I, Robot – Isaac Asimov

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Book #539

Reviewer: Ms Oh Waily

IRToday I get to review the 1001 list’s second and final science fiction book by Isaac Asimov.

Once again I will confess at the outset to being biased in my opinions of Asimov’s writing.  I enjoy science fiction that is aspirational in it’s view of the future, but is still accessible and easy to read.  Mr Asimov, in my opinion, does both very well.  

I will also confess to another personal Asimovian quirk.  The laptop that I am typing my review on has a name.  It is R.Daneel Olivaw.  And yes, it is the name of an Asimov robot.   He does not, however, appear in this interconnected collection of short stories.

There are nine interconnected stories in this volume.  My edition ran to 249 pages, but certainly reads much faster than that would suggest.  The format is a retrospective of key events in the early development of robotics through a journalist interviewing the renowned robopyschologist, Susan Calvin on the occasion of her retirement.  Set in 2057, we are first taken back to 1996 and the story of Robbie, a non-vocal nursemaid robot, and his young charge Gloria Weston. We then take jumps forward in time through each of the eight remaining stories, investigating the development of speaking robot models, the conflict potential of the laws of robotics, the mind-reading robot, the potential fault of robots perceiving their superiority to humanity, the development of the interstellar engine and the development of a united world.  

Even reading this collection all these years after my first foray, I still find them fresh and inviting.  It astounds me to think that they were first gathered into this format in 1950 and were originally published as individual short stories between 1940 and 1950.   Once again I think it is a testament to Asimov’s style that they have barely dated.  There are clearly aspects that would seem outmoded to us today in our miniaturised computer chip world, but bearing in mind the size and cost of “computing machines” at the time Asimov was writing I think the stories hold up pretty well.

Of course no review of I, Robot could be complete without the very famous Laws of Robotics, so here they are.

The Three Laws of Robotics

1 – A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2 – A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders 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 or Second Law.

Handbook of Robotics.
56th Edition, 2058 A.D.

As a fan I am naturally going to say that you should spend some of your precious reading time on these stories.  I just hope that you enjoy them as much as I do.
My only gripe is that I had to spend my re-reading time looking at Will Smith on the cover of the book, my copy currently being in storage.  My teeth would grind every time I picked the book up as I was well aware that the film of the same name would bear a scant similarity to the stories told here.   And from what I have read of the film synopsis, I was right.  Do not believe you are going to replicate each by reading or viewing the other.

The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende

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Book #276
Reviewer: Tall, Short & Tiny

The House of the SpiritsMany years ago, on a whim, I picked The House of the Spirits off a bookshelf and bought it, with no knowledge of the author and having heard nothing of the book. What was a punt turned out to be a brilliant decision, as I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and have since read more of Allende’s work.

I love her magical, poetic style, and her ability to weave intricate relationships between characters. Her characters are all beautifully drawn; the reader is pulled into their world, and the imagination is set alight. I do wonder how this would read in Allende’s natural Spanish, and hope that none of the musicality has been lost in translation.

The House of the Spirits is a truly magical story, set in Chile, about four generations of the Trueba family. It is a story about class inequality, family and fate, with numerous plot twists and allusions to the political and social struggles in Chile’s past. It is magical and ethereal, heartbreaking and beautiful.

Clara is the main female figure in the novel. She is a clairvoyant and telekinetic, rather vague and impractical in an everyday sense, but the backbone of her family. She marries Esteban, one of the story’s narrators; he becomes involved in politics and their relationship is a volatile one. The rest of the family stem from these two.

I must give special mention to Clara’s sister, Rosa the Beautiful. She is exceptionally, ethereally beautiful, with transparent skin, yellow eyes, and green hair. She is described as mermaid-like; in any other novel, this might seem strange and detract from the story, but Allende is very skilled at building layer upon layer of “normal” characters, until each quirk simply becomes normal too.

This is a book I have lent to so many people with no hesitation, and it has been returned with excited sighs. I give The House of the Spirits 4 out of 5 stars.

The Old Man and the Sea – Ernest Hemingway

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Book #521

Reviewer: Inspirationalreads

old man

I have long associated Hemingway as being the most masculine of writers.  I was aware of him being a keen hunter and the titles of his books, in particular A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls and this The Old Man and the Sea also screamed “manly!”. While this was not entirely off-putting for me, it did mean that it has taken a long time in getting around to reading anything by him.  And so this, my first Hemingway, was both as expected but also a revelation in being so thoroughly deserving of all the accolades it has been awarded.

Santiago is our old man, a  fisherman in his twilight years.  A lifetime spent as a fisherman has left him little to call his own, wizened but still in relative good health for his advancing years.  Manolin is his young fishing companion and when they go 84 days without catching a fish, Manolin’s parents stop him from going out on Santiago’s skiff, sending him to fish on more successful boats.  Still full of admiration for the old man, Manolin is there to see off Santiago as he embarks on a solitary trip that lasts over two days and nights battling to catch and bring back the biggest marlin of his life.

As are many of the other reads on this list, this is a deceptively simple read.  This is the struggle of one man in a story of perseverance and strength. Nearly two thirds of this book are spent with Santiago on his lone boat struggling with this catch.  Where his mind goes, the conversations of companionship and respect that he has with this mighty marlin, his thoughts on many other things including, endearingly, baseball star Joe DiMaggio.  In an age where there is so much to fill your time, noise and distraction at your fingertips, this aspect of the book is of an age and yet timeless  because of its familiarity.  When left to your own thoughts, where does your mind stray to? What conversations do you have with yourself?  Santiago brings age-earned wisdom to his musings.  On accepting Manolin’s help;

He was too simple to wonder when he had attained humility.  But he knew he had attained it and he knew it was not disgraceful and it carried no loss of true pride.

And as his task would dictate, his mind often turns to the relationship with his prey.  He is so respectful of the mighty marlin, marveling at it’s size and what it will contribute to his life.  Income, of course, but a source of pride especially coming off an 84 day losing streak.  Something to prove to his peers who think he is too old, something to prove to Manolin’s parents.  And something to show Manolin, a thank you for his continued support and a justification for his admiration.  There is struggle here and a bloody minded persistence, necessary to stay out there for two days and two nights.  But this isn’t a the story of a fevered Ahab type trying to land his Moby Dick.  Yes Santiago has all the those above motivations but he also is a fisherman and this is his job.  And can’t this be said for so many of us?  The slog, the perseverance, the determination of getting the job done for income, but also for pride for yourself, respect from your family and friends and just because it has to be done.  Written in 1952, when a lot more employment was manual labour based, the physical task of landing this giant fish would have been more familiar.

The novel ends on a bittersweet note, one which makes this tale more of a fable, its moral clear to decipher but one I don’t want to spoil because this really is a great read.  Yes, it is one man fishing, and it is very masculine in its feel.  There are no flowery passages of prose, but there is a beautiful clarity of language, a straightforward but no less masterful manipulation that left me often re-reading paragraphs in appreciation.  Please, don’t be put off like I was.