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A review by tzurky
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
3.0
This book started out extremely promisingly and ended on a very high note. In the last couple of pages it finally fulfilled its promise of adding new concepts and ideas to the series instead of using them as mere backdrop for an unrelated mystery.
But I’m not going to lie, I found the middle both unnecessary and atrocious. As unspecific and unspoilery as possible: to a large extent, this story is fan fiction of itself (slash fiction to be specific), the quality of which is dubious at best and the ridiculousness of which is even lampshaded in the beginning of the narrative and repeatedly throughout. And yet it nevertheless occurs... sigh. And because the author knew this and presumably wanted to get paid for it, he contrived to link this part to the overall plot in a manner which I am going to describe as ‘logical but not reasonable’ to borrow his own terms.
To be clear: I don’t have a problem with slash fiction. I do have a problem with such fiction when it doesn’t fit with the rest of the story and the type of story and work it appears in and is on top of this not only boring and trite but downright insulting not only in its positioning of characters but also in its complete disregard of the characters’ previously (very strongly) established personalities. The fact that the actions are out of line with the sensibilities and nature of the characters is even repeatedly mentioned. Finally, it borrows entirely to much from the gender & genre conventions of classic noir detective novels, which is all the more ridiculous in a sci fi work one of whose major themes is the examination of the range of human sexuality. In short: no thank you!
But I’m not going to lie, I found the middle both unnecessary and atrocious. As unspecific and unspoilery as possible: to a large extent, this story is fan fiction of itself (slash fiction to be specific), the quality of which is dubious at best and the ridiculousness of which is even lampshaded in the beginning of the narrative and repeatedly throughout. And yet it nevertheless occurs... sigh. And because the author knew this and presumably wanted to get paid for it, he contrived to link this part to the overall plot in a manner which I am going to describe as ‘logical but not reasonable’ to borrow his own terms.
To be clear: I don’t have a problem with slash fiction. I do have a problem with such fiction when it doesn’t fit with the rest of the story and the type of story and work it appears in and is on top of this not only boring and trite but downright insulting not only in its positioning of characters but also in its complete disregard of the characters’ previously (very strongly) established personalities. The fact that the actions are out of line with the sensibilities and nature of the characters is even repeatedly mentioned. Finally, it borrows entirely to much from the gender & genre conventions of classic noir detective novels, which is all the more ridiculous in a sci fi work one of whose major themes is the examination of the range of human sexuality. In short: no thank you!