I, ROBOT By Isaac Asimov

Published : 1950
Pages : 249
Overall Mark : 8.5/10

Dr Susan Calvin recounts some of her more memorable experiences with robots, largely focussing on the innate problems people are faced with by the three laws of robotics. Her stories span from tales of little girls and their pet robots, robots forming gangs or unions, robots choosing self preservation over that of a human, and their sometimes eventual conclusions that they know what’s best for society more than humanity does!

This is an interesting collection of short stories, in which Asimov has clearly thought through the relative merits and problems of his invented three laws. It seems to me that he genuinely believes that they would not work, and that any attempt to make them work would lead to anarchy. The writing is simple and entertaining, and Asimov at no point tries to blind the reader with science but instead leads them by the hand, explaining everything along the way.