have Robot, Will Travel. 2002. Isaac Asimov’s New Robot Mysteries. ibooks, 2004.
Alex Irvine’s Have Robot, Will Travel is a book that harkens back to the early days of ghostwritten pulps. Once upon a time, popular juvenile series, such as Tom Swift and Nancy Drew, were written by many anonymous hands. These days, big names like James Patterson, Larry Niven, Clive Cussler, and Isaac Asimov can be franchised out to younger, less famous writers. Irvine, not a big name himself, is a writer who has made a career of writing books in several well-established franchises. I have lost track of how many robot books there now are in the Asimov franchise. Have Robot, Will Travel is a mediocre example. A human being has been killed. A robot is suspected. Derec and Ariel, characters who first appeared in the Robot City series in the late 1980s, team up to solve the case. It is not as bad as the Will Smith movie, but there is not much new to recommend it. 3 stars.
Alex Irvine’s Have Robot, Will Travel is a book that harkens back to the early days of ghostwritten pulps. Once upon a time, popular juvenile series, such as Tom Swift and Nancy Drew, were written by many anonymous hands. These days, big names like James Patterson, Larry Niven, Clive Cussler, and Isaac Asimov can be franchised out to younger, less famous writers. Irvine, not a big name himself, is a writer who has made a career of writing books in several well-established franchises. I have lost track of how many robot books there now are in the Asimov franchise. Have Robot, Will Travel is a mediocre example. A human being has been killed. A robot is suspected. Derec and Ariel, characters who first appeared in the Robot City series in the late 1980s, team up to solve the case. It is not as bad as the Will Smith movie, but there is not much new to recommend it. 3 stars.
December 22, 2018
I have always loved sci fi and Asimov was one of my favorite authors, when I bought this several years ago, I thought it was one of his books. It is written like he wrote and carries on with his robot stories and the 3 robotic laws. The story is about whether cyborgs are considered robots or humans or the next step.
February 28, 2021
Reads like a sequel, but isn't. Hard to pretend we read the backstory on all of these characters; I found myself wanting to read the original story, but there isn't one. Thankfully it's short.
May 1, 2013
Another mediocre book tainting Asimov's legacy.
There were only two intertwined storylines this time, but neither of them was at all interesting. Derec & Ariel once again doing jobs they really aren't qualified to do, but for some reason noone else is competent enough in the future to do anything without them. 90% of Derec's story in this was completely pointless and Ariel's was dull.
Derec's new assistant annoyed me from the first scene with her. She didn't have any bearing on the story at all except to fill a few extra pages.
Unless the title of the book is referring to Parapyos (who is more or less irrelevant to the book) than it also has nothing at all to do with the story. Neither does the cover for that matter.
Thankfully this series is over and hopefully I'll never have to read another line about Derec, Ariel, or the exploding jeans planet...
There were only two intertwined storylines this time, but neither of them was at all interesting. Derec & Ariel once again doing jobs they really aren't qualified to do, but for some reason noone else is competent enough in the future to do anything without them. 90% of Derec's story in this was completely pointless and Ariel's was dull.
Derec's new assistant annoyed me from the first scene with her. She didn't have any bearing on the story at all except to fill a few extra pages.
Unless the title of the book is referring to Parapyos (who is more or less irrelevant to the book) than it also has nothing at all to do with the story. Neither does the cover for that matter.
Thankfully this series is over and hopefully I'll never have to read another line about Derec, Ariel, or the exploding jeans planet...
February 18, 2024
It is very difficult to get something sane out of this book, if you haven´t read the following 18 books:
“The robot and city” 6 books
“The robot and aliens” 6 books
“Caliban”, “Inferno”, “Utopia” by Roger MacBride Allen and
“Mirage”, “Chimera”, “Aurora” by Mark W Tiedemann
Just saying…
“The robot and city” 6 books
“The robot and aliens” 6 books
“Caliban”, “Inferno”, “Utopia” by Roger MacBride Allen and
“Mirage”, “Chimera”, “Aurora” by Mark W Tiedemann
Just saying…
October 25, 2011
Excellent book
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews