I Robot or The complete Robot

[TimothyO]

Hello, I was just looking for some advice on which book is more preferable to read.

I would like to read the robot series and after doing some research it seems to me that you can start with either of these two books.

I was thinking to read 'I robot' because it seems like the original book to start this set off, but then I do not want to miss anything if I do not read 'The Complete Robot'.

I also read somewhere that 'The complete Robot' runs over a bit with other robot stories such as 'Caves of Steel'. In this case I would rather read 'I Robot' so I can then move onto Caves of steel without having already read any of it.

I would be very grateful if anyone had any advice on which book people would recommend to start off the Robot set.

Thanks

Tim

 

[Ursa major]

I'd suggest you get The Complete Robot; but then I'm biased: I own a copy.

If you want to know what's in it, you could do worse than read Wiki's article about the book.


That article mentions that one of the things not included is

the binding text from I, Robot.
​

If you want to read that (I don't know how substantial it is), you'd have to get I, Robot.

 

[ibrooks]

I'd start with I Robot (in fact I did). It's not a story in itself rather a series of short stories (hence it doesn't really matter where you start). The sequel of sorts was The Rest Of The Robots and as I understand it The Complete Robot is a gathering of the two (give or take as is usual with these things).

Iain

 

[J-Sun]

There are two separate components to the series - the stories and the novels. The stories are mostly independent and share just a common structure and fit into the same history, but two sequences have recurring characters: the troubleshooting team of Donovan and Powell, and the great roboticist Susan Calvin. Then the novels feature the human Lije Bailey and the robot R. Daneel Olivaw and go on from there. There are separate cases per novel but the novels are much more closely related to each other than the stories are. The initial publication was I, Robot (which features a framing story linking all the stories and isn't available in the other compilations of the stories which are also arranged differently). Then he released the first two novels. Then, for some reason, he released The Rest of the Robots which is a compilation of those two novels along with eight stories not previously collected. These eight stories were later published in a separate volume by Pyramid. After that, he wrote the occasional robot story and collected them like any other stories in his general collections until, finally, in 1982, he released The Complete Robot which, as I say, dropped the framing story of I, Robot and rearranged them, the eight stories from The Rest of the Robots, all the robot stories he'd written between then and 1982, and even a couple of stories that stretch the definition of a "robot story" and weren't originally really treated as such. Then he wrote the last two robot novels, the last of which bridges the robot stories/novels and the Empire/Foundation stories/novels. And, along the way, there were even various other robot compilations such as The Robot Collection which collects The Complete Robot and the first three robot novels. (It's kind of ironic that something which contains something called The Complete Robot is incomplete in terms of both novels and stories.) After The Complete Robot and the last two robot novels, he also wrote a few more robot stories - one is only available in what is otherwise a collection of unrelated previously collected non-robot stories called Robot Dreams, at least three are only available in one which is a collection of related, previously collected robot stories (and non-fiction) called Robot Visions, and the last few are in an original non-robot collection (half made up of non-fiction) called Gold.

I'd recommend starting with I, Robot and then getting The Complete Robot as well. Then move on to the novels (though you can go to them directly after I, Robot) either individually or in The Rest of the Robots. Then, if you're a raving fan by that point, as you surely must be , then go on and get all of his collections and pick up the rest of the rest of the robot stories that way. However, you can certainly start with The Complete Robot as well and only miss the framing story and the arrangement.

Hope that helps (though I'm afraid it might be more confusing than helpful).

 

[Bick]

Just to confuse you, I'd get the complete robot and read that. It doesn't overlap the novels at all and has all of I Robot in it as well as a heap of other robot stories.

 

[TimothyO]

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

I think I am going to start by reading The Complete Robot, and then move on to the Robot series starting with Caves of Steel.

Thanks again

Tim

 

[WIEganson]

I haven't looked at The Complete Robot, because I already owned I, Robot and the other robot books by the time it came out. As I understand it, The Complete Robot includes a short story that was never collected in another work, so for that reason alone, I will likely get it.

When I first read it (meaning the whole "universe" including the Galactic Empire and Foundation series), I read them more-or-less in the order of publication, which I rather enjoyed. As many have said before, this approach allows you to see Asimov's development, etc., etc. I'm personally not so interested in that, but this would be a good approach if you do like go gain insights into an author.

I plan on re-reading everything in chronological order of events.

 

[J-Sun]

I haven't looked at The Complete Robot, because I already owned I, Robot and the other robot books by the time it came out. As I understand it, The Complete Robot includes a short story that was never collected in another work, so for that reason alone, I will likely get it.

I'd forgotten about that. There are two actually. Both were originally published in Boys' Life so are basically "juvenile shorts": "A Boy's Best Friend" and "Point of View".

There were also two more which were first collected in TCR but were collected again later:

"True Love" (Robot Dreams)
"Think!" (Robot Visions)

All the rest had been previously collected. All of those were from I, Robot or The Rest of the Robots except:

"Someday" (Earth Is Room Enough)
"Sally" (Nightfall)
"Segregationist" (Nightfall)
"Mirror Image" (The Best of Isaac Asimov)
"Light Verse" (Buy Jupiter)

and the following, all from The Bicentennial Man:

"That Thou Art Mindful of Him"
"The Bicentennial Man"
"Feminine Intuition"
"Stranger in Paradise"
"The Tercentenary Incident"

 

[dask]

I read THE CAVES OF STEEL, THE NAKED SUN, and the later one, THE ROBOTS OF DAWN or something, without having read I, ROBOT and had no problem whatever, except maybe enjoying good stories too much.

 

[StormSeeker]

Off topic I know but the Bicentennial Man is something I have been meaning to look into for months.

 

[j d worthington]

Well, to make matters even more confusing: I, Robot is not simply a collection of short stories, but an episodic novel made out of what were originally short stories, with some new material added when they were collected together, making the "novel" as a whole something of a biographical memoir of Susan Calvin, and of the growth of the robotics industry from its earliest days to her death.

The Rest of the Robots, on the other hand, was a collection of further robot stories (some of which also featured Dr. Calvin, but were written following the publication of I, Robot), including the original two Lije Bailey/R. Daneel Olivaw novels, The Caves of Steel and The Naked Sun.

The Complete Robot brought together all of Isaac's shorter robot stories written up to that time, but the novels were not included (it would have been far too massive a volume had they been). But... as it was handled as a collection, all the extra linking material from I, Robot was left out... and a fair amount of that material plays some part in the later development of the connected "Robot/Galactic Empire/Foundation" series. In addition, there were a handful of later robot stories, including at least one featuring Susan Calvin ("Robot Dreams") which were not collected in The Complete Robot.

My own suggestion for a (fairly accurate, if memory serves) relatively series-chronological way to read them would be:


"Introduction" (from I, Robot)
"Robbie"
"Robot AL-76 Goes Astray"
"Runaround"
"Reason"
"Catch That Rabbit!"
"Liar!"
"Satisfaction Guaranteed"
"Lenny"
"Galley Slave"
"Not Final!" (The Early Asimov)
"Victory Unintentional"
"Little Lost Robot"
"Risk"
"Robot Dreams" (Robot Dreams)
"Evidence"
"The Evitable Conflict"
"Feminine Intuition"
"Epilogue" (I, Robot)
"First Law"
"Let's Get Together"
"A Boy's Best Friend"
"Sally"
"Someday"
"Point of View"
"Think!"
"True Love"
"Stranger in Paradise"
"Light Verse"
"Segregationist"
"The Tercentenary Incident"
"... That Thou Art Mindful of Him"
"The Bicentennial Man" (or novel version, The Positronic Man)
"Mother Earth" (The Early Asimov)
The Caves of Steel
The Naked Sun
"Mirror Image"
The Robots of Dawn
Robots and Empire
The Currents of Space
The Stars Like Dust
"Blind Alley" (The Early Asimov)
Pebble in the Sky
The End of Eternity
Prelude to Foundation
Forward the Foundation
Foundation
Foundation and Empire
Second Foundation
Foundation's Edge
Foundation and Earth