Often while reading classic works that informed a genre (like Dune) I have found that my own direct experience of the classic was diminished by my experience with all of its descendants. I could appreciate the literature of it and the importance that a piece set out the building blocks that others stood upon to achieve their literary ends, but the actual story itself felt flat compared to the more contemporary that built other layers on top of it.

That is absolutely not the case with I, Robot. The characters and the writing style could pull you through any scene, regardless of the content. And then it’s also got the hard-hitting philosophical questions of good sci-fi.

It’s even more impressive that a book from 1950 so neatly slots into the zeitgeist of modern existential considerations: the role of humanity in its own autonomy, the ethics of thinking machines, and how we can begin to puzzle out how the machine chooses to solve a problem.

The characters are all very confident in their conjecture, which is somewhat amusing at times, but their solutions are elegant. The story is fun and prompts some interesting thoughts.

Highly recommend

I, Robot

By Isaac Asimov

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Reference links: Why I like Storygraph, My concerns with Goodreads, How my scoring system works