It’s been a long while since I enjoyed a book of short stories. In the past, I’ve found great and relaxing joy when reading stories by the likes of Geoffrey Household or Arthur C. Clarke. To my recollection, I had never before read anything by Isaac Asimov, so when I came across this book in a Little Free Library in Minnesota, I had to give it a try. I am so glad I did.

Apparently, this small volume is Asimov’s unofficial sequel to his much more popular I, Robot, a book I definitely now have on my Must-Read list. These stories, while mostly unrelated, all have as their theme Asimov’s unique style of robot.

In fact, he wrote these stories in response to what he calls “the Mephistopheles-type robots” in popular sci-fi books at the time, robots that become self-aware and suddenly bent on killing their creator, Man. Such stereotypical plots were a dime a dozen, he says, overplayed and a sure sign of a lazy author. He would have none of it.

To build some boundaries for himself (and unintentionally for all sci-fi authors thereafter, though I don’t think Hollywood ever got the memo), Asimov created the three laws of the Robot, or The Bible of Robotics. For anyone who’s read Asimov before, forgive me: I’m sure these have become common parlance. But for me just now getting my first taste of the author, they were entirely new, so I repeat them here for my own benefit:

1) A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2) A robot must obey all orders given by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First and Second Law.

In his introduction to Part 2 in this book, Asimov humorously bemoans his own posthumous fame, that despite all his creative efforts, he would be remembered only for this, “the non-existent basis for a non-existent science” called robotics (51). If only he could see himself and that “nonexistent” science today! He could never have imagined.

For the remainder of this review, I’ll do what I often do with short-story collections, commenting on each story whether in brief or at length. Asimov published each of these eight stories between 1941-1957.

Story-by-story Review

1. “Robot AL-76 Goes Astray” (1941) – My first taste of Asimov’s style was this unique story. AL-76 creates what the scientist call a Disinto, a machine of unknown qualities that manipulates the electricity of a few small batteries into a massively powerful force. The story shows not only the ability of robots to invent and build, but also of man to shut him down and to make him forget.

2. “Victory Unintentional” (1942) – This story had a humorous bent for sure, which was unexpected. Humanity recognizes the Jovians (Jupiter’s aliens) as perhaps the most aggressively violent creatures in the Solar System. To consider how they might be able to pacify (or defeat) these beings, the human astronauts send down from their moon three robots capable of surviving the gases and pressures of that miserable planet. These ZZ models were named simply One, Two, and Three. At one point, Asimov made me laugh with this rather involved description of robot sorrow:

“Three had no neck, for in the interest of strength the heads of the ZZ models were riveted firmly onto the torso, with the delicate positronic brains protected by three separate layers in inch-thick iridium alloy. But if he had had one, he would have shaken his head dolefully.” (37)

In this story, the Jovians talk about distances as “ten feet” or “five miles,” American terms that somehow made it into Jovian parlance. This little tidbit tells me that all of these older Sci-fi tales had to have at least some ties to common language, else the authors would confuse their readers with made-up space jargon. It’s a bit silly, but keeps the stories uncluttered. The point of this tale can be found in a series of comments from the robots to Jovians: “We don’t drown…We don’t eat…We don’t sleep…Heat doesn’t bother us…We don’t breathe…We don’t need a force field.” With comments such as these, the robots unintentionally destroy the Jovians’ superiority complex, for in their hectic meeting the robtos failed to mention that they themselves were not human, only the tools created by humans. With this in mind, I wonder if this would be the same response a Martian might have when it meets our Mars Rover for the first time (not that I think that’ll ever happen).

3. “First Law” (1956) – This is the pithiest story of the lot, and it’s also a bit silly. In this barroom scene, an astronaut recalls an experience on Titan when he swears he witnessed a robot breaking the First Law. As I think about it now, though, I’ve come to a conclusion: because robots can’t harm humans and because they (ostensibly) can’t have babies, Asimov’s intent here may very well have been a sci-fi version of the “Big Fish” story…though I could be wrong.

4. “Let’s Get Together” (1957) – The feel of this story was eerily similar to the fear that comes with true modern terrorism, especially the terrorist cells that supposedly exist beneath our very noses. The possibility that they exist and could kill us at any moment has the power to cause great destruction to our collective psyche, for the mere possibility produces more fear than actual danger, which seems to be the main goal of terrorism anyways.

5. “Satisfaction Guaranteed” (1950) – This was definitely the most unexpected story of the lot. It was almost too real, and I felt drawn into it throughout. I can see why some female fans wrote Asimov for more information on Tony, because seriously, what a heartthrob! (I write that with tongue planted firmly in cheek).

6. “Risk” (1955) – This was my favorite story of the eight. Before reading any these stories, I had never heard of Dr. Calvin, but what a character she is! She could easily be a giant of literature, if Sci-fi can be considered literature. She’s like the Nurse Ratched of the Sci-fi world. This was an excellently crafted story with a punchy ending.

7. “Lenny” (1957) – I liked this one less than the previous, though I felt it carried a strong message, a sense of—dare I say it?—anti-eugenics. Not sure if Asimov was using Robot rights as an early metaphor for human rights, but if so, this could be a pretty straightforward treatise against ridding society of its “undesirables.” It reminded me of old song, “I’m a Little Cookie.”

8. “Galley Slave” (1957) – This final story was the longest of them all and apparently Asimov’s own personal favorite. In a courtroom drama with Robots at the heart of the matter, Asimov wonders what would happen when an anti-robot professor could have easy access to one on his own college campus. Barring the easy comparisons to any grammar check you might have on your personal computer today, this robot made quite a splash at the university where he proofread documents in preparation for their publication. In reading the story, I wasn’t quite certain why this story would have been Asimov’s favorite, until I came to the second-to-last page, where he writes through the mouth of the antagonist a little about his own theory of writing:

“A book should take shape in the hands of the writer. One must actually see the chapters grow and develop. One must work and rework and watch the changes take place beyond the original concept even…There are a hundred contacts between a man and his work at every stage of the game—and the contact itself is pleasurable and repays a man for the work he puts into his creation more than anything else could.” (159)

Overall, I was really happy with this collection of stories, and I look forward to reading more of Isaac Asimov when I get time. Where I’ll find that time, I don’t know, but this one slipped into my schedule, so I’m sure others will too.

©2021 E.T.

Read More from Isaac Asimov:

• The Extended Foundation Series:
  1. The Complete Robot (1982) [A.D. 1995]
  2. The Caves of Steel (1954) [A.D. 3421]
  3. The Naked Sun (1957) [A.D. 3422]
  4. The Robots of Dawn (1983) [A.D. 3424]
  5. Robots and Empire (1985) [A.D. 3630]
  6. The Stars Like Dust (1951) [A.D. 4850]
  7. The Currents of Space (1952) [A.D. 11129]
  8. Pebble in the Sky (1955) [A.D. 12411 or 827 G.E.]
  9. Prelude to Foundation (1988) [12020 G.E.]
  10. Forward the Foundation (1993) [12038 G.E.]
  11. Foundation (1951) [12067 G.E.]
  12. Foundation and Empire (1952) [13800 G.E.]
  13. Second Foundation (1953) [13850 G.E.]
  14. Foundation’s Edge (1982) [14200 G.E. or 498 F.E.]
  15. Foundation and Earth (1986) [14200 G.E. or 498 F.E.]
• Short Story Collections:
  I, Robot (1950)
  Buy Jupiter (1975)
  Gold (1995)
  Eight Stories from the Rest of the Robots (1964)
• Other Novels:
  Fantastic Voyage (1966)