This series deals with a new type of robots who do not have the Three Laws of Robotics. The Three Laws are integral to the functioning of a positronic brain, but these robots have gravitonic brains, into which it is possible to build any set of laws. For example, some gravitonic robots have already been built with the New Laws of Robotics which are designed to make them partners rather than slaves to humanity - in theory.
This book opens with the revelation of severe political upheaval and economic dislocation in Inferno society. New Law robots, once thought to be the ideal new partners of humanity, are incited by Prospero (one of the first New Law robots to have been constructed) to leave the island of Purgatory. In this, they are assisted by a massive underground "rustbacking" industry precipitated by a perceived shortage of robotic labor on the rest of Inferno.
Governor Chanto Grieg has initiated, and signed, a law mandating that all "excess" robots in a household be drafted for terraforming work. Spacers, unaccustomed to being limited to twenty robots per individual, respond by selling precious works of art or otherwise bartering for New Law robots. This funding is part of what drives the rustbacking industry.
Sheriff Alvar Kresh also returns in this book, brought along largely as window dressing for the Governor, since his jurisdiction is essentially nonexistent on the Island of Purgatory. He and the Governor have an argument about guaranteeing Grieg's safety at the party which is about to start at the Winter Palace. Donald, Kresh's robot, invokes the First Law in refusing to permit the Governor to leave the room until Kresh temporizes by activating the security robot detail in the Winter Palace.
Meanwhile, a rustbacker, Norlan Fiyle, is caught by a Ranger on patrol, and agrees to turn in another Ranger, a corrupt man named Emoch Huthwitz who has been taking bribes in exchange for tipping off the rustbacking network whenever a raid is about to start.
Caliban and Prospero, invited to the Governor's gathering at the behest of Dr. Fredda Leving, are present just as Tonya Welton, leader of the Settlers, gets into a fight with two supposed Ironheads, members of a fringe political group led by Simcor Beddle, which calls for the removal of all Settlers from Inferno and for the government to rescind the law drafting robotic labor for terraforming.
It is at this point that the action begins. After Grieg successfully carries off the gathering and demonstrates his political will while hobnobbing with all of the major players in Inferno's complex politics, Sheriff Kresh is called to a murder scene involving the Ranger, Emoch Huthwitz. It is this unsettling event that makes Kresh wonder if the Governor was a target, and after realizing that he has been communicating with a simulated Governor (later found to be the result of a simulator device plugged into the communications console), he rushes back to the Winter Palace and finds the Governor dead, in bed.
Kresh rapidly takes unorthodox steps to allow himself to take charge of the investigation of the crime scene. He orders Sheriff's Deputies sent over by high-speed aircars, and calls in Dr. Leving to quietly examine the destroyed security robots on the scene.
A man named Tierlaw Verick is swooped up after having evaded the initial searches by the deputies. Shortly after, Grieg's death is announced to the world of Inferno, and Caliban goes into hiding along with Prospero. Meanwhile, a Spacer import/export broker, Sero Phrost, meets with Simcor Beddle and blackmails him by pointing out where some of the Ironhead's money has been coming from. Settler Demand Notes have been funnelled from Phrost's illegal sales of Settler hardware (partly subsidized by the Settler faction on Inferno) over to the Ironheads.
Sheriff Kresh is informed some time later that Governor Chanto Grieg had foreseen the possibility he might be assassinated, and took steps to secure the office of Governor from being assumed by an ineffectual politician, Shelabas Quellam. The bombshell dropped on Kresh is that Grieg has named him as the Governor-Designate.
Governor Kresh takes the inaugural oath and pledges to pursue the killers of Chanto Grieg, and to run in a special election a hundred days from the date of his oath-taking.
After revelations that rustbacking connections seem to be coming from all corners of the case, Kresh realizes that Tierlaw Verick hired the killer, Ottley Bissal, in order to secure rustbacking profits because Grieg was going to let the New Law robots go free and decide of their own accord whether to stay on Purgatory.
I, Robot is a fixup novel of science fiction short stories or essays by American writer Isaac Asimov. The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone publication by Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies. The stories are woven together by a framing narrative in which the fictional Dr. Susan Calvin tells each story to a reporter in the 21st century. Although the stories can be read separately, they share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality, and when combined they tell a larger story of Asimov's fictional history of robotics.
Foundation and Earth is a science fiction novel by American writer Isaac Asimov, the fifth novel of the Foundation series and chronologically the last in the series. It was published in 1986, four years after the first sequel to the Foundation trilogy, which is titled Foundation's Edge.
The Robot series is a series of 37 science fiction short stories and six novels by American writer Isaac Asimov, featuring positronic robots.
The Three Laws of Robotics are a set of rules devised by science fiction author Isaac Asimov. The rules were introduced in his 1942 short story "Runaround", although they had been foreshadowed in some earlier stories. The Three Laws, quoted from the "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are:
Prospero is a fictional character and the protagonist of William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Prospero is the rightful Duke of Milan, whose usurping brother, Antonio, had put him to sea on a "rotten carcass" of a boat to die, twelve years before the play begins. Prospero and Miranda had survived and found exile on a small island. He has learned sorcery from books, and uses it while on the island to protect Miranda and control the other characters.
A positronic brain is a fictional technological device, originally conceived by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov. It functions as a central processing unit (CPU) for robots, and, in some unspecified way, provides them with a form of consciousness recognizable to humans. When Asimov wrote his first robot stories in 1939 and 1940, the positron was a newly discovered particle, and so the buzz word "positronic" added a scientific connotation to the concept. Asimov's 1942 short story "Runaround" elaborates his fictional Three Laws of Robotics, which are ingrained in the positronic brains of nearly all of his robots.
Robots and Empire is a science fiction novel by the American author Isaac Asimov, published by Doubleday Books in 1985. It is part of Asimov's Robot series, which consists of many short stories and five novels.
Foundation's Fear (1997) is a science fiction novel by American writer Gregory Benford, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe. It is the first book of the Second Foundation trilogy, which was written after Asimov's death by three authors, authorized by the Asimov estate.
Isaac Asimov's Caliban (1993) is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimov's Robot / Empire / Foundation universe.
Isaac Asimov's Utopia (1996) is a science fiction novel by American writer Roger MacBride Allen, set in Isaac Asimov's Foundation universe.
Tik-Tok is a 1983 science fiction novel by John Sladek. It received a 1983 British Science Fiction Association Award.
Miranda is one of the principal characters of William Shakespeare's The Tempest. She is the only female character to appear on stage.
Prospero's Books is a 1991 British avant-garde film adaptation of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, written and directed by Peter Greenaway. Sir John Gielgud plays Prospero, the protagonist who provides the off-screen narration and the voices to the other story characters. As noted by Peter Conrad in The New York Times on 17 November 1991, Greenaway intended the film “as an homage to the actor and to his "mastery of illusion." In the film, Prospero is Shakespeare, and having rehearsed the action inside his head, speaking the lines of all the other characters, he concludes the film by sitting down to write The Tempest.”
Forty Thousand in Gehenna, alternately 40,000 in Gehenna, is a 1983 science fiction novel by American writer C. J. Cherryh. It is set in her Alliance-Union universe between 2354 and 2658, and is one of the few works in that universe to portray the Union side; other exceptions include Cyteen (1988) and Regenesis (2009).
Sycorax is an unseen character in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest (1611). She is a vicious and powerful witch and the mother of Caliban, one of the few native inhabitants of the island on which Prospero, the hero of the play, is stranded.
Stephano is a boisterous and often drunk butler of King Alonso in William Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. He, Trinculo and Caliban plot against Prospero, the ruler of the island on which the play is set and the former Duke of Milan in Shakespeare's fictional universe. In the play, he wants to take over the island and marry Prospero's daughter, Miranda. Caliban believes Stephano to be a god because he gave him wine to drink which Caliban believes healed him.
Ariel is a spirit who appears in William Shakespeare's play The Tempest. Ariel is bound to serve the magician Prospero, who rescued him from the tree in which he was imprisoned by Sycorax, the witch who previously inhabited the island. Prospero greets disobedience with a reminder that he saved Ariel from Sycorax's spell, and with promises to grant Ariel his freedom. Ariel is Prospero's eyes and ears throughout the play, using his magical abilities to cause the tempest in Act One which gives the play its name, and to foil other characters' plots to bring down their master.
The Tempest is a play by English playwright William Shakespeare, probably written in 1610–1611, and thought to be one of the last plays that Shakespeare wrote alone. After the first scene, which takes place on a ship at sea during a tempest, the rest of the story is set on a remote island, where the sorcerer Prospero, a complex and contradictory character, lives with his daughter Miranda, and his two servants: Caliban, a savage monster figure, and Ariel, an airy spirit. The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family. In Act IV, a wedding masque serves as a play-within-a-play, and contributes spectacle, allegory, and elevated language.
The Foundation universe is the future history of humanity's colonisation of the galaxy, spanning nearly 25,000 years, created through the gradual fusion of the Robot, Galactic Empire, Foundation book series written by American author Isaac Asimov.
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