โ Scribed by Roger Macbride Allen
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Allen continues the exploration of the ramifications of Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics begun in Caliban. This time, he deals with murder on the planet Inferno, a theoretical milieu of the Earth Settlers and the Spacers from the independent colonies, which he drew from Asimov's robot novels and expanded upon in Caliban. This novel involves a good theoretical puzzle that will keep readers turning pages but still emerges as mostly a homage to the departed sf master. Allen has emerged during the last 10 years as a versatile and imaginative writer in his own right, and it's hard not to prefer seeing him sail under his own colors, however much he (and we) may justly admire the late Asimov. Roland Green
Before his death, Asimov proposed the "New Laws", laws which endow helping hands, not slaves. But the upheaval this creates produces terrible anxiety. On the world of Inferno, the no-law robot Caliban finds himself intermediary in the complex relations between robots and humans.
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EDITORIAL REVIEW: In a Universe protected by the Three Laws of Robotics, humans are safe... When a key politician is murdered, suspicion falls on Caliban...the only robot without guilt or conscience, with no need to obey or respect humanity...a robot without the Three Laws. But the stakes go de
Based on the late Isaac Asimov's idea of building a safeguard into robots to prevent their becoming a threat to humanity, Asimov proposed a book about a robot without the safeguard. Caliban was the result. Now the adventures of Caliban continue in an electrifying new novel wherein Caliban is challen
### From Publishers Weekly Allen ( Ring of Charon ), with the imprimatur of the late SF legend, offers here a reflection on what would happen if robots did not follow Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Those Laws build into robots a code of behavior through which they cannot harm humans. Here, the wo
### From Library Journal A comet, redirected to strike the ecologically bereft planet Inferno, could create new rivers or totally destroy the planet. The human colonists want to take the risk, but will the robots acquiesce? A satisfying conclusion to the trilogy (Inferno, Ace: Berkeley, 1994, and C
SUMMARY: In a universe protected by the Three Laws of Robotics, humans are safe. The Third Law states, A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law. The world of Inferno is dying. A world where Spacers work with Settlers, where st