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juliette_dunn's reviews
458 reviews
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
4.0
A science fiction classic, I liked this better than I thought I would, and a lot better than Asimov's other big classic Foundation.
I, Robot is a collection of short stories, something I didn't know ahead of time. The stories vary in interest and quality, but overall are good. This book is the source of the Three Laws of Robotics, and each story, excepting the first, explores different ways robots interpret these laws and can go wrong from them.
I enjoyed this pattern and trying to figure out why the robots behave a certain way before the mystery is solved in the narrative, as it always stems from some form of logic of the laws. There's also slow development of the world as the technology progresses and the laws begin to be expanded on or altered in certain ways.
The story is also notable in that it doesn't involve robots turning upon their creators in a sinister uprising. The threat of a rogue robot is used only once, and for the rest the First Law of never harming humans isn't threatened. The concluding story had a rare optimistic viewpoint on robots surpassing humans and running everything better, and the book was a novelty simply for having such a viewpoint.
I, Robot is a collection of short stories, something I didn't know ahead of time. The stories vary in interest and quality, but overall are good. This book is the source of the Three Laws of Robotics, and each story, excepting the first, explores different ways robots interpret these laws and can go wrong from them.
I enjoyed this pattern and trying to figure out why the robots behave a certain way before the mystery is solved in the narrative, as it always stems from some form of logic of the laws. There's also slow development of the world as the technology progresses and the laws begin to be expanded on or altered in certain ways.
The story is also notable in that it doesn't involve robots turning upon their creators in a sinister uprising. The threat of a rogue robot is used only once, and for the rest the First Law of never harming humans isn't threatened. The concluding story had a rare optimistic viewpoint on robots surpassing humans and running everything better, and the book was a novelty simply for having such a viewpoint.
The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin
4.25
I'm a huge fan of Le Guin, but hadn't read many of her short stories before now. This was a very hit or miss collection. None of them were bad, but there were a fair few that were less than interesting. However, it's made up for by the good ones.
Of course, The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas has to be mentioned, as it is her most iconic story, and deservedly so. I had read it previously, but it was nice to read it again. It's a story that can be interpreted on a number of levels and is Le Guin at her best.
The Day Before the Revolution is also worthy of note. It actually serves as a prologue to The Dispossessed, following that society's famous anarchist revolutionary in her old age. But rather than focusing on world or politics, it centers on a character study, and her thoughts as everything she dreamed of comes to past after she is too exhausted to do much else about it. It's a quiet and compelling story.
I also loved Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, which was a story about a sentient forest. The plants themselves were not individually sentient, rather it is the entire networked collective forming a conscious being, a consciousness truly alien to human's understanding of it. An empathic man (meaning he has the capability to literally sense other's emotions within his mind) is the only one who is able to discover it. This was wonderful sci fi, my favorite types which explores minds which are truly other.
A wonderful collection. Le Guin deserves her place as one of the greats in speculative fiction.
Of course, The Ones who Walk Away From Omelas has to be mentioned, as it is her most iconic story, and deservedly so. I had read it previously, but it was nice to read it again. It's a story that can be interpreted on a number of levels and is Le Guin at her best.
The Day Before the Revolution is also worthy of note. It actually serves as a prologue to The Dispossessed, following that society's famous anarchist revolutionary in her old age. But rather than focusing on world or politics, it centers on a character study, and her thoughts as everything she dreamed of comes to past after she is too exhausted to do much else about it. It's a quiet and compelling story.
I also loved Vaster Than Empires and More Slow, which was a story about a sentient forest. The plants themselves were not individually sentient, rather it is the entire networked collective forming a conscious being, a consciousness truly alien to human's understanding of it. An empathic man (meaning he has the capability to literally sense other's emotions within his mind) is the only one who is able to discover it. This was wonderful sci fi, my favorite types which explores minds which are truly other.
A wonderful collection. Le Guin deserves her place as one of the greats in speculative fiction.
The Way Home: Two Novellas from the World of the Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, Peter S. Beagle
3.0
Quite hard to rate a book which combines one story which is very good and the other not so. I was excited to learn The Last Unicorn had a sequel, though also a bit skeptical on the quality of such a follow-up. "Two Hearts" was wonderfully done and was a fitting end for Lir. It was nice just to be able to see how these characters are doing, and the new protagonist Sooz and her dog were both welcome delights.
However, the longer of these stories, while not abhorrent, had a glaring issue which I was in no way warned about and made for a negative experience. "Sooz" follows Sooz as an adult, and is only connected to The Last Unicorn in that Sooz met the protagonists of the original novel as a child. It's entirely an original story about her, and while I did enjoy it, it was less compelling.
My main issue is that Sooz is raped at the very beginning of her quest, for some inexplicable reason that is not justified at all by the themes or character development. Thankfully it's not graphic, but there was literally no reason for it to happen. It's repeated how Sooz keeps seeing the faces of the men, and even has her say she will see the faces of them in her final moments of life. A terrible thing to say, and there is no real exploration of her recovering from this, just an assumption that she will be like this forever. And why? I cannot figure out why, as the rest of the plot around finding her sister and bonding with another main character while coming of age has nothing to do with this.
No, rape is not necessary to introduce a character to the harshness of the world. It is not necessary as random angst in a story unrelated to it, and it certainly isn't necessary for coming of age character development. It's a tired trope and it's wild it was put in here so casually.
However, the longer of these stories, while not abhorrent, had a glaring issue which I was in no way warned about and made for a negative experience. "Sooz" follows Sooz as an adult, and is only connected to The Last Unicorn in that Sooz met the protagonists of the original novel as a child. It's entirely an original story about her, and while I did enjoy it, it was less compelling.
My main issue is that Sooz is raped at the very beginning of her quest, for some inexplicable reason that is not justified at all by the themes or character development. Thankfully it's not graphic, but there was literally no reason for it to happen. It's repeated how Sooz keeps seeing the faces of the men, and even has her say she will see the faces of them in her final moments of life. A terrible thing to say, and there is no real exploration of her recovering from this, just an assumption that she will be like this forever. And why? I cannot figure out why, as the rest of the plot around finding her sister and bonding with another main character while coming of age has nothing to do with this.
No, rape is not necessary to introduce a character to the harshness of the world. It is not necessary as random angst in a story unrelated to it, and it certainly isn't necessary for coming of age character development. It's a tired trope and it's wild it was put in here so casually.