The ''Robot'' Series is a series of 37

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

and six novels created by American writer

Isaac Asimov Isaac Asimov ( ; – April 6, 1992) was an Russian-born American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. H ...

; the books were published between 1940 and 1995. The series is set in a world where sentient positronic robots serve a number of purposes in society. To ensure their loyalty, the Three Laws of Robotics are programmed into these robots, with the intent of preventing them from ever becoming a danger to humanity. Later, Asimov would merge the ''Robot'' series with his ''Foundation'' series.

Robot Novels and Stories

The series started with the story "

Robbie Robbie and Robby, also Robbi and Roby, are given names. They are usually encountered as a nickname or a shortened form of Robert, Rob or Robin. The name experienced a significant rise in popularity in Northern Ireland in 2003. Robbie is also a s ...

" 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 into a narrative that was then put together as the book ''

I, Robot ''I, Robot'' is a fixup collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines '' Super Science Stories'' and ''Astounding Science Fiction'' between 1940 and 1950 ...

''.

List of works in the Robot Series, in chronological order by narrative

# ''

The Complete Robot ''The Complete Robot'' (1982) is a collection of 31 of the 37 science fiction short stories about robots by American writer Isaac Asimov, written between 1939 and 1977.Introduction, ''The Complete Robot'', Isaac Asimov Most of the stories had be ...

'' (1982) (which contains all short stories published in the earlier collections ''

'' (1950) and ''

The Rest of the Robots ''The Rest of the Robots'' is a collection of eight short stories and two full-length novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, published in 1964. The stories, centred on positronic robots, are all part of the ''Robot'' series, most of which tak ...

'' (1964)), '' Robot Dreams'' (1986), ''

Robot Visions ''Robot Visions'' (1990) is a collection of science fiction short stories and factual essays by Isaac Asimov. Many of the stories are reprinted from other Asimov collections, particularly '' I, Robot'' and '' The Bicentennial Man and Other Stori ...

'' (1990), and ''

Gold Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

'' (1995) - collections of short stories and essays # "

The Bicentennial Man "The Bicentennial Man" is a novelette in the ''Robot'' series by American writer Isaac Asimov. According to the foreword in ''Robot Visions'', Asimov was approached to write a story, along with a number of other authors who would do the same, ...

" (1976) and '' The Positronic Man'' (1992) - short story and related subsequent novel # " Mother Earth" (1949) - short story in which no individual robots appear, but positronic robots are part of the background # '' The Caves of Steel'' (1954) - first Robot series/R. Daneel Olivaw novel # '' The Naked Sun'' (1957) - second Robot series/R. Daneel Olivaw novel # "

Mirror Image A mirror image (in a plane mirror) is a reflection (physics), reflected duplication of an object that appears almost identical, but is reversed in the direction perpendicular to the mirror surface. As an optical phenomenon, optical effect, it r ...

" (1972) - short story about R. Daneel Olivaw and detective Elijah Baley # '' The Robots of Dawn'' (1983) - third Robot series/R. Daneel Olivaw novel # '' Robots and Empire'' (1985) - fourth Robot series/R. Daneel Olivaw novel

Overview of short stories

Most of Asimov's

robot A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...

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. They all share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality. Some of the short stories found in ''

'' (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 The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...

is still in progress), and with no mention of the Three Laws. 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''. ''

'' contains most of Asimov's robot short stories. Missing ones were either written after its publication or formed the text connecting the stories in ''

''. The six Asimov robot short stories not included in this book are: * " Robot Dreams" (found in the anthology of the same title) * "

" (found in the anthology of the same title) * "Too Bad!" (found in ''

'') * "Christmas Without Rodney" (found in ''Robot Visions'') * "

Cal Cal or CAL may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Cal'' (novel), a 1983 novel by Bernard MacLaverty * "Cal" (short story), a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov * ''Cal'' (1984 film), an Irish drama starring John Lynch and Helen Mir ...

" (found in ''

'') * "Kid Brother" (found in ''Gold'')

Overview of the Robot Novels

The first book is ''

'' (1950), a collection of nine previously published short stories woven together as a 21st-century interview with '' robopsychologist'' Dr.

Susan Calvin Dr. Susan Calvin is a fictional character appearing in Isaac Asimov's ''Robot'' series of science fiction short stories. According to '' I, Robot'', Susan Calvin was born in the year 1982 and died at the age of 82, either in 2064 or 2065. She ...

. 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. "

", 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 1930's 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 Robbie and Robby, also Robbi and Roby, are given names. They are usually encountered as a nickname or a shortened form of Robert, Rob or Robin. The name experienced a significant rise in popularity in Northern Ireland in 2003. Robbie is also a s ...
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 Michael Diamond Resnick (; March 5, 1942 – January 9, 2020) was an American science fiction writer and editor. He won five Hugo awards and a Nebula award, and was the guest of honor at Chicon 7. He was the executive editor of the defunct mag ...

, "Blot" by

Hal Clement Harry Clement Stubbs (May 30, 1922 – October 29, 2003), better known by the pen name Hal Clement, was an American people, American science fiction writer and a leader of the hard science fiction subgenre. He also painted astronomically oriented ...

