Isaac Asimov’s Inferno by Roger MacBride Allen

Inferno book cover

    The New Laws of Robotics

  1. A robot may not injure a human being.
  2. A robot must cooperate with human beings except where such cooperation would conflict with the First Law.
  3. A robot must protect its own existence, as long as such protection does not conflict with the First Law.
  4. A robot may do as it likes, except where such action would violate the First, Second, or Third Laws.

About a year has passed since Caliban was exonerated. The Limbo project is currently using the New Law robots developed by Freda Leving in the hopes of fixing the terraforming problem. Although these robots are equipped with range restrictors to limit them to the island, an illicit smuggling trade has developed which smuggles robots out of Purgatory and helps remove the supposedly infallible restrictors. This criminal enterprise has caused much strain between Spacers and Settlers.

In the hopes of asserting his authority, Governor Chanto Grieg has decided to throw a party his mansion which is located on Purgatory, the home of the Limbo project and the New Law robots. Aside from the grounds of the mansion, the Settlers control the rest of the island. As an act of diplomacy all robots besides are banned from the party and all security is handled by the Governor’s Rangers and Settler Security Service. This of course causes great concern for Alvar Kresh, the Sheriff of Hades. He doesn’t have any authority outside of the city of Hades and thinks that security without robots is a big mistake. Caliban and the New Law robot leader Prospero intend to plead with Governor Grieg after the party.

Unfortunately, Caliban and Prospero appear to be the last to see the Governor alive. With Calaban’s lack of any Laws, he becomes a prime suspect. Also, since Prospero is under no compulsion to prevent any harm to humans, he is also suspected. I had expected another hunt like what occurred back in the last book, but this time the investigation took the form of a more traditional mystery. Alvar Kresh seems to have more faith in the robots than anyone else. Most of the twists and turns don’t seem related until the very end of the book where Kresh gets his brief moment of insight. I was a bit bothered at how quickly and neatly everything was laid out and explained using various clues that Kresh pieced together. With that said, most of the clues are pretty obvious once you think back except for the key one which tied everything together.

While the investigation takes its course there are a couple of passages which I enjoyed. Donald (robot DNL-111) brings up some interesting problems with the Fourth New Law in Chapter 11. He argues that this law causes robots to create desires to consume free time. Possibly this is the reason that many of the New Law robots are trying to flee Purgatory. Roger MacBride Allen appears to be setting himself up with ambiguous Laws in order to exploit them just like Asimov did. In Chapter 11 Caliban and Prospero argue over the requirements for a being to have the right to freedom. Where does one draw the line?

Overall, I think that this was a pretty good book, but I enjoyed the last one a little bit more. I was expecting a lot more focus on robots, but found that the majority of the book covered the various aspects of the Spacer and Settler political conflicts. I’m looking forward to Utopia, since from what I remember focused more on the New Law robots.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please prove you are a human * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload the CAPTCHA.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Post

Foundation coming to HBO!Foundation coming to HBO!

Home_Alone_Boy1

Aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

This is it! Isaac Asimov’s Foundation will finally make it to visual media. After the rights passing through a few hands, they’ve finally made their way to HBO. Check out the entire article at The Wrap where Jonah Nolan talks about the new project. I’ll definitely keeping tabs on the development. No dates were given, so I’ll try to hold back most of my excitement until I hear more.

The Wrap via The Verge

The Martian by Andy Weir narrated by R.C. BrayThe Martian by Andy Weir narrated by R.C. Bray

Book Cover

When I was looking for what to spend some of my first Audible credits on, The Martian by Andy Weir stood out. This still ranks at the top of roughly 15 audiobooks I’ve listened to for two reasons. First, the story and writing was engaging. This was “hardest” sci-fi I’ve read so far. There is a lot of math, chemistry, physics, and botany (yes botany). I’m sure that many people would be put off by such dry and detailed descriptions, but that leads me to my second point. The performance of the narrator, R.C. Bray, was superb. He made the “hard science” interesting and entertaining. His voice strikes me as a perfect fit for the main character, Mark Watney. Do yourself a favor and listen to the 5 minute sample on Audible and judge for yourself. While the book focuses on his Watney’s mission log, R.C. Bray does voices for other characters in NASA back on Earth. The voices are OK, nothing but nothing spectacular. I can’t say there is anything wrong, but there are other narrators with a stronger skill for differing character voices. (more…)

The Currents of Space by Isaac AsimovThe Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov

The Currents of Space book cover

It is obvious after the first few chapters that this novel is on a whole different level than “The Stars, Like Dust.” There are more characters, deeper development, and various plot lines are explained through flashbacks. It seemed like Asimov spent a lot more time on this book than the last one. It is just a tad bit longer at 230 pages in my paperback copy, but quite bit more happens. There is still the medieval feel with Sark ruling Florinia and the various class struggles that go with that. (more…)