The Science Fiction Review Books,Robot and Foundation Robots in Time: Predator by William F. Wu

Robots in Time: Predator by William F. Wu

Robots in Time Predator book cover

This book is great for teens, not for adult readers or die-hard fans. I acquired this book along with about 16 Isaac Asimov classics (Foundation series, Caves of Steel, etc), otherwise I probably never would have purchased it. If you are a die-hard fan like me, you will find this book/series unbearable. The book is written for a young reader according to the author, so my reaction is to be expected. The main characters act out every single 3 law conflict over and over throughout the novel. Every situation is explained in detail with reason why Robot X can or can’t do this or that because of Law X.

For a new reader that isn’t familiar with Asimov this book would probably be very informative. If you are interested in Time travel, buy “The End of Eternity” by Isaac Asimov. If you want to read up on the Three Laws, buy “I, Robot”. If you want a combination of both for a younger reader, buy this book. I would suggest this book for readers around the age of 12-16 after they have read “I, Robot”.

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Your email address will not be published.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 Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray KurzweilThe Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil

The Age of Spiritual Machines Book Cover
A few months ago a co-worker of mine suggested that I read The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil. We had been talking about AI and he mentioned that this was an interesting read. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, as I had never heard of Kurzweil before. After a few Google searches I got the impression that he was a quirky futurist.

This book was published back in 1999 and by the end looks very much like science fiction. Many of his predictions are founded on some sort of research. I can see how they would have seemed a bit “out there” almost 10 years ago. I wondered how many of his predictions would hold up. Central to his philosophy is the Law of Accelerating Returns. In short, technology will continue to progress ever faster as time goes on. He displays an interesting graph of the exponential increase of computational power in various models of computers over time. The line is slightly curved upward, which represents an increase in exponential growth over time. So, according to Kurzweil computation is progressing exponentially exponentially faster.
(more…)

Gold, The Final Science Fiction Collection – Isaac AsimovGold, The Final Science Fiction Collection – Isaac Asimov

Book Cover

In 1992, the year of his death, Isaac Asimov was awarded the Hugo Award for best novella for writing Gold. This story, along with many others was published in 1995. Along with 14 other short stories, there are collections of essays called “On Science Fiction,” and “Writing Science Fiction.” Interestingly enough, I found the essays much more interesting than the stories themselves. I think this is partly because I have read a TON of his fiction, but haven’t got around to reading his non-fiction.  I’ll give a brief overview of the essays, saving the stories for later. (more…)

Have Robot, Will Travel by Alexander C. IrvineHave Robot, Will Travel by Alexander C. Irvine

Have Robot, Will Travel book cover

Derec and Ariel have been exiled to Nova Levis, the site of the cyborg lab that was uncovered at the end of the previous series by Tiedemann. Derec has been focusing the resources of his lab on containing the mutating plagues released by Kynig Pyrapoyos. There is a murder on Kopernik station which appears to be committed by a robot, which Derec is summoned to investigate. In the meantime Ariel is asked to look into the possibility of cyborg survivors getting the right to vote.

One of my main disappointments with this book is that the plot lines don’t seem to pick up in pace until about the last quarter of the book. Irvine doesn’t seem to demonstrate the knack for complexity and pacing that Tiedemann did during the last trilogy. Besides these things the book was overall an enjoyable read. If I could pick out one good thing it would be that the plot lines switch back and forth often enough so that you aren’t stuck wondering what is happening in the other one for too long.

***Spoiler discussion for this novel & Robots and Empire**** (more…)