I, Robot

By: Isaac Asimov

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins

Publisher's summary

Here are stories of robots gone mad, of mind-read robots, and robots with a sense of humor. Of robot politicians, and robots who secretly run the world - all told with the dramatic blend of science fact and science fiction that has become Asmiov’s trademark.

The three laws of Robotics: 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 orders given to it 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 or Second Law.

With these three, simple directives, Isaac Asimov changed our perception of robots forever when he formulated the laws governing their behavior. In I, Robot, Asimov chronicles the development of the robot through a series of interlinked stories: from its primitive origins in the present to its ultimate perfection in the not-so-distant future - a future in which humanity itself may be rendered obsolete.

©1950, 1977 Isaac Asimov (P)2004 Random House, Inc. Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Excellent story, the best narration!!!

Great story, from beginning to end. Even better is the narration. Scott Brick is a delightful narrator to hear!!!

Great stories, not very well aged

Luckily it's often fairly easy to ignore the artifacts of the fact that they were written over 70 years ago.

Good read but a bit boring

There are some really important and interesting messages to get from this book but I found it pretty boring at times. This is not like the movie so stop here if that's what you want. Felt like the narration was quiet and he was kinda mono-tone. Now if you want a book that takes you out of the box and makes you think, read this.

More Entertaining Than Expected

I was assuming that this book would be rather dated, and the language stilted. While there are some dated vocabulary, this holds up surprisingly well. All of the stories are basically thought experiments mostly dealing with the three laws of robotics and the morality of robots and how they interact with humans.

Some of the earlier stories I did not care for the characters, as they were mostly men, rather arrogant, and did nothing but bicker and insult each other in the robots. However, the later stories shifted away from this.

I was expecting not to like this very much, but now I am very interested in reading more of the robot series. Unfortunately in the chronological reading order, the next two collections are not available on Audible. Hopefully this will be corrected soon.

I thought the nearer was the perfect choice for the story, as he has an almost old-fashioned reporter quality to his reading. Considering the pros, and the language used at the time that this book was written, it’s a perfect fit.

If you have ever thought of trying this series, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.

Monotonous reader

I Robot is a collection of short stories haphazardly put together into a novel. Wonderful short stories but not a great way to weave them together.

Horrible reader - he has a very monotonous voice and it’s impossible to distinguish characters in the middle of a dialogue (which is horribly frustrating).

Scott Brick

Scott is by far my favorite narrator!
Perfect performance! Great characterizations!
Love his presentation!
Asimov is brilliant. Just live the universe he created!

A prophetic story.

As our technology progresses, Isaac Asimov's works become more prophetic. to the point where the ethical dilemmas presented are suddenly starkly relevant. His ideas are becoming our discourse, and will only grow.

Future History

A fascinating introduction to the authors robot populated world.

It's interesting to read not just for its great story, but also for the comparison to sci-fi written now or even a couple of decades ago.

The idea that a walking interacting robot is relatively easy, but a talking robot is much harder is delightful.

Very well performed recording.

I recommend this audio book and the ones that follow to anyone who likes classic sci-fi

Wish I read it sooner.

Some of the concepts in this book like "the three rules of robotics" were way ahead of the time when this material was written back in the 1950's. The last chapter was particularly visionary.

My only criticism of the format is that this is a collection of short stories and the break between each story could have been a bit more defined either by a longer pause or some other production technique. This however is not meant as a bad reflection on the material in the least.

Pretty good

Blows the damn movie out of the water but the narrator confused me on what characters were who. Not very dynamic.