, "PAPPI" by Sheila Finch, " Plato's Cave" by

Poul Anderson Poul William Anderson ( ; November 25, 1926 – July 31, 2001) was an American fantasy and science fiction author who was active from the 1940s until his death in 2001. Anderson also wrote historical novels. He won the Hugo Award seven times an ...

, " 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 A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

'') by

Roger MacBride Allen Roger MacBride Allen (born September 26, 1957) is an American science fiction author. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and grew up outside of Washington, D.C., graduating from Walt Whitman High School. He graduated from Boston University ...

, set between ''Robots and Empire'' and the ''Empire'' series, telling the story of the

terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to mak ...

of the Spacer world Inferno, and about the robot revolution started by creating "No Law Robots" 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 Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the material accepted as officially written by an author or an ascribed author * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western canon, th ...

. They are loosely connected to the Robots series, but they contain many inconsistencies with Asimov's books. The Asimov estate authorized the 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 ''I, Robot: To Preserve'' (2016).

Adaptations

* The first screen adaptation of an Asimov robot story was the third episode of the British television series '' Out of This World'' based on " Little Lost Robot", first broadcast in 1962. Dramatized by and starring Maxine Audley as Susan Calvin, this is the only episode of the series known to have survived. * This was followed by a 1964 dramatization of '' The Caves of Steel'' for the BBC series ''Story Parade'' and then four episodes of the BBC television series '' Out of the Unknown'', based on " Satisfaction Guaranteed" (1966), "

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing valid conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, religion, scien ...

(in an episode titled "The Prophet", 1967), " Liar!" (1969), and '' The Naked Sun'' (1969). In these adaptations, Elijah Baley was portrayed by

Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing (26 May 1913 – 11 August 1994) was an English actor. His acting career spanned over six decades and included appearances in more than 100 films, as well as many television, stage and radio roles. He achieved recognition f ...

(''The Caves of Steel'') and

Paul Maxwell Paul Maxwell (born Maxim Popovich; 12 November 192119 December 1991) was a Canadian actor who worked mostly in British cinema and television, in which he was usually cast as American characters. In terms of audience, his most notable role was ...

(''The Naked Sun''), R. Daneel Olivaw by John Carson (''The Caves of Steel'') and

David Collings David Collings (4 June 1940 – 23 March 2020) was an English actor. In an extensive career he appeared in many roles on stage, television, film and radio, as well as various audio books, voiceovers, concert readings and other work. He garnered ...

(''The Naked Sun''), and Susan Calvin by Beatrix Lehmann ("The Prophet") and Wendy Gifford ("Liar!"). In "Satisfaction Guaranteed", the character of Susan Calvin was renamed Dr. Inge Jensen and portrayed by

Ann Firbank Ann Firbank (born 9 January 1933) is a British actress. One of Firbank's more notable roles is her 1971 portrayal of Anne Elliot in the serial ''Persuasion'', an adaptation of Jane Austen's novel of the same name. Career Firbank starred as An ...

. * ''El robot embustero'' (1966), short film directed by Antonio Lara de Gavilán, based on short story " Liar!" * ''

Robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...

'' (1988), film directed by Doug Smith and Kim Takal, based on the ''Robot'' series * '' Robot City'' (1995), an

adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story, driven by exploration and/or puzzle-solving. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based m ...

released for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

and

Mac OS Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. in a succession of two major series. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the classic Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system ...

. * '' Bicentennial Man'' (1999), film directed by Chris Columbus, based on novelette "

" and on novel '' The Positronic Man'' * ''

'' (2004), film directed by

Alex Proyas Alexander Proyas ( ; born 23 September 1963) is an Australian film director. He is known for directing the films ''The Crow (1994 film), The Crow'' (1994), ''Dark City (1998 film), Dark City'' (1998), ''I, Robot (film), I, Robot'' (2004) and '' ...

, based on ideas of short stories of the ''Robot'' series * The Apple TV adaptation of the ''Foundation'' books contains several references to its shared universe with the Robots series. The robot character of Eto Demerzel is an adaptation of the character R. Daneel whose shrouded long-lived history is frequently mentioned. During the course of the show, several characters reference the "Robot Wars" that happened in the past and are apparently part of the Empire's history. According to show runner David S. Goyer, the references to aspects such as the "Robot Wars" are planned to be explored in future seasons of the show.
Apple TV’s Foundation is also a stealthy adaptation of Asimov’s Robot books
' - September 25, 2021. Polygon.com. In the late 1970s,

Harlan Ellison Harlan Jay Ellison (May 27, 1934 – June 28, 2018) was an American writer, known for his prolific and influential work in New Wave science fiction, New Wave speculative fiction and for his outspoken, combative personality. His published wo ...

wrote a

screenplay A screenplay, or script, is a written work produced for a film, television show (also known as a '' teleplay''), or video game by screenwriters (cf. ''stage play''). Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of w ...

based on Asimov's book ''

'' for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

This film project was ultimately abandoned, but Ellison's script was later published in book form as ''I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay'' (1994).

Awards

Merging the ''Robot'' series with Asimov's other series

Notes

References

External links

Detailed timeline for the Robots and Foundation Universe

Another detailed timeline
sometimes on a day-by-day basis, was published in:

��From "Author's Note" of ''Prelude to Foundation'', Doubleday 1988 hardcover edition * * {{Isaac Asimov novels Fiction about artificial intelligence Book series introduced in 1950 Robot series Science fiction book series Short story series