You can find this in (I, Robot), (The Complete Robot) and (Robot Visions)
In this little story we’re off to Mercury for another quick lesson in how the three laws of robotics work, and how they can cause some serious problems when a human gets a bit careless about the orders they give a robot.
Good little story, rather enjoyable.
Next up is going to be, Reason.
I finally reach the end of this trilogy.
For the most part i’ve enjoyed the whole trilogy, but there are some annoying bits. Like in this book: how did Cadmium know that Susan and Nate would be walking through that park at that time to set up their ambush? She’d only just managed to rescue Nate and escape and even Susan had no idea how that was going to happen until, by a freak chance, it did. So all rather ridiculous if anyone is asking what i think.
And it just so happens that there’s a jogger who saves her who is a super handsome god type who convinces Susan (who knows she’s seriously plain Jane) that he thinks she’s totally beautiful and seduces her into rampant sex. Well it was obvious from the start what was going on, but super intelligent, genius Susan couldn’t see it until it was basically slammed into her face by Jake. Once again, ridiculous.
But, if you can overlook the ridiculous it’s not too bad a story and we do get some good history on the beginning of humanoid robots and how Susan Calvin became the world’s first robo-psychologist.
Now, thankfully, i can return to Isaac to read the real stuff.
Bye for now.
Another book that i used for typing practice over at TypeLit.
It’s rather an enjoyable way to read a book, while at the same time being incredibly useful in improving ones typing.
As to the typing experience, it’s a quagmire of punctuation and capitalisation due to most of the book being in dialogue, which are obviously very useful skills to practice. So i present it to you, totally recommended, as both a great read and also great typing practice: what’s not to like?
Quite an enjoyable read and, for the most part, a well written follow on from To Protect.
Sadly, this book at one point gets dragged down into the gutter by Mickey’s insistence that she use this story to have a go at vegan diets. This added nothing whatsoever to the story, it’s was very clearly put in to put down vegan diets while promoting the consumption of cooked carrion. Her, as an M.D. declaring very clearly that eating fatty meat is healthy is utterly sickening: how many people have to die from atherosclerosis and its complications (like dementia and Alzheimer’s, heart disease, diabetes, and many more) before doctors stop pushing this agenda? It wouldn’t bother me so much if Mickey actually knew what she was talking about, but she very clearly doesn’t: just another ignorant quack thinking they know everything about nutrition when all they know about nutrition is littered with their own cognitive biases and addictions, and an absolute refusal to acknowledge the very clear scientific evidence. Or maybe it’s not ignorance, maybe quacks promote unhealthy diets because quacks make an absolute fortune promoting bad dietary habits.
Fundamental truth: chronic health care is the biggest scam since organized religion.
Anyway, that dealt with, outside of that, the story itself is really good.
Moving on, it’s the last book in the trilogy, To Preserve.
To be asked to write a trilogy about Susan Calvin’s early years as a fledging psychiatrist would, i imagine, have most writers running for the hills. You have to know you’re going to annoy the hell out of the die-hard Asimov fans, as well as many others. But Mickey took it on and, IMHO, didn’t do too bad a job.
Susan’s life and career has to start somewhere, and if you are a die hard Asimov fan who believes that no one should be adding anything to Robots and Foundation then just don’t read it: no one is forcing you to. This book is not necessary to fully enjoy and appreciate the pure Asimov storyline, it’s just a little extra for anyone wanting a little background on one of Asimov’s characters.
That said, i did enjoy reading it. At no point did i feel like giving up and reading something else and i have dived straight into the second book in the trilogy.
Some people have criticised the romance bit in this book, but i think it goes to show how Susan is so naive to the real world outside of her studies, and is totally lacking in a lot of social skills.
Anyway, like i said, i enjoyed it, so you might as well. Just don’t expect Asimov, it isn’t.
And if you do enjoy it, there’s To Obey to read next.
This is a book that i used for typing practice over at TypeLit.
It’s rather an enjoyable way to read a book, while at the same time being incredibly useful in improving ones typing.
This book is quite a good find. The mysterious Arsene Lupin is the ultimate rascal as he goes about relieving the rich and famous of France of their valuables: a joy to read about.
As to the typing experience, it’s a rather difficult book to type as it is full of French words and names, but a fun challenge and great typing practice. So i present it to you totally recommended, both as a great read and also great typing practice: what’s not to like?
Some more pcb porn. This time it’s for my new macropad that i’ve just started building.
Because i wanted the whole thing as low profile as i can get it, i had to make separate pcb’s for the switches and the rotary encoders, as i wanted the rotary encoders to sit down inside the board as low as possible . . .
They’re both double sided so i can build the macropads left or right handed by simply turning the boards over. You have to order a minimum of five boards so i’m going to have 4 sets left over so it seemed silly to make them all one sided.
The build pics will be coming whenever i get it finished.
Bye for now.
The trilogy comes to an end, and what an end it was.
It’s been a long journey with all kinds of shenanigans and twists and turns along the way, and i was never really aware of where the story was going and how it was ultimately going to conclude — which is a good thing. So i won’t spoil it for anyone by giving away the ending.
Anyway, in the last book, we left off with all our favourite characters scattering to the four winds, and in this book we soon find them again getting up to their usual shenanigans. Bardas has found himself another war with lots of killing, death and mayhem to get involved in, which, as usual is the centre piece of the story as it drags everyone else in. So there’s plenty of great story telling to keep you rolling along until the end.
For me, this has been a great trilogy that i totally recommend if you enjoy good historical war fighting stuff with a nice dose of magical interference thrown in to stir things up and cause a fair bit of chaos.
This is a book that i used for typing practice over at TypeLit.
It’s rather an enjoyable way to read a book, while at the same time being incredibly useful in improving ones typing.
Quite a good read, but so dystopian, and the ending wasn’t what i was hoping for. It does remind me of just how lucky i am to live in a country where we have the freedoms that we do, and how important it is to ensure those freedoms aren’t eroded by anyone. It is up to all of us to ensure that those freedoms are exercised sensibly, with consideration of other sentient beings and, ultimately, that the boundaries of those freedoms are continuously tested and where possible, extended.
So well worth a read or a type for everyone.
Not the easiest of books to type as it has sooooo many capitalised words, uncommon words, and also words that just don’t exist outside of this book: which while adding up to great typing practice, can be really frustrating at times.
This is in the collection, The Complete Robot.
A really brief little story concerning a robot that failed to comply with the first law.
Next up is going to be, To Protect.