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Ace Books, 1989. Mass market paperback original; first in a series of six novels written by various authors and loosely connected to Isaac Asimov's "Robot" series.
151 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1989
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298 people want to read
About the author
Stephen Leigh
86 books59 followersStephen Leigh has been writing science fiction since he was in grade school. He sold his first story in 1975 and has been publishing regularly ever since then.
He has been nominated for and won several awards for his fiction over the years. He has written and published the occasional poems and non-fiction pieces, as well.
Steve teaches Creative Writing at Northern Kentucky University in the Greater Cincinnati area. He also plays music, and studies the Japanese martial art Aikido, in which he holds the rank of Sandan.
Stephen Leigh also writes as S.L. Farrell and Matthew Farrell.
He has been nominated for and won several awards for his fiction over the years. He has written and published the occasional poems and non-fiction pieces, as well.
Steve teaches Creative Writing at Northern Kentucky University in the Greater Cincinnati area. He also plays music, and studies the Japanese martial art Aikido, in which he holds the rank of Sandan.
Stephen Leigh also writes as S.L. Farrell and Matthew Farrell.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 16, 2024
This book is possibly the best story, as an animal lover who is also into science fiction.
This book so wonderfully written that I was in denial of turning the final page, I wanted it to go on for another few chapters just because of the writing style. I feel some authors have been meant for writing anything regardless of the topic. (Have you ever found yourself reading an article about something that you have no true interest in and yet, continue because you're captivated by something? That "Something" typically is the author's gift of writing that can capture a mundane topic and make it deeply interesting and comprehensive.
NOT to say this story is mundane, by all means this is a storysimilar to The Jungle Book. A classic tale of a child being raised by someone other than his own family.
Without spoilers about what occurred in the story, I will say that this version of this familiar story is right up my alley, Sentient "Wolf-like" Creatures, Robots, Robot City characters and the 3 laws. I truly enjoy the Asimov robots, with their positioning brains trying to maneuver their understanding of humanity. Heck, I can't even understand humanity sometimes.
I have a special fondness for the natural world at the same time; Certainly not in contrast with the Robot world, just magically working together.
I absolutely was enthralled chapter by chapter and highly recommend this book as a Continuation of Robot City or even as a Stand Alone.
This book so wonderfully written that I was in denial of turning the final page, I wanted it to go on for another few chapters just because of the writing style. I feel some authors have been meant for writing anything regardless of the topic. (Have you ever found yourself reading an article about something that you have no true interest in and yet, continue because you're captivated by something? That "Something" typically is the author's gift of writing that can capture a mundane topic and make it deeply interesting and comprehensive.
NOT to say this story is mundane, by all means this is a storysimilar to The Jungle Book. A classic tale of a child being raised by someone other than his own family.
Without spoilers about what occurred in the story, I will say that this version of this familiar story is right up my alley, Sentient "Wolf-like" Creatures, Robots, Robot City characters and the 3 laws. I truly enjoy the Asimov robots, with their positioning brains trying to maneuver their understanding of humanity. Heck, I can't even understand humanity sometimes.
I have a special fondness for the natural world at the same time; Certainly not in contrast with the Robot world, just magically working together.
I absolutely was enthralled chapter by chapter and highly recommend this book as a Continuation of Robot City or even as a Stand Alone.
August 18, 2017
Having read the initial Robot City series many years ago, I didn't exactly have that high hopes for Robots & Aliens. Although it did manage to exceed my expectations, it's not great, but still somewhat enjoyable and interesting. The first quarter of the book does drag somewhat, but it does wind up picking up once you rejoin Derec and get some differing perspectives. I know that most of the plotlines that were started will wind up coming back in one of the other novels, but they felt like they were just completely dropped and forgotten about in this book.
August 31, 2023
Bogens historie er sådan set god nok… men når jeg læser en bog, så forventer jeg at den kan læses selvstændigt uden at man skal læse en bog mere for at få alle pointerne med. Denne bog slutter med en cliffhanger, som normalt anvendes i slutningen af et kapitel, hvorefter man erfarer mere senere - I DEN SAMME BOG. Men her slutter bogen med en cliffhanger, så man er nødt til at - investere i - og læse en bog mere (tror jeg nok, for jeg er lige gået i gang med bog nummer 2, kommet mere end 30 sider ind i den uden nogen forklaring…) Bogen ville ellers have fået 4 stjerner…
April 8, 2020
Excellent immersive tale of a robot that becomes a pack leader and their relationship to the robot city.
December 7, 2022
It was an interesting book. There was plenty of action and some interesting twists.
April 8, 2015
Changeling (1989) 151 pages by Stephen Leigh.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City, Robots and Aliens. There is a prefix that gives a synopsis of the six Robot City novels. This picks up at the end of those stories.
A robotic engineer, Janet Anastasi who just happens to also be Derec's mother, sends a robot onto a planet with just the three laws, but no notion of what a human is other than being intelligent. The planet just happens to have another robot city, as well as an intelligent species of wolf-like creatures. The robot's first experience is meeting the wolf beings (the kin), which he decides are human. The robot joins the pack and takes their form, she is named SilverSide by the pack. A lot of the story centers around the mores of the kin society.
There happens to be another robot city on this world, and the city is encroaching on the territory of the kin, making game scarce, and the kin no where else to go without going into the territory of another pack resulting in loss of kin life. SilverSide decides that the course of action to take is to battle/destroy the alien invaders. When the city is attacked it sends a distress call which is picked up by the chemfets in Derec's body. He goes to investigate.
There is the obligatory mention of the laws of robotics. Maybe I was a little more relaxed on the weekend and that's why the story picked up and last half seemed so much more interesting. I feel happy and pleased, and I'm a quarter the way in to book 2 of Robots and Aliens.
Isaac Asimov's Robot City, Robots and Aliens. There is a prefix that gives a synopsis of the six Robot City novels. This picks up at the end of those stories.
A robotic engineer, Janet Anastasi who just happens to also be Derec's mother, sends a robot onto a planet with just the three laws, but no notion of what a human is other than being intelligent. The planet just happens to have another robot city, as well as an intelligent species of wolf-like creatures. The robot's first experience is meeting the wolf beings (the kin), which he decides are human. The robot joins the pack and takes their form, she is named SilverSide by the pack. A lot of the story centers around the mores of the kin society.
There happens to be another robot city on this world, and the city is encroaching on the territory of the kin, making game scarce, and the kin no where else to go without going into the territory of another pack resulting in loss of kin life. SilverSide decides that the course of action to take is to battle/destroy the alien invaders. When the city is attacked it sends a distress call which is picked up by the chemfets in Derec's body. He goes to investigate.
There is the obligatory mention of the laws of robotics. Maybe I was a little more relaxed on the weekend and that's why the story picked up and last half seemed so much more interesting. I feel happy and pleased, and I'm a quarter the way in to book 2 of Robots and Aliens.
August 21, 2012
I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn't.
The first quarter of the book was incredibly dull and slow. For such a short book it took a long time to get into the actual story. I also really didn't care about the kin, so it made it a bit hard to get through.
The writing had some awkwardness to it that made it tough to read also. For example, Derec constantly said Mandlebrot's name while talking to him even though they were by themselves with no one else around. The dialog just wasn't natural.
Once the story itself started developing, I was still hard pressed to care about what was going on. I didn't know where this series was going to go, but frankly I was disappointed.
The first quarter of the book was incredibly dull and slow. For such a short book it took a long time to get into the actual story. I also really didn't care about the kin, so it made it a bit hard to get through.
The writing had some awkwardness to it that made it tough to read also. For example, Derec constantly said Mandlebrot's name while talking to him even though they were by themselves with no one else around. The dialog just wasn't natural.
Once the story itself started developing, I was still hard pressed to care about what was going on. I didn't know where this series was going to go, but frankly I was disappointed.
July 16, 2009
While short and somewhat of a pulp scifi novel, it asks an interesting question. Based on Asimov's Robot novel, it asks what would happen if a robot is given the Laws of Robotics (a robot protect humans, a robot must serve humans, and robot must protect itself), but isn't told what a human is, then abandoned on a supposedly uninhabited planet. An interesting thought experiment in scifi robotic theory.
November 24, 2010
What is "space opera"? THIS is space opera! I read the first series, ROBOT CITY--how do I pass up the second series? Well, I'm not going to! SF as light, fun entertainment.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews