The Complete Robot [Paperback] [Jan 01, 2018] ISAAC ASIMOV Paperback – May 9, 2018

This is a great set of books,a must for any scifi fan. The books themselves are of excellent quality and durability at a great price.

Finished all the available Dune series books, so time to pick up Asimov again. I had read the first six Foundation books, but decided to start at the chronological beginning with the robot stories. Has the usual Asimov twists that you usually don't see coming. Good stuff!

Especially valuable these days in our AI world. Thanks Isaac Asimov for having the foresightedness with your amazing stories ✨💫💚

I bought this for the sake of working on completing my collection of the Harper Voyager editions of Asimov's Robot series. These editions are much higher quality than the mass market paperback editions. They have larger and clearer type and don't fight the reader to keep the page open like mass market paperbacks that want to snap shut.This is a compilation of iRobot and The Rest of Robots plus others I think. It adds stories that have not been included in his other books, but might have been published as parts of sci-fi anthologies either in magazines or books. In addition to a couple of new short stories, it includes comments from Asimov akin to a director's cut with commentary.He also groups the collection of short stories by the classifications of robots, followed by two groupings of two sets of characters (Power & Donovan, then Susan Collins), finally he tops it all off with two more stories. One of which is The Bicentennial man which is expanded upon in The Positronic Man. It is The Positronic Man that appears to have been the actual basis for the movie as opposed to The Bicentennial Man.I found the stories engaging. If you're a reader who prefers action, then this series might not be for you. I prefer action in movies, but not in books I read. The concepts, plots, and issues presented kept my interest, although some readers might find them a bit too theoretical or cerebral.I am glad I started reading this series after avoiding it for so long.

It is a pleasure to read Science Fiction that is well written. This book is a collection of robot stories by the inventor of the three laws of robotics that permeate robot stories. The material is dated but the quality of the writing makes up for that. Today’s standards for SF have changed considerably to the detriment of the genre. I think that there is a lack of imagination by writers and editors of contemporary SF. I have been greatly disappointed by recent “Best of…” anthologies that feature poorly written, rambling stories that have little or no SF content.

I am a huge Asimov fan - I will never forgive him (and Heinlein as well) for dying on me. I have read the original Foundation Trilogy, and I re-read after it had expanded to six books. After he died, I was researching his writings and came across a memo that he had written that outlined his entire Foundation/Empire series. I was surprised to find out that not only had the Foundation series expanded to 7 books, but that it was merely a subset (the last of three in the entire series) to this greater series. I am going to the trouble of writing this, and listing the 13 books here, to share this knowledge with other rabid Asimov fans. Here is the entire list:1 The Complete Robot (1982) [and/or I, Robot (1950)]2 Caves of Steel (1954) This is the first of my robot novels.3 The Naked Sun (1957) The second robot novel.4 The Robots of Dawn (1983) The third robot novel.5 Robots and Empire (1985) The fourth robot novel.6 The Currents of Space (1952) This is the first of my [Galactic] Empire novels.7 The Stars, Like Dust (1951) The second [Galactic] Empire novel.8 Pebble in the Sky (1950) The third [Galactic] Empire novel and my first novel.9 Prelude to Foundation (1988) This is the first Foundation novel.10 Forward the Foundation (1993) This is the second Foundation novel.11 Foundation (1951) This is now the third Foundation novel but most of the world knows this book as the first book of the original Foundation Trilogy. Actually, it began as a collection of four short stories, originally published between 1942 and 1944, plus an introductory section written for the book in 1949.12 Foundation and Empire (1952) This is the fourth Foundation novel, made from two short stories, originally published in 1945.13 Second Foundation (1953) This is the fifth Foundation novel, made from two short stories, originally published in 1948 and 1949.14 Foundation's Edge (1982) This is the sixth Foundation novel.15 Foundation and Earth (1986) This is the seventh Foundation novel.I have finished the first book, and am currently on the 4th of the Robot novels (#5 on the list). I have been amazed so far at how much the Robot novels, which I had not previously read in completion, add to the story of Foundation and Empire.Re the book reviewed here, "Complete Robot", Asimov comments that either it or the 1950 "I, Robot" is acceptable, but "Complete Robot" is way better - it really *is* complete. It is a huge book, and contains *all* his Robot short stories and novellas. You don't necessarily have to read *every* story for Foundation & Empire background, but of course you will, if you are an Asimov lover like me :)

This collection contains all of the non-novel length robot stories written through the mid-1970’s, and as such includes some of Asimov’s best work.It also includes (as a result) all of I, Robot (less the “bridge” passages which lie between the stories in I, Robot), all of The Rest of the Robots (less The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun), and a bunch of other stuff.(It also includes some “semi-robot” stories, such as ”Sally,” and a few which are not in any other Asimov anthology.)Of course, it leaves a few items out written in the last ten years of Asimov’s life such as “Robot Dreams” and ”Robot Visions,” but on the whole these later stories are relatively lesser works. “The Bicentennial Man” is Asimov’s last seminal robot story, and it is included, as are all the ones that came before. This can, then, be taken as a definitive collection of the robot shorts and should be owned by any Asimov fan or student.Need I add that, ironically, it’s only sporadically available? The Science Fiction Book Club periodically comes out with new printings, but otherwise, one’s best bet is a good used book service on the Internet.