The Robot series is a series of 38 short stories and 5 novels by science fiction
author Isaac Asimov featuring positronic robots.
Short stories Most of Asimov's robot short stories,
which he began to write in 1939, are set in the first age of positronic robotics
and space exploration. The unique feature of Asimov's robots are the Three
Laws of Robotics, hardwired in a robot's positronic brain, with which all robots
in his fiction must comply, and which ensure that the robot does not turn
against its creators. The stories were not initially conceived
as a set, but rather all feature his positronic robots — indeed, there are
some inconsistencies among them, especially between the short stories and
the novels. They all, however, share a theme of the interaction of humans,
robots, and morality. Some of the short stories found in The Complete Robot and
other anthologies appear not to be set in the same universe as the Foundation
Universe. "Victory Unintentional" has positronic robots obeying the Three
Laws, but also a non-human civilization on Jupiter. "Let's Get Together"
features humanoid robots, but from a different future, and with no mention of
the Three Laws. The multiple series offers a sense of completeness, because
all of its works are interconnected in some way.
Robot novels The first book is I, Robot, a collection
of nine previously published short stories woven together as a 21st-century
interview with robopsychologist Dr. Susan Calvin. The next four robot novels
The Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun, The Robots of Dawn, and Robots and Empire
make up the Elijah Baley series, and are mysteries starring the Terran Elijah
Baley and his humaniform robot partner, R. Daneel Olivaw. They are set thousands
of years after the short stories, and focus on the conflicts between Spacers —
descendants of human settlers from other planets, and the people from an
overcrowded Earth. "Mirror Image", one of the short stories from The Complete
Robot anthology, is also set in this time period, and features both Baley and
Olivaw. Another short story, "Mother Earth", is set about a thousand years
before the robot novels, when the Spacer worlds chose to become separated from
Earth. The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun are
both considered classics of the genre, but the later novels were also well
received, with The Robots of Dawn nominated for both the Hugo and Locus
Awards in 1984, and Robots and Empire shortlisted for the Locus Award for Best
Science Fiction Novel in 1986. Inspiration
One source of inspiration for Asimov's robots was the Zoromes, a race of
mechanical men that featured in a 1931 short story called "The Jameson
Satellite", by Neil R. Jones. Asimov read this story at the age of 11, and
acknowledged it as a source of inspiration in Before the Golden Age, an
anthology of 1930s science fiction in which Asimov told the story of the
science fiction he read during his formative years. In Asimov's own words:
It is from the Zoromes, beginning with their first appearance in "The Jameson
Satellite," that I got my own feeling for benevolent robots who could serve
man with decency, as these had served Professor Jameson. It was the Zoromes,
then, who were the spiritual ancestors of my own "positronic robots," all of
them, from Robbie to R. Daneel. Merging with other series
Asimov later integrated the Robot Series into his all-engulfing Foundation
series, making R. Daneel Olivaw appear again twenty thousand years later in the
age of the Galactic Empire, in sequels and prequels to the original Foundation
trilogy; and in the final book of the Robots series — Robots and Empire — we
learn how the worlds that later formed the Empire were settled, and how Earth
became radioactive. The Stars, Like Dust states explicitly
that the Earth is radioactive because of a nuclear war. Asimov later explained
that the in-universe reason for this perception was that it was formulated by
Earthmen many centuries after the event, and which had become distorted, due to
the loss of much of their planetary history. This work is generally regarded
as part of the Empire series, but does not directly mention either Trantor or
the Spacer worlds. One character, however, is seen with a visi-sonor, the
same musical instrument that is played by the clown Magnifico in Foundation and
Empire. Based on details from the novel, such as Earth still being mostly
habitable and the absence of a unified galactic government, it probably would
fall during the early formation of the Empire.
Other authors The 1989 anthology Foundation's Friends
included the positronic robot stories "Balance" by Mike Resnick, "Blot" by Hal
Clement, "PAPPI" by Sheila Finch, "Plato's Cave" by Poul Anderson, "The
Fourth Law of Robotics" by Harry Harrison and "Carhunters of the Concrete
Prairie" by Robert Sheckley. Not all of these stories are entirely consistent
with the Asimov stories. The anthology also included "Strip-Runner" by Pamela
Sargent, set in the era of the Elijah Baley novels.
Shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels by
Roger MacBride Allen, set between Robots and Empire and the Empire series,
telling the story of the terraforming of the Spacer world Inferno, and about the
robot revolution started by creating a "No Law" Robot, and then New Law Robots.
There is also another set of novels by various authors, loosely connected to
the Robots Series, but containing many inconsistencies with Asimov's books,
which are not generally considered canon.
More recently, the Asimov estate authorized publication of another
trilogy of robot mysteries by Mark W. Tiedemann. These novels, which take
place several years before Asimov's Robots and Empire, are Mirage, Chimera,
and Aurora. These were followed by yet another robot mystery, Alexander C.
Irvine's Have Robot, Will Travel, set five years after the Tiedemann trilogy.
In November 2009, the Asimov estate announced the upcoming publication of
Robots and Chaos, the first volume in a trilogy featuring Susan Calvin by
fantasy author Mickey Zucker Reichert. The book was published in November 2011
under the title I, Robot: To Protect, and was later followed by two sequels:
I, Robot: To Obey and the upcoming I, Robot: To Preserve.
Asimov's robots on screen The first screen adaptation of an Asimov
robot story was the third episode of the British television series Out of This
World based on "Little Lost Robot", first broadcast in 1962. Dramatised by
Leo Lehman and starring Maxine Audley as Susan Calvin, this is the only episode
of the series known to have survived. This was followed by a 1964 dramatision
of The Caves of Steel for the BBC series Story Parade and then four episodes of
the BBC television series Out of the Unknown, based on "Satisfaction
Guaranteed", "Reason, "Liar!", and The Naked Sun. In these adaptations, Elijah
Baley was portrayed by Peter Cushing and Paul Maxwell, R. Daneel Olivaw by John
Carson and David Collings, and Susan Calvin by Beatrix Lehmann and Wendy
Gifford. In "Satisfaction Guaranteed", the character of Susan Calvin was
renamed Dr Inge Jensen and portrayed by Ann Firbank.
In the late 1970s, Harlan Ellison wrote a screenplay based on Asimov's book I,
Robot for Warner Bros.. This film project was ultimately abandoned, but
Ellison's script was later published in book form as I, Robot: The Illustrated
Screenplay. Robots, a 1988 television film based on
Asimov's Robot Series, starred Stephen Rowe as Elijah Baley and Brent Barrett
as R. Daneel Olivaw. Bicentennial Man was the first
theatrical movie adaptation of any Asimov story or novel and was based on
both Asimov's original short story and its novel expansion, The Positronic Man.
The film starred Robin Williams as robot Andrew Martin.
The Twentieth Century Fox motion picture I, Robot presented an original story set
in Asimov's Robot universe featuring Dr Susan Calvin and other characters from
Asimov's I, Robot collection. The film originated from a spec screenplay
entitled 'Hardwired' written in 1995 by Jeff Vintar. While this earlier script
had no direct connections with Asimov, it was considered suitably 'Asimovian'
in nature to provide the basis for an I, Robot movie. Elements from several
Asimov robot stories were woven into the overall storyline, including "Little
Lost Robot", "The Evitable Conflict" and "Robot Dreams". The movie starred Will
Smith as Dale Spooner and Bridget Moynahan as Susan Calvin.
References ^ "1984 Award Winners & Nominees".
Worlds Without End. Retrieved 2009-09-13.
^ "1986 Award Winners & Nominees". Worlds Without End. Retrieved
2009-09-13. ^ Asimov, Isaac. Before the Golden Age
1. Orbit. ISBN 0-86007-803-5. ^ 1009 11:50am 1009 11:50am. "'''io9''',
"Meet The Young, Frisky Susan Calvin, In "I, Robot" Prequel Trilogy". Io9.com.
Retrieved 2013-11-27. ^ Topel, Fred. ""Jeff Vintar was
Hardwired for I,ROBOT"". Screenwriter's Utopia. Christopher Wehner. Retrieved
2014-07-30. External links
Detailed timeline for the Robots and Foundation Universe
Another detailed timeline, sometimes on a day-by-day basis, was published in
From Robots to Foundations. [1] From "Author's Note" of "Prelude to
Foundation" Doubleday 1988 hardcover edition
^ Codex, Regius. From Robots to Foundations. Wiesbaden/Ljubljana. ISBN
1499569823.