Litsy

Service Model | Adrian Tchaikovsky

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Charles is a very high end robot, made to be “the gentleman‘s gentle robot”, kind of a robot butler. He finds that he has murdered his master, but doesn‘t know why. He sends himself to Diagnostics to try to figure out why, and along the way finds that human society has collapsed and robots are somewhat aimlessly roaming what‘s left.

This is kind of a dystopian quest book, rather philosophical, and I really liked it. ⬇️

Soubhiville I admit as other reviewers have said, it could have been shorter. But I liked it more than most reviewers. I‘m giving it 3.75 stars. 4d

vivastory This was my first Tchaikovsky, I loved it 4d

51 likes2 stack adds2 comments

Centique

Automatic Noodle | Annalee Newitz

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This was really sweet and fun - just wished it was MUCH longer as @RamsFan1963 has already said! The world building was so well done, I‘d love to see more robot centred stories here. Did you know the merch that is sold in the book is actually available on the authors website? Brilliant. www.automaticnoodle.website

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Jen2

Automatic Noodle | Annalee Newitz

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Loved it

40 likes

BarbaraJean

Automatic Noodle | Annalee Newitz

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I didn‘t realize that cozy post-apocalyptic sci-fi was a thing, but this is that. And it was the cozy sci-fi found family story I needed! A group of food service bots power back up after a shutdown and decide to rebrand and reopen the restaurant in which they were abandoned. Alternating POVs explore the backstory of each of the bots, offering a surprising amount of depth and character development in this short novella. ⤵️

BarbaraJean (Cont‘d) My only quibble is that it wasn‘t longer! I‘d love to spend more time with these characters. (edited) 3w

37 likes1 comment

BookMaven9

I, Robot | Isaac Asimov

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ robots behaviors should not be ignored. Hence AI! A profound collection of short stories that are timeless and timely. A variable of dilemmas that ultimately become something quite terrifying. A thought provoking read of explosive ideas.

11 likes

AvidReader25

R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) | Karel ?apek

so-so

If you ever wondered where Roz in The Wild Robot got her name, this is it. This play written in 1920 about the rise of an army of robots, and the extinction of the human race was revolutionary for its time. It has tons of melodrama, and the one woman in it certainly feels like a fake character that all the men can‘t help but fall in love with, but there are some excellent sci-fi themes about man‘s hubris that stand the test of time.

Tamra I really enjoyed that play and wasn‘t expecting to. One could just insert “AI” for robot! 1mo

AvidReader25 @Tamra Yes! I felt the same. I wish the one female character had a bit more depth, but I loved the premise. 3w

31 likes2 comments

Robotswithpersonality

The Naked Sun | Isaac Asimov

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Another banger! This series does not disappoint.
The mystery was twistier than first anticipated, the personal growth of the main character was authentically balanced by his own ingrained biases. The exploration of an alternate future for mankind on an alien world was absorbing in theory if somewhat disturbing in practice. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I was surprised by how much Daneel ended up being sidelined, but this novel is much more an exploration of how humans might choose to change as a society with the aid of robots than a story of the robots themselves. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? Insofar as, from a current perspective, The Caves of Steel tells of a future Earth crammed with people who live in supercities to manage resources, and under dome/underground ostensibly to protect from less hospitable elements, The Naked Sun tells of another somewhat dystopian future, where people act like they're permanently in pandemic lockdown, not because there is a physical threat, but because isolation as societal foundation has been 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? judged a good and is programmed into the remote raising of future generations. Speaking of the remote raising, the Solarian perspective, its coldness even revulsion towards children alongside its primacy of genetic superiority, its championing of eugenics, lends their 'alien way of life' extra creepiness. (edited) 1mo

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? I love that a society so heavily dependent yet casually presumptive about the use of robots is singled out to demonstrate behaviour that feels robotic: avoiding human contact. As much as you get the easy parallel sense of the robotic nature of Solarians compared to more earthy humans from Earth, it makes for an even better contrast for Baley's final argument, the ultimate conclusion that Solarians and Earthmen both have a restrictive, 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/? traditional way of life that threatens long-term survival, that needs changing.

The plot contains something of an inversion of the previous exploration of the limitations of the three laws seen in I, Robot, it's not about what the robot might try to do when given an order by humans that involves a unique interpretation of the three laws, but more an affirmation of the First Law and what the robot will suffer if it inadvertently is involved 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 8/? in breaking it.

Is it ableist to give a robot a lisp and a limp after it suffers brain damage from accidently killing a human?
It definitely feels racist that Baley consistently calls the robots 'boy' while they are required to call him and all humans 'master'. Historically those are terms bound up in the enslavement and oppression of Black people. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 9/? Baley may be coming to more enlightened conclusions about the future of humanity in each book but his prejudice against robots remains strong.
It's interesting to see it paralleled with his fear of open sky, not to belittle agoraphobia, but he's a part of a generation of humans who have learned to live and find comfort and shelter in close quarters, scrounging for better jobs and living conditions, and the robots act upon his subconscious 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 10/? in a similar manner, possible they might take his job, possible they might harm him physically. His fears are a result of his circumstances.
For all that,to the reader, there are aspects that feel like paradise, (more space, more greenery) Solaris has particular phobias developed by the way they choose to live as well: no contact and resulting revulsion for all things related to procreation or personal proximity and given the growth in 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 11/? isolation, perhaps a legitimate fear around foreign contagion. They are as likely to be as repulsed by their fellow man as Baley is by robots.
Again: societal conditioning developing ignorance that quite obviously needs to be rectified. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 12/? Unsurprisingly the female characters got short shrift again: one is marked out for a displeasing physical appearance and flaw of flaws: lack of maternal instincts, another is somewhere between femme fatale and damsel in distress, gets an almost decent amount of time on page...to be objectified by the male lead. She is sensual to a degree that her society finds offensive, and makes her more sympathetic to the hetero detective. The bulk of her 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 13/? actions are emotional displays of one kind or another. 🙄

I will give partial credit for her role in the painting with light scene. The aesthetic worked for me, and its moment of vulnerability and introspection, for Baley, of course, about his own mental blocks. I loved the internal made external, his wish to see a different version of himself in self-portrait than he's yet to live up to galvanizing him to take action against a fear that 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 14/14 looms large.

Maybe there's hope for humanity after all.

⚠️child abuse, bigotry, racism 1mo

9 likes12 comments

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