Robot series
The "Robot" series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots. Robot novels and stories. The series started in 1940, with the story "Robbie" in the September 1940 "Super Science Stories" (appearing under the title "Strange Playfellow", which was not Asimov's title). Although it was originally written as a stand-alone story, the following year Asimov published a series of additional robot stories, which fit together into a narrative that was then put together as the book "I, Robot". Overview of 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 is 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 share a  theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality. Some of the short stories found in "The Complete Robot" (1982) 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 (where the Cold War is still in progress), 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. Some  characters appear in more than one of the stories, and the manufacturer of the robots is often identified as the (fictional) corporation "U.S. Robots and Mechanical Men". "The Complete Robot" contains most of Asimov's robot short stories. Missing ones were either written after its publication, or formed the text connecting the stories in "I, Robot". The six Asimov robot short stories not included in this book are: Overview of the Robot novels. The first book (not a true novel) is "I, Robot" (1950), 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" (1953), "The Naked Sun" (1955), "The Robots of Dawn" (1983), and "Robots and Empire" (1985) make up the Elijah Baley (sometimes "Lije 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 (between "The Naked Sun" and "The Robots of Dawn") and features both Baley and Olivaw. Another short story (found in "The Early Asimov" anthology), "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" (1975), 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. Other authors of robot novels set in Asimov's universe. 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 ("Caliban", "Inferno", "Utopia") 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 (Isaac Asimov's "Robot  City", "Robots and Aliens" and "Robots in Time" series), which are not generally considered canon. They are loosely connected to the Robots series, but contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books. 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" (2000), "Chimera" (2001), and "Aurora" (2002). These were followed by yet another robot mystery, Alexander C. Irvine's "Have Robot, Will Travel" (2004), 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" (2013) and the upcoming "I, Robot: To Preserve" (2016). Adaptations. 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" (1994). Robot series The