The Science Fiction Review Books,Robot and Foundation,Caliban Trilogy Isaac Asimov’s Inferno by Roger MacBride Allen

Isaac Asimov’s Inferno by Roger MacBride Allen

Inferno book cover

    The New Laws of Robotics

  1. A robot may not injure a human being.
  2. A robot must cooperate with human beings except where such cooperation would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First Law.
  4. A robot may do as it likes, except where such action would violate the First, Second, or Third Laws.

About a year has passed since Caliban was exonerated. The Limbo project is currently using the New Law robots developed by Freda Leving in the hopes of fixing the terraforming problem. Although these robots are equipped with range restrictors to limit them to the island, an illicit smuggling trade has developed which smuggles robots out of Purgatory and helps remove the supposedly infallible restrictors. This criminal enterprise has caused much strain between Spacers and Settlers.

In the hopes of asserting his authority, Governor Chanto Grieg has decided to throw a party his mansion which is located on Purgatory, the home of the Limbo project and the New Law robots. Aside from the grounds of the mansion, the Settlers control the rest of the island. As an act of diplomacy all robots besides are banned from the party and all security is handled by the Governor’s Rangers and Settler Security Service. This of course causes great concern for Alvar Kresh, the Sheriff of Hades. He doesn’t have any authority outside of the city of Hades and thinks that security without robots is a big mistake. Caliban and the New Law robot leader Prospero intend to plead with Governor Grieg after the party.

Unfortunately, Caliban and Prospero appear to be the last to see the Governor alive. With Calaban’s lack of any Laws, he becomes a prime suspect. Also, since Prospero is under no compulsion to prevent any harm to humans, he is also suspected. I had expected another hunt like what occurred back in the last book, but this time the investigation took the form of a more traditional mystery. Alvar Kresh seems to have more faith in the robots than anyone else. Most of the twists and turns don’t seem related until the very end of the book where Kresh gets his brief moment of insight. I was a bit bothered at how quickly and neatly everything was laid out and explained using various clues that Kresh pieced together. With that said, most of the clues are pretty obvious once you think back except for the key one which tied everything together.

While the investigation takes its course there are a couple of passages which I enjoyed. Donald (robot DNL-111) brings up some interesting problems with the Fourth New Law in Chapter 11. He argues that this law causes robots to create desires to consume free time. Possibly this is the reason that many of the New Law robots are trying to flee Purgatory. Roger MacBride Allen appears to be setting himself up with ambiguous Laws in order to exploit them just like Asimov did. In Chapter 11 Caliban and Prospero argue over the requirements for a being to have the right to freedom. Where does one draw the line?

Overall, I think that this was a pretty good book, but I enjoyed the last one a little bit more. I was expecting a lot more focus on robots, but found that the majority of the book covered the various aspects of the Spacer and Settler political conflicts. I’m looking forward to Utopia, since from what I remember focused more on the New Law robots.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

The Icarus Hunt by Timothy ZahnThe Icarus Hunt by Timothy Zahn

Book Cover
I’m slowly chipping away at my collection of Timothy Zahn novels. I recently enjoyed reading Manta’s Gift, but I definitely enjoyed Icarus Hunt more. Rather than focusing on one alien race, Zahn spreads quite a few alien species throughout the book. There is constant action, enough so that the book hardly felt like 450 paperback pages long. I categorize this book as a cross between a Sci-Fi and mystery novel.
(more…)

Robot City series overview (spoiler free)Robot City series overview (spoiler free)

I thought it would be appropriate to write a little mini review of the entire Robot City series before starting on the individual books since I have read this series once before. I won’t go into any spoilers, just give a general feel for the series. Each novel begins with an introduction by Isaac Asimov which is a nice addition to each of the novels. As stated in the introduction for the first book, this series is the first time Asimov has allowed any other authors to write in the world he created. Essentially he had final say on anything that went into the books and was consulted to make sure the authors didn’t overstep their authority. The introductions themselves sometimes reveal minor plotline spoilers for the current book, but nothing major except for book six. I recommend reading the book six intro after you finish, but that’s up to you.

This series is really meant to be read as whole. It takes place approximately 20 years before Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov. I chose to read Robots and Empire before this series. The first book really gives you a glimpse at what might happen in the following books. Book one is full of questions, very few answers, and can be best described as an “introduction” like the first 20 minutes of a movie. I was hooked on the series after the first book. Each book is only about 200 pages with short chapters so it is easy to just pick it up and read a little bit without having to stop in the middle of a chapter. There is a general consistency in the writing of the various authors in all 6 of the novels comprising the series. It really doesn’t feel like you are adjusting to a new author for each book. Overall, the series is a worthwhile addition to the universe that Asimov created.

Isaac Asimov on the Greenhouse EffectIsaac Asimov on the Greenhouse Effect

I just got a Stumble to Pharyngula’s science blog that has a link to a YouTube video of Isaac Asimov. He is speaking about what he thought the top science story of 1988 was. I like running across videos of him speaking because it is nice to put a voice and face to my favorite author. The video goes out of sync about half way through unfortunately. Check it out!

Via Pharyngula