Marauder

Isaac Asimov's Robots in Time #2

by William F. Wu

An experimental robot named Hunter and his team of human experts must find and disable the MC Governor robot, which is lost in an age of pirates and cutthroats, before it can destroy all humankind. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Robots, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Fiction

243 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William...

Reviews

[Ethan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Marauder is a disgrace to the legacy of Isaac Asimov and his fantastic Robot novels. The book claims to have been authorized by Asimov himself, but I don't believe that for a microsecond. Asimov died in 1992, and this book was published in 1993. So I think what they meant to say was that "Asimov's estate authorized this book in a shameless cash grab." That this book bears his name on the cover is a complete insult, as this book has none of the spirit or intelligence of Asimov's Robot novels.

The plot is entirely nonexistent, following a group of scientists and a robot named Hunter as they travel back in time to 1668 Jamaica to swashbuckling pirate times to try to capture a rogue robot who has travelled back to that time to evade capture. But then the characters just wander around aimlessly when they get there, and there are some boring raids on Spanish ships that just wandered into the bay under thinly-scripted circumstances. The characters are bland and completely forgettable, and the whole thing is just a boring 243-page circle jerk about the Three Laws of Robotics and why Hunter and the robot they are chasing either can or cannot do things because of those laws.

The problem is that there's no intelligence to the explorations of the Laws in this book, which if done well could have been fascinating; in this book it's all very phoned-in and lazy, as if it had to be there for this to even remotely resemble an Asimov Robot novel, like the author was checking off a box on an Asimov checklist. The ending is also rushed and terrible, and there are illustrations in the middle of the book that now look childish and dated in 2024. To add insult to injury, the author has no creativity even in his prose, and must have said the word "buccaneers" two thousand times in this book...and I'm not exaggerating one iota. I mean, would it have killed him to call them "pirates" or "swashbucklers", "freebooters", "raiders", Christ...anything? Anything else. I hope I never hear that word again as long as I live.

This is ultimately an insulting, awful book. It's easily one of the worst books I've read in years, and I definitely see now why this series never caught on, only having a few hundred GR ratings across its six books, and why it has been forgotten about by history. In the end, the only marauder here is William F. Wu, as he effectively raided my coffers for the price of a used book with this one. Shiver me f*****g timbers.

Don't read this, or any of the other books in this dreadful series. Arrrrrrr!!!

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this second of six in the series, Hunter and his team time travel to 1600's Jamaica to try and catch the second component of the missing MC Governor robot. A bit trickier situation here since there are more humans to deal with, not like in Predator (book #1) where all they had to deal with were dinosaurs.

I felt sorry for robot Hunter in this book, though. He gets confused about things like understanding jokes and improvising. He likes to have a set plan and stick to it, but of course any plan with people involved faces unexpected changes, doesn't it? Especially when the new member of your team, era-historian Rita, loses focus on what she is supposed to be there for and goes off with a pirate to observe the lifestyle first hand. Steve and Jane, the two repeat team members, end up in a lot of trouble because of that silly Rita. Can Hunter (or anyone) get The Plan back on track?

I will be interested to see how R. Hunter handles the next adventure, because I am becoming concerned about the way those infamous Three Laws of Robotics are affecting him. How can he keep functioning in any way with those laws looming overhead all the time? I would have blown a fuse days ago!!

[Cal · Rating 2 out of 5]

The ideas and plot and character concepts are good, and the writer is quite creative. His ability to write a story, however, is almost nonexistent. The book reads more like plot notes for all the creative prose it lacks. If you're ever looking for a textbook case of telling and not showing, this is it. I know it's a children's book, but so is Harry Potter. It's no excuse for bland and flat prose. He should have teamed up with a more skilled author to produce these books because it seems a shame to waste what's good about them.

There's no reason I WOULDN'T give it to child to read, but no particular reason I WOULD either, other than that it has robots. If I want to get a kid interested in asimov, I'd probably give them some of the children's material written by asimov himself as well as some of the lighter funnier short stories he wrote for adults.

[Jeremiah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much like the previous book, the so called experts really make for an uninteresting story. Between them being idiots and a robot that forgets things, I really didn't like this book.
At the end of the first book, Hunter realizes that he would have done better by himself. Knowing that, he still takes the "experts" back yet again, and they completely mess things up.
I also don't understand why Dr. Nystrom is being portrayed as an antagonist. I feel much more empathy toward him that the soulless corporation.
I think these books would have been much better off if Hunter was by himself and Nystrom was the only other human character. Since that isn't the case, I can't really recommend them to anyone...

[Mark Wilkins · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, this book is silly: time travel, robots, pirates, chaos theory in history, and the laws of robotics. The only reason that this book has lived on the shelf for so long was because Isaac Asimov's name was on the spine. Why does his estate let things like this happen? Well that's over now and a little more space has been cleared from the Sci-fi shelf.

[Zandor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mieux que le précédent, plus dynamique, ce roman garde cependant les défauts du précédent concernant le fait de répéter sans cesse l'application des lois. Sachant que ces applications, parfois, ne sont pas cohérentes.
Bref, sympa à lire mais, pénible à la longue.

[Aitana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este libro... ni fú ni fa.
Se supone que hay 3 personajes (dos humanos y un robot) que van a ser fijos y un especialista que va cambiando en cada viaje. Pues la especialista de éste es un poco tonta. Pero TONTA.
[ocultar] A ver nena, si eres una mujer joven y estás en la Jamaica de la edad de oro de la piratería, pues irte por ahí sola, sin avisar a nadie, desconectando el transmisor con el primer pirata que conoces... pues no me parece buena idea. La verdad. Llamadme desconfiada... [/ocultar]
Vamos que no sé que pinta en la historia porque hacer, no hace mucho.
Además la historia es muy light. Asimov escribe super bien así que realmente se lee bien, pero es más por la pericia del autor que por la historia.
Aunque entretiene, hay muchos libros de Asimov que son mejores que éste