The Rest of the Robots

The Rest of the Robots (1964) is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by Isaac Asimov. The stories are all part of the Robot series, and follow on from ʽI, Robotʼ. The novels were not included in some published versions.

The stories are as followsː

Robot AL-76 Goes Astray (1941).

Robot AL-76, known as Al, is manufactured to do mining work on the Moon, but ends up in a rural part of Earth. It can't find the tool it is meant to use, so builds a better one out of ̼junk it finds in a workshop.

Victory Unintentional (1942)

Intelligent life has been discovered on the planet Jupiter. Humans cannot land on the planet because of the powerful gravity and lack of air. They send a spaceship containing three very powerful ZZ series robots. They land on Jupiter, but the inhabitants, known as Jovians, try to attack and kill them. But when the Jovians eventually discover that the robots are too powerful to be destroyed, they decide instead to make peace with humans.

First Law (1956)

A robot engineer tells a story about Emma Two, a EM series robot, that abandoned him to die in a storm on the asteroid Titan.

Let's Get Together (1957)

An American secret service agent claims that the Soviet Union has developed humanoid robots (they cannot be distinguished from humans), and that they are being infiltrated into the USA. The head of robotics realises just in time that the agent is himself a robot and destroys him.

Satisfaction Guaranteed (1951)

Robot TN-3, Tony, is introduced into the house of Claire Belmont as an experiment, by her husband, a robot engineer with US Robots. Tony realises that Claire has very low self-esteem and tries to help, even offering to become her lover and making sure that the neighbours know it.

Risk (1955)

Humans have set up an experimental base on an asteroid to build the first spaceship to travel through hyperspace (faster than light). The ship is piloted by a robot, but the experiment fails. An engineer goes on board and discovers that the fault lies with the robot, not the ship.

Lenny (1958)

An LNE robot, known as Lenny, is built, but with a fault. It's brain is childlike and it can't speak. Susan Calvin experiments with it and eventually teaches it to speak a few words.

Galley Slave (1957)

Robot EZ-27, known as Easy, is placed in a university to carry out a variety of jobs, including proof-reading. A professor of sociology, Simon Ninheimer, claims that the robot changed the text of a book by himself that it was checking. He takes US Robots to court. Susan Calvin is able to prove that Ninheimer set up the text changes deliberately, so that he could ruin the reputation of the Company and the robots they make.

The Caves of Steel (1953)

The Naked Sun (1956)

Reception
Algis Budrys praised the collection as "a fine book of entertainment," but faulted Asimov's extensive annotations, saying they "[suck] the juice out of some very vivacious writing indeed, and [embalm] one of science fiction's most ebullient personalities.""Galaxy Bookshelf," Galaxy, June 1965, pp.166-67.

References

Preceded by:
I, RobotRobot seriesFoundation SeriesFollowed by:
The Complete Robot

Category:Science fiction books
Category:1964 books
Category:Isaac Asimov