Things I Like - Books

This is exciting! First it was Eoin Colfer taking up the pen of Douglas Adams to bring us “And Another Thing”, the next installment in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

This time it’s Isaac Asimov and Mickey Zucker Reichert. The fantasy author best known for the Renshai books has been signed to produce a new series of Robot stories that focus on the early years of the robopsychologist Dr Susan Calvin.

I am a huge Asimov fan – the Foundation Series is probably my favorite work of his but the Robots are not far behind. Unlike the "space rocket / war with aliens" genre of science fiction prevalent in the 40’s and 50’s, Asimov’s Robot stories dealt with humanity’s interaction with robots. The stories were set in the future and had futuristic components, but the plots were driven by everyday events. The conflict in the stories arose from man’s underlying fear of the robots themselves.

The author Mickey Reichert is both a woman and a Doctor. It will be interesting to see what she does with the Dr. Susan Calvin character. Per the Guardian,

The first of three books, Robots and Chaos, will follow Calvin as she goes through a medical internship while coming to terms with what it means to be human in a near-future world populated by robots.
~ The Guardian

I did not see a publication date for the first book but I did read that the finished manuscript was expected in late 2010. I will be keeping my eyes open.

Btw, the only thing that the 2004 movie I, Robot had in common with the Asimov stories was the Dr. Calvin character. Except in the movie, she is relegated to the role of attractive assistant to the man responsible for the development of the Robot.

Because, even in the future, women are not all that important.

As you might guess, I was not a fan of the movie even though it did put Will Smith all over the big screen.