One thing I like to do before I review a book is to look up some Wiki pages and other reviews to get a feel for how others reacted to the book. First of all, the Wikipedia entry for this book was no help at all, so much so that I’m considering updating it myself. I’m glad I took some notes while I was reading. I ran across some very harsh reviews on Amazon that had I read beforehand, I might not have picked up this book. Quite a few of the die-hard fans said to read just the first third of the book and stop. After that point, many of the reviewers pointed out that it is fairly obvious that Lindskold deviated from Zelazny’s quick and witty formula.
I, however, loved Donnerjack. It is probably one of my favorite reads in the past few years. About seven years or so ago I enjoyed reading The Great Book of Amber by Zelazny. It was also one of my first exposures to fantasy along with the Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Later on I went on to read Lord of Light, also by Zelazny, which I also loved. I’ve also read This Immortal and finally Lord Demon, which is the other book of Zelany’s that Lindskold helped finish. Lord Demon was good, so I didn’t think twice before grabbing Donnerjack. I’ve also not read any Zelazny in the past 3-4 years, so I can’t say I was as aware of the change in writing style as others were. With that said, there was definitely a noticeable difference between Part I and Part II. Thinking back, I would almost say that they could have been split into two different books. (more…)
The book left me thinking more about philosophy that the actual story. I suppose that is a good thing. In Asimov’s forward, he brings up the biblical story of the Good Samaritan. In this story, Jesus answers the question, “Who is my neighbor?” The moral of the story is that love and mercy should extend to all people (humans). History in our century shows that we as a society do not treat each other as neighbors. In this fictional future, this does not change much. The central theme of this book is three robots attempting to answer the question, “What is human?” so that the robots would know who they should serve and protect. Further, the programming that only biological humans are important enough to protect is questioned. Wolruf, a wolf-like alien, and the sentient bird-like aliens are included in the programming as ‘human’ so the robots would protect them. The robots had a hard time believing that under the definition that humans are the highest form of being that Derec, Ariel, and Avery were human. I really enjoyed the development of the Robots’ search for the truth.
The line that I will remember most is the answer a philosopher robot gives to the question, “What is a human?” It answers, “That depends on your point of view.” Our society can definitely relate to this…since some groups categorize other groups as sub-human based on race, gender, accent, and dare I say immigrations status.
I am beginning to question why, in this story, robots are only directed to protect humans and not all life…
The Three Laws of Robotics were developed initially to safeguard humans against robots. If I remember correctly, programmers also wanted to ensure that robots were loyal to the humans in case they encountered aliens. In Asimov’s “Robot and Foundation Universe” humans mainly worried about protecting themselves, not respecting all forms of life. They thought that humans were at the top of the food chain and should stay that way.
The Robot City/Aliens books was the first time Asimov allowed other authors to write using the Three Laws of Robotics. He challenged them to approach his work from a fresh angle. It’s been a while since I’ve read these, but from what I remember, these new authors did a pretty good job.