Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Well, if we go with that (perfectly accurate) read, none of the robot stories are about robots. All the robot stories are really about humans and their foibles, from the "Frankenstein complex" of Luddites (the reason he started writing robot stories in the first place), to the sledgehammer message that if *humans* lived by the Three Laws they would in fact be better humans, which he followed up in his latter years by making we-all-know-who the guardian of humanity. (He makes a better Guardian than Multivac, too.)
There are many reasons why his Robot stories resonate so strongly and their veiled ruminations about humanity are just one of them.
For every way anybody can raise about Asimov being overated it is easy to raise several that suggest he is way more *underrated*: as a writer/philosopher.
One could do far worse than to try to live a "Robotic" Three Laws life.  |
Good post
Asimov is my favorite sci-fi author by far. I don't even really read sci-fi these days, though...very rarely.
I can understand not liking Foundation to some extent. They are definitely big-concept books...just the argument that individuals rarely matter in the big scheme of things probably gets to some people). Plus the first book and a half or so are really just a compilation of short stories. They're a bit dry.
But the Robot books are genius, especially the Lije Bailey novels.
And my favorite Heinlein book is A Door Into Summer...mechanical drafting machines? Nuclear World War III before 1980 (IIRC). Etc.
Sci-fi gets outdated, that's how it goes